With the benefit of hindsight, on a player-for-player basis, the Newcastle Knights have surely never assembled a stronger squad than they did in 2000. Warren Ryan's roster featured mobile, aggressive forwards, potent outside backs, a dynamic dummy-half and a world-class fullback.

All steered around the field by arguably the best halves pairing in the business.

Toohey's News: Listen to Barry Toohey's new podcast in your Podcast app

On paper, it seemed the perfect blend of seasoned veterans and outstanding up-and-comers.

Many believe they would have been the only team capable of beating eventual premiers Brisbane in the grand final, had they made it.

If only.

A season-opening 24-14 loss to the fledgling Northern Eagles franchise - formed after a merger between Manly and North Sydney - at the new, boutique stadium in Gosford came as something of a shock.

Big wins against premiers Melbourne: 38-6 and the new Balmain-Wests joint venture known as Wests Tigers: 46-8 then gave a glimpse of Newcastle's potential. The Tigers' backline featured 20-year-old Owen Craigie, released by Newcastle at the end of 1999 after joining the long list of players to have fallen out with Ryan.

His Marathon Stadium homecoming was an occasion that would leave him with few fond memories, missing a number of tackles before he was replaced in the 57th minute, as flying Darren Albert scored a club-record four tries for the Knights.

By round 14, Newcastle were struggling for consistency.

After seven losses, a draw and six wins, they were ninth on the ladder and running out of time to find chemistry and cohesion. As is often the case, when a good team is not performing on game day, it is because of dramas behind the scenes.

One obvious contributing factor was the unexpected decision by Knights management not to offer Matthew Johns a new contract.

After the retirement of Paul Harragon, the Johns siblings were Newcastle's highest-paid players and had been earning huge salaries since the ARL-Super League war of 1995.

Citing salary-cap constraints, the Knights said they did not want to "insult" Matthew by tabling a dramatically discounted deal. The issue soon became all-consuming.

Brother Andrew Johns was livid over what he perceived to be a "betrayal". "Shocked, amazed, disillusioned and, yes, even bitter - they have been the emotions we have been feeling,'' Joey wrote in his weekly Sunday Telegraph column.

Fans were outraged, signing petitions and staging a protest outside the round-17 home game against the Warriors, waving banners reading: "Save Matthew Johns", "We Love You Matty" and "God Help Us". Johns's father, Gary, wept as he bitterly lambasted Newcastle chairman Michael Hill. "He can burn in bloody hell," Gary said.

Adding to the tension, Matthew - along with other players - had reached the end of his tether with coach Ryan and at one stage directed a furious outburst at the brusque tactician during a training session.

Eventually 29-year-old Matthew signed with English giants Wigan, while Andrew seriously considered an offer from Brisbane Broncos, saying he "felt no loyalty to the Knights after what they'd done to Matthew". The possibility of him leaving was so real that Knights officials hatched a contingency plan to chase his former understudy, Brett Kimmorley, who was off contract and looking to leave Melbourne.

Eventually two factors persuaded Joey to stay. The first was a heart-to-heart with Matthew, who told his sibling to put aside negative emotions and family ties and make a decision that was in his own best interests. The other was Ryan's decision to stand aside at season's end.

Having worn out his welcome with several influential players, his position had become virtually untenable. His replacement would be reserve-grade coach Michael Hagan - Joey's former teammate - who convinced the champion No.7 they would work well together.

"It's a very special achievement for me ... it's another experience to go through and to get it in the end is a good sign of confidence in me," Hagan said.

With their futures resolved, the Johns brothers focused on making every game count. They vowed to enjoy what would be their last season together. That became easier after Knights officials, in a bid to pacify players threatening outright rebellion against Ryan, agreed to allow Hagan to take on more responsibility for game plans and preparation.

"Hages became the conduit," one senior player recalled. "The Wok had worn us all down and the best thing for everyone was that he took a back seat."

Finally the Knights found their mojo.

Of the 12 games before the finals, they won nine, the highlight being a 46-12 pounding of the second-placed Roosters in round 22, when Andrew Johns contributed 22 points, from a hat-trick of tries and five goals.

Wins against Cronulla, the Tigers and Canterbury to round out the season lifted them to third on the ladder, after 15 wins, a draw and 10 losses from 26 games.

