A SEASON that triggered more debate, controversy and acrimony than any in the 13-man code's history can best be summed up in two words: Super League. And smack-bang in the middle of the unprecedented turmoil of 1995 was the city of Newcastle and its beloved team, the Knights.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
From the Knights' first pre-season training session it was obvious that dramatic changes were imminent. After they had finished a conditioning session around the lush turf of Broadmeadow race track, new coach Malcolm Reilly shocked his players by declaring in no uncertain terms that their fitness levels were not up to scratch. Nobody was game to argue. Suffice to say Reilly arrived in town with a certain reputation, earned during an illustrious playing career, for being able to handle himself, after his five seasons with Manly in the 1970s.
Toohey's News: Listen to Barry Toohey's new podcast in your Podcast app
A fitness fanatic, the 47-year-old soon impressed Newcastle's players with his gruelling sessions in the gym, and his penchant for beating any challenger in an arm wrestle. After recognising that he was hard but fair, they responded positively to his tough love.
Even Reilly, the ultimate perfectionist, could not have envisaged his team's spectacular start. A bruising, gritty 6-4 win away at Cronulla launched their campaign, and then came a club-record 54-4 romp against Perth's Western Reds, one of four fledgling franchises (along with North Queensland Cowboys, South Queensland Crushers and Auckland Warriors) in the newly named Australian Rugby League.
Further wins against St George (25-12) and Sydney Tigers (46-12) continued Newcastle's best-ever opening to any season. Their fourth successive victory, however, was overshadowed by monumental events off the field.
The day before Newcastle beat the Tigers, news broke that would develop into perhaps the most sensational, protracted story since rugby league's foundation season. In stunning revelations, a host of players from targeted clubs - in particular Brisbane, Canberra, Canterbury, Cronulla, the Warriors, Reds and Cowboys - had signed mind-boggling contracts to play in a breakaway "Super League" competition funded by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.
Knights officials had been secretly negotiating with News Limited, but it seemed everyone had underestimated Packer's deep pockets and his desire to defend Channel Nine's prized commodity and his stake in a future pay-television marketplace.
Somehow the Knights ignored the distraction to run in eight tries against the struggling Tigers. Upon returning to Newcastle, players and coaching staff met with the club's administration for a full briefing. No sooner had the meeting adjourned than Paul Harragon was contacted by his NSW Origin coach, Phil Gould, who was desperately trying to retain players for the ARL. He would also field several phone calls from Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, representing Super League.
The Chief was crucial. A Test and Origin regular, he was such a big personality that his teammates would be likely to follow his lead.
Harragon agreed to meet both parties in Sydney on Monday morning. First he was courted by News Limited, who offered a guaranteed contract that would have tripled his annual salary. Harragon then met with the ARL, and they persuaded him to sign a long-term "loyalty" contract with the establishment.
His deal was reportedly worth $3.3 million over four years. The following morning, Harragon hired and drove a mini-bus to Sydney, accompanied by his Newcastle teammates.
The Johnses, Butterfield, Glanville, Ainscough, O'Davis and Muir duly joined Harragon in signing with the ARL. Others including Sargent (who asked to get out of Harragon's mini-bus at Swansea McDonald's), Marquet, McCormack, Godden and outstanding prospects Robbie Ross and Brett Kimmorley subsequently defected to the rebels. Many doubled, tripled and even quadrupled their salaries.
Even coach Reilly hit the jackpot. Five months after arriving in Australia, he banked $2.3 million, from a $300,000 sign-on and $500,000 a season for four years.
The powers-that-be in Newcastle's front office had been reduced to the role of bystanders. Any chance of emulating their counterparts at Brisbane, Canberra and Canterbury and delivering the club to Super League holus bolus - a move that may well have secured Newcastle's financial future, and funding for stadium improvements - had been torpedoed.
With their most popular players, coach Reilly and fans aligning themselves with the ARL, the Knights as a club had no option other than to follow suit. They had been railroaded. Player power, and the desire to get rich quick, had undermined months of clandestine negotiations between management and News Limited, and it rankled.
Knights fans, in turn, rallied behind the ARL in what was increasingly becoming a case of "us and them". But if the ARL thought they had successfully secured Newcastle from Super League's invaders, their opposition soon produced a Plan B.
Meanwhile, the soap opera unfolding off the field had no apparent impact on Newcastle's game-day performances. The Knights strung together a club-record nine-game winning streak to open the season, a far cry from theirs even consecutive losses at the end of 1994.
Midway through that charmed run, Sargent, Newcastle's inspirational skipper and first Kangaroo, became surplus to requirements.
Two weeks after the initial Super League raids, coach Reilly dropped the former Test prop to the bench and handed Harragon the captaincy. After two months as an interchange impact player, 30-year-old "Sarge" suffered a season-ending knee injury and his 126-game stint in the blue and red was over.
