The Knights are striving for some early silverware in 2018 as Newcastle prepares to welcome international touch football to the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Club chief executive officer Phil Gardner has his eyes on the No.1 prize while NRL Touch Premiership representatives Ainsley Hughes and Alex Langbridge, who help kick-off the Knights’ campaign at home next Saturday, would love to achieve “the double” in the competition’s inaugural season.
It comes as Touch Football Australia CEO Steve Mitchell on Monday announced trans-Tasman Test matches in Newcastle bi-annually from 2020.
“New Zealand will play Australia here in a trans-Tasman [series] moving forward and [Knights owners] The Wests Group have been a big part in helping us facilitate that,” Mitchell said.
“It will make Newcastle a hub of international touch football moving forward for a number of years.”
The Knights host the Parramatta Eels at McDonald Jones Stadium on June 30.
Both touch football games, men’s and women’s, will be held as NRL curtain-raisers before Newcastle tackles Canterbury in round 16.
Gardner would like to see his players not only open with victory prior to first grade, but progress to next month’s decider on the Gold Coast and hold aloft the maiden trophy.
“We [the Knights] want to win everything we run on for don’t we?” Gardner said.
“I think you’ll find that it’s a great spectator sport. We’ll be running this before our first-grade game against the Bulldogs and we’d like to see it before every first-grade game at home.”
Mitchell said there were about “22,000 registered touch players in and around this region” and he expected that number to increase because of the Knights’ involvement in this year’s tournament.
“I think Phil [Gardner] said it best when we first spoke about it,” Mitchell said.
“I want every 11-year-old female or male in regional NSW to know one day they can play as a Knight on McDonald Jones Stadium, if they do the work.
“So absolutely we’re looking forward to great participation growth.”
Both the Knights’ squads are selected mainly from the NSW Country Mavericks, who played at the National Touch League in Coffs Harbour recently.
Hughes, a Wallsend Wolves junior who lives at Merewether, said “it would nice if we [the Knights] could do the double”.
“It’s a good opportunity to show us country kids can compete on the same stage as the city sides,” she said.
Langbridge, based at Norah Head and a member of the Vawdon Cup-winning Doyalson Dragons over summer, said he’d “always supported the Knights” and was “looking forward to putting on the colours and getting on the field”.
“They [Eels] have the same side as the Sydney Scorpions, taking in Parramatta, Hornsby and Manly. They have a few internationals so it will be a great challenge for us.”
The Knights also play the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on July 21.
Mitchell said it would be “fabulous” to eventually have all 16 clubs enter the NRL Touch Premiership, but was concerned about elite player dilution so gradual moves from six teams upwards would be more likely in coming seasons.
WOMEN: Sophie Broadhead, Laura Coleman, Madison Crowe, Amy Dufour, Sian Filipo, Lily Goodchild, Emily Hennessey, Ainsley Hughes, Milly Hughes, Rachel Jeffs, Bobbi Law, Taryn Love, Jessica McCall, Rhiannon Podmore, Jessica Potts, Elise Wilson.
MEN: Mitch Bourke, Scott Bundy, Tom Dafter, Terry Deegan, Jack Edwards, Jake Fitzpatrick, Bart Hill, Daniel Langbridge, Alex Langbridge, Lincoln Little, Rob McCarthy, Matthew Prowse, Dylan Thompson, Luke Tonegato, Matthew Tope, Mitchell Wilton.
