"He's an absolute living legend and was one of my heroes growing up," Poulos told us this week.

But what the 32-year-old father of two could never have imagined is how big a hero the former Knights premiership-winning captain would become after helping save his life when he broke his neck and almost drowned following a devastating surfing accident at Dudley beach last November.

Now a quadriplegic, Poulos owes his life to a group of "heroes" who plucked him from the surf and feverishly worked on him on the beach until the paramedics arrived. One of them was Harragon.

"I can't thank them all enough - they saved my life," he says from his hospital bed at Royal North Shore in Sydney. "I was in the water for some time apparently after hitting the sandbar so they did amazing work to save me and I'll be forever grateful for those that were involved.

"I was blown away when they told me one of them was Chief. I guess it was fate that one of Newcastle's and my biggest heroes just happened to be at the beach that day."

Poulos, the Hunter regional manager of Disability Services Australia, will himself begin rehabilitation on Tuesday when he moves from Royal North Shore Hospital after 15 weeks to Royal Rehab at Ryde for the next four to six months. Courageously, he says he is up for the huge challenge ahead.

"I'm taking every day as it comes and doing the best I can," he said.

"I suppose it's ironic for me working in the disability sector for 10 years and having been a massive advocate for people with disabilities to find myself like this. But the other side of the coin is I could easily have drowned that day and not been here at all.

"The fact that cognitively I'm still here and the same person and able to be with my family eventually and see my kids grow up - it's the glass half full effect."

Poulos recalls the day his life almost ended.

"I had a surf in the morning before work and when I got home, I said to my wife Lani the weekend wasn't looking the best so I might go down and have a quick look again. I remember catching a few waves and that's about it.

"I woke up on the Wednesday [five days later] here in hospital. I was found floating face down by a dad who rolled me over and probably assumed I was dead and he called his son over and his son's mate and the three of them pulled me out.

"That's when Chief and a few others got involved. I was still critical until they operated here in hospital. Three days in, my wife and family was basically told I wouldn't breath again without a respirator.

"I'm what you call an incomplete quadriplegic which is where the spinal cord is not completely severed which leaves some potential room for recovery, particularly over the next two years. But there has been no functional improvement yet.

"Realistically, I'm hoping to be able to do some simple life things - transfer from a chair to a bed, that type of stuff would be nice.

"I don't see myself being able to walk again but we'll see. Someone said it's like having two years to train to climb Everest. It's the 2 year mountain climb that I never asked for but I'm committed to it so I'll do everything I can for my boys and my wife and my family to get as much functionality back as a I can."

For his part, Harragan, who wants to get involved in some fundraising when the time comes, says the real heroes are the father and son and mate who pulled Poulos from the surf.

"I was just there for a swim and saw three or four blokes carrying Chris and really struggling to get him out of the water. I knew something was desperately wrong," he said. "He was severely unconscious. It was a really big rescue. He was in big trouble.

"He wasn't breathing for a long time - we couldn't find a heartbeat. I think everyone there thought it wasn't going to work out. There was probably five or six people all working away on Chris for 20 or 30 minutes.

"We were all screaming at him to breath until the four wheel drive ambulance came out of nowhere. We'll never know but he could have been only seconds away from drowning when they got him out."

# Those wishing to assist the Poulos family, a GoFundMe page 'Help Chris in his fight to defy his diagnosis' has been set up to raise money for on-going medical bills and costs.

Hot on the heels of the Knights last night confirming outside back trialist Tyrone Roberts-Davis has been handed a contract with the club for 2020, we are hearing young fullback Tex Hoy will be next cab off the rank to earn an upgraded deal.

The club has until tomorrow to register all but one of their top 30 squad members for this season with the remaining position to be filled by June 30.

Roberts-Davis is the 28th player signed to the senior squad with Hoy, currently on a development contract, virtually assured of spot number 29 after an eye-catching pre-season that included a starring role at the NRL Nines in the absence of Kalyn Ponga.

Given that Hoy will be Ponga's understudy at the back and likely to debutise for him during the State of Origin series, his promotion from the development squad is logical given he currently can't play an NRL game until after June 30.

As with most clubs, the Knights will wait for as long as possible to fill the final spot in case they need to draft a new player in.

Newly appointed Knights footy general manager Danny Buderus has revealed he was seriously considering the prospect of relocating his family to Sydney before the Knights came calling with the job offer.

Buderus was in the final year of his contract with Fox Sports where he was highly regarded by boss Steve Crawley and would have almost certainly agreed to a new deal with the station had the Knights gig not materialised.

But that would have meant packing up and leaving Newcastle with his family to avoid the long commute down the M1 several times a week.

"It was something we had spoken about and were prepared to do if I stayed at Fox but obviously it won't be happening now,"Bedsy told us.

We are glad it's not just us. Knights prop Daniel Saifiti has revealed coach Adam O'Brien asked him to change the colour of his boots to make it easier to tell him apart from twin brother Jacob at training.

"We were both wearing black boots and Adsy [O'Brien] was mixing us up so one of us had to change. So I'm now wearing white boots,"Saifiti told us.

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