The unique circumstances caused by the Super League divide ensured a host of young Knights were fast-tracked to the top of the pecking order. Anyone who had signed for the rebel competition was effectively ineligible for NSW, Queensland and Australian selection.
So suddenly Harragon, Newcastle's only regular Origin representative, had the Johns brothers and Adam Muir alongside him in the NSW squad. O'Davis was chosen in a no-name Maroons team, who produced a stunning series whitewash, winning the three games 2-0, 20-12 and 14-6.
Andrew Johns, not long past his 21st birthday, was so underwhelming in the opening two showdowns he was dropped for game three. From the Origin campaign, Harragon, Muir, O'Davis, Ainscough and Matthew Johns featured in a three-Test series against New Zealand, although Harragon was devastated to be overlooked for the first clash with the Kiwis. He was recalled for the second Test as the ARL's new-look Kangaroos swept aside their Super League-aligned rivals 28-8, 20-10 and 46-10.
Back in Newcastle, it seemed there was never a dull moment. Frustrated by their failure to sign the Knights en masse, News Limited refused to walk away. Instead they offered a 60 per cent stake in a Super League franchise to the city's biggest licensed establishment, Western Suburbs Leagues Club. A new entity featuring a number of former Knights players and staff would be created, to be known as the Hunter Mariners.
It soon became abundantly clear that Super League was not welcome in Newcastle. An anti-Mariners petition led to an extraordinary meeting of Wests members, and the Wests board of directors were left with no option other than to withdraw from Super League. News Limited nonetheless pushed ahead, bloody-mindedly, with its plan of establishing a rival team in the Knights' backyard, whatever it took.
Meanwhile, Reilly and his players remained focused on not just reaching the new eight-team play-offs, but challenging for the title. After the 22 preliminary rounds, Newcastle qualified fifth, with 15 wins and seven losses.
Newcastle rose to the pressure of finals football, beating Norths 20-10 and then Cronulla 19-18, after a Matthew Johns field goal. That earned them a berth in the grand-final qualifier against Manly, and the Sea Eagles prevailed 12-4 to end Newcastle's season. Manly defended so relentlessly their opponents' only try came from an Andrew Johns kick for Robbie O'Davis.
The Knights, appearing in the biggest game in the club's history, were left ruing the pressure they placed on themselves through nervous errors.
"It could quite easily have gone the other way... it's just disappointing to know that we've let ourselves down," Reilly said afterwards.
It's just disappointing to know that we've let ourselves down.
- MALCOLM REILLY
Canterbury would not make the same mistake a week later, scoring a 17-4 boilover in the title decider.
In terms of on-field success - 17 wins, eight losses - it had been easily Newcastle's best season. That ensured they were well represented when an ARL-aligned Australian team was named for the World Cup in England, including Harragon, the Johns brothers, Muir and O'Davis.
In the opening group game, an upset 20-16 loss to England, Harragon smashed his cheekbone in four places and was carried from Wembley Stadium on a stretcher.
The injury would require surgery and it appeared certain that his tour was over. But having already been named skipper for Australia's next match, against minnows South Africa in Gateshead, he pleaded with coach Bob Fulton and team doctor Nathan Gibbs to let him back up just three days later.
The Chief's one and only chance to lead the Kangaroos on the field would be more of a token gesture than a captain's knock. Australia routed South Africa 86-6, a world-record Test score, and Harragon was replaced after 17 minutes.
According to newspaper reports from the match, he touched the ball twice, passed both times, and, after arriving belatedly to assist in his third tackle of the game, clutched at his face and was replaced.
"I knew it was a risk to play but I thought it was worth it," he told the Newcastle Herald after the game. "I'm pretty happy to have done what I wanted and I'm stoked because the boys have run in a record score."
Harragon also told Greg Prichard, writing for The Australian: "I can say I captained Australia in a Test and that's all that matters to me. I ran a lot of decoys and that was the plan. The guys had to look after me."
Harragon became the first Knight (and joined a select group of Novocastrians, including Clive Churchill and John Sattler) to captain Australia - albeit a cameo appearance in a team that included no players aligned to Super League.
All four of Harragon's Newcastle teammates played against South Africa and Andrew Johns scored an international record-equalling 30 points (two tries and 11 goals).
"It's been a big night for Joey," Australian coach Bob Fulton said after Johns matched Michael O'Connor's Test record points haul. "Yeah, and it's going to get bigger," Johns replied.
Then followed a 66-0 thrashing of Fiji, in which O'Davis scored a hat-trick and Johns kicked nine goals, and a nerve-racking 30-20 win against New Zealand in the semi-final. After beating England 16-8 in the decider, in front of 66,540 fans at Wembley, Johns was named player of the tournament.
If 1995 is remembered as the year that the Super League war was declared, it was also the year that propelled Andrew "Joey" Johns to fame and fortune.
Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Available to purchase from theherald.mybigcommerce.com/books/ $19.95