That entitled them to a home quarter-final against premiers Melbourne, and a man-of-the match performance from their maestro halfback inspired a convincing 30-16 victory.

The Knights had barely emerged from the dressing rooms after their post-match showers when they received an unexpected bonus.

Seventh-placed Parramatta had upset the second-placed Roosters 32-8, which meant that, as the second highest-ranked winner of the first round of the finals, Newcastle had qualified for a week off. They were now just 80 minutes from the grand final.

The Roosters recovered from their loss to Parramatta to outclass Canberra 38-10 and set up a semi-final blockbuster with the rested, refreshed Knights at Sydney Football Stadium.

Newcastle had every reason to be supremely confident. They had scored the most tries in the competition (a club record 22 of them from emerging winger Timana Tahu), had seven survivors of the 1997 grand final in their squad, and had plucked the Roosters barely six weeks earlier.

But in racing to 16-2 half-time lead, confidence turned to cockiness.

Darren Albert kissed a television camera after scoring a try, and as the two teams walked up the tunnel at the break, Andrew Johns cheekily wished Roosters lock Luke Ricketson all the best for Mad Monday.

The two dressing rooms were a study in contrast during the interval.

The Roosters, incensed by Johns' disrespect, vowed to make him eat his words.

Newcastle, meanwhile, were in the process of inexplicably self-destructing. Knights skipper Tony Butterfield recalled how, after successfully deploying slide defence in the first half, players were stunned when coach Ryan insisted on switching to his preferred up-and-in method.

Senior team members initially objected before relenting, albeit unconvinced. "It made no sense," Butterfield said. "But it wasn't the time or place for an argument."

Another high-profile player reflected ruefully on Ryan's half-time address. "When we came off at half-time, I'd never been more confident of winning a game of footy," he said.

"But Wok was 40 minutes from a grand final, and he was so tense he was almost shaking.

"He proceeded to tell us don't do this and don't do that, or you'll lose. I looked around at some of the young fellas in our team, and suddenly they looked nervous."

When they returned to the pitch, Newcastle's bulletproof self-belief had been replaced by confusion and apprehension. Soon, champion Roosters five-eighth Brad Fittler was exposing the Knights' edge defence with torpedo cutout passes.

For 10 minutes, Newcastle scrambled to hold them out.

Then the floodgates spectacularly burst open and the Roosters ran in three tries in five minutes, one of them a defining, runaway intercept after Fittler snaffled an Andrew Johns pass.

At full-time, the scoreboard read 26-20 to the Roosters and Andrew Johns furiously hurled his mouthguard at the ground, then sat head bowed in the in-goal for several minutes, apparently in disbelief.

"I still don't know why we got beat or how we got beat," he said afterwards. "At 16-2, that should have been enough."

It was the end of the road for the retiring Butterfield, the last of the 1988 "Originals", as well as Matthew Johns, David Fairleigh and back-rower Peter Shiels, all of whom were heading to England, and giant bench prop Paul Rauhihi, who had signed with North Queensland.

"It was my last game, and it was a game that should have been won," Butterfield said on reflection, after his unprecedented 229th game in the red and blue.

"Take nothing away from the Roosters. They dominated that second half, but it was a sad night."

Butts will take to his grave the belief that Newcastle lost that game not on the field, but in the management of the dressing room at half-time. Matthew Johns was equally gutted.

"This is probably the lowest feeling I've ever felt with the Knights," he said.

It was also the 415th and last game of rugby league Ryan would ever coach. "The further you progress into the finals, the bigger the disappointment when you are eliminated, and it can get that bad you can actually get to the point where you wish you hadn't been there at all," Ryan wrote in the Newcastle Herald a week later.

"Losing in a grand final is soul-destroying, but losing in the game that was going to get our team, our town and the entire Hunter Region into one, was a tragedy.

"We all thought that this was the year."

In the circumstances, the selection of four players - Andrew Johns, Ben Kennedy, Adam MacDougall and Matthew Gidley - for the end-of-season World Cup was scant consolation.

All four played in a record 110-4 slaughter of Russia in the qualifying rounds, then Johns, Gidley and MacDougall helped Australia to a 40-12 win against New Zealand in the tournament decider at Old Trafford.

They may have finished the year on top of the world, but deep down inside, they would for forever more look back on season 2000 with a sense of regret.

Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Available to purchase from theherald.mybigcommerce.com/books/ $19.95