Perhaps that's why the Raymond Terrace junior reluctantly left his home-town club in the first place.

As the ARL threw money at Newcastle's big names during the Super League spending spree, Marquet was largely an afterthought.

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By 2001, he was 31, out of contract at Melbourne Storm, and assuming that his 204 top-grade game career was over. He was preparing to resume his original occupation, as a carpenter.

But few people knew Marquet's value better than new Newcastle coach Michael Hagan.

Hagan played four seasons alongside Marquet at the Knights, then continued their association as assistant coach at the Mariners.

Was the man they called "Pepe" interested in a swansong?

He couldn't sign quickly enough.

Marquet felt he had unfinished business with his home-town club.

When his former teammates won the 1997 grand final, he was looking on enviously. "I was very dirty at the time, I can tell you that much,' the foundation Knight said. `I was at thec lub since the start in 1988, and then the first year I leave they win it."

He gained some sort of consolation by playing all 28 games in Melbourne's 1999 premiership campaign.

"It was good to win one down there and I'm really glad that I did it," he said.

"But it would probably be a bit more special if I won one here."

Newcastle's other off-season recruit was Singleton-born utility Julian Bailey, who, like Marquet, had rarely attracted headlines in his 40 NRL games for the Sydney Roosters. Between them, Marquet and Bailey had been signed to replace Tony Butterfield, Matthew Johns, David Fairleigh, Peter Shiels and Paul Rauhihi, who had collectively appeared in more than 750 first-grade games.

In other words, Hagan's NRL coaching career would kick off with a squad which, on paper at least, appeared diminished compared to the Warren Ryan outfit that stumbled one game shy of the grand final.

Nonetheless, Hagan inherited a roster including eight players who had won grand finals, and five former or incumbent Australian internationals.

He wasn't short of quality, nor experience.

The rookie coach's first dilemma was who to slot in as the replacement for Matthew Johns alongside the world's best player.

His choice was another Singleton junior, 22-year-old Sean Rudder, whose 53 previous NRL games had included stints as bench reserve, wing, pivot, hooker and in the back row.

Perhaps not even Hagan could have predicted the impact Rudder and Marquet would have in the months ahead.

Newcastle's season kicked off, as had been the case 12 months earlier, with an upset loss to Northern Eagles, this time at home.

By the time they were thrashed 42-8 in Brisbane in round five, they had only two wins to their name, one of which was a 32-14 dissection of Parramatta at Marathon Stadium.

Eventually the Knights hit form, stringing together eight successive wins - one shy of their 1995 club-record streak - to grab top rung on the competition ladder. But then, with Andrew Johns sidelined because of a knee injury, reality struck and Newcastle suffered four consecutive defeats, including a 40-0 smash-up at Parramatta.

In a reminder of his genius, Johns returned the following week and produced one of the virtuoso performances of his career, scoring 20 points (two tries and six goals) as the Knights routed defending champions Brisbane 44-0 in front of 22,896 jubilant Novocastrians.

It was Brisbane's heaviest defeat in their 14-year history, surpassing a 48-6 loss to Melbourne at ANZ Stadium on March 21, 1999.

As the Knights racked up eight tries to nil, the crowd taunted Wayne Bennett's star-studded team with chants of "fifty, fifty, fifty" as the final minutes ticked down.

"It was just an unbelievably good performance from him and the team," Hagan said of Johns.

"You can't put a value on what Joey brings to a footy team."

Centre Adam MacDougall said Johns was an inspiration in helping the Knights end a run of four straight losses.

"He is a champion - what a player," MacDougall said.

Johns said he thought the Broncos were "really ripe" to be beaten because their Queensland players were backing up after an Origin victory.

"We went out and went bang and put 22 points on them before they knew it," he said.

In quick succession followed high-scoring wins against Melbourne (48-16), the Warriors (37-30), and Canberra (54-26), the latter after Johns scored four tries and kicked nine goals for a club-record haul of 34 points.

In the space of four games, Newcastle had scored a remarkable 183 points.

Just when they appeared to be hitting top gear, they suffered a 49-30 loss at Cronulla and Johns copped a two-game suspension for striking Sharks playmaker Adam Dykes with his elbow - a frustrated cheap shot for which he was widely criticised.

The suspension cost Johns what would have been his third Dally M medal as the game's best and fairest player, which was won instead by Cronulla halfback Preston Campbell.

NRL judiciary commissioner Jim Hall said Johns showed "spite and venom" in his 69th-minute tackle.

Johns' clean record failed to sway the judiciary panel of Mal Cochrane, Jeff Hardy and Ian Roberts, who took just a few minutes to find Johns guilty of grade-three striking after what was described as "a sickening incident".

Since he began first grade in 1993, the Australian Test halfback had been suspended just once, for his involvement in a fight with Queensland hooker Jamie Goddard during a 1997 State Of Origin match.

"It wasn't premeditated, it wasn't my style to do that," Johns said. "I deeply regret it and I apologise to him and you won't see it happen again."

Predictably, Newcastle lost the two games he missed, against Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra.

Upon his return, the Knights accounted for North Queensland (34-18) and Penrith (60-18), to qualify third in the play-offs - just as they had 12 months earlier - this time behind Canterbury and runaway minor premiers Parramatta.

There was a sense of deja vu as Newcastle convincingly won at home in the first round of the finals, disposing of the Roosters 40-6, after conceding the opening try.

As was the case at the corresponding stage of the previous season, the Knights then profited when seventh-placed St George Illawarra upset the Bulldogs 23-22.

Once again, they secured an unexpected week off and were within 80 minutes of a grand final.

There was no need to remind anyone, given their lingering regret from a year earlier, of the need to seize the day.

Their opponents in the semi-final, to be staged at Sydney Football Stadium, would be Cronulla, who barely a month earlier had dominated Newcastle at Shark Park.

At half-time, the Sharks led an arm-wrestle 10-6, and Johns was struggling with a hip injury.

Showing a champion's mental toughness, Joey played through the pain barrier and landed a cross-field kick in the arms of centre Mark Hughes, who scored his 14th try of the season.

Then Johns's right-hand man, warhorse back-rower Ben Kennedy, scored his second try of the game and Newcastle defended their 18-10 lead until full-time.

For the second time in five seasons, the Knights were into a premiership decider.

Two of the unsung heroes in helping them get there were Rudder, who had played in every game, and Marquet, who had missed only two.

Their contributions had been just as crucial as players on far higher wages.

As was the case in 1997, Newcastle would go into the grand final - against the apparently unstoppable Parramatta - as rank outsiders.

They wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

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