Reflecting on the last game of the 2001 NRL season, it is hard not to reach the conclusion that two off-field events, completely unrelated, ensured Newcastle's players arrived at Stadium Australia on Sunday, September 30, with a unique and invaluable reservoir of motivation and self-belief.

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The first incident occurred after their 34-18 penultimate-round victory against the Cowboys in Townsville.

On the flight home, which included a stopover and a delay in Brisbane, players celebrated their victory by drinking to excess. Several were still half-stung from the night before in Townsville. When they eventually boarded the flight from Brisbane to Newcastle, the loud, obnoxious footballers not surprisingly offended other passengers, in particular some with young children.

The main culprits apparently included some of Newcastle's household names: Andrew Johns, Ben Kennedy, Matthew Gidley and Danny Buderus. Buderus was queried by the plane's captain about his level of intoxication and, after being allowed to take his seat, attracted further attention by vomiting into a sick bag.

The Knights had scarcely collected their baggage at Williamtown airport when the media became aware of their antics. "Hangover pain" screamed the Newcastle Herald's front page, after the NRL hit the Knights with a $35,000 fine for bringing the game into disrepute.

Newcastle then fined an unspecified number of players between $250 and $7500, depending on the severity of their misconduct.

A sheepish Johns issued an apologetic statement in which he admitted being "too noisy and boisterous" and behaving contrary to "the manner that everyone has come to expect of a Newcastle Knight".

The image-conscious and previously cleanskin Buderus would later describe the episode as "the worst 24 hours" of his life, especially after receiving an ear-bashing from his mother on the phone.

Embarrassed as they were by the hammering they copped from the press, the whole unseemly episode had a galvanising effect. As Buderus recalled years later, Newcastle's players realised their only avenue for redemption was to "answer back with our football". And so they did, winning their next three games by a combined tally of 118 to 34 to secure a grand final berth, by which point the "air shame" controversy was a fading memory.

It was during the countdown to the season finale that the second serendipitous event occurred to reinforce Newcastle's mindset. At the traditional grand final breakfast, an annual chore both teams tolerate, rather than enjoy, the Knights could not help but notice how tense their Parramatta opponents appeared.

As Newcastle's players laughed and joked, and centre Mark Hughes tormented coach Hagan with smart-arse questions at the press conference, the Eels were a portrait of apprehension. No sooner had the Knights boarded the bus back to Newcastle than Johns and Kennedy, the team leaders, were telling their colleagues "we're inside their heads", predicting the Eels would choke.

Parramatta nonetheless had every reason to be confident. They had lost only four games all season, and only one of 22 leading into the grand final. No team in rugby league history had scored more points during the regular season than their tally of 943.

They were such strong favourites that Rugby League Week magazine labelled the Eels "Unbeatable" in its front-page headline. None of which fazed the Knights one bit. As Hagan said in the lead-up to the decider: "There is a fair bit of pressure on Parramatta ... I don't think there is as much pressure on us."

Comparing the opposing line-ups on paper, the Knights apparently had nothing to fear. Newcastle had six players with grand final experience: Johns, Hughes, O'Davis, MacDougall, Peden and Marquet. Parramatta had none. The Eels had two Australian Test players, forwards Nathan Hindmarsh and Michael Vella. The Knights had six, including Buderus, who had debuted in the mid-season win against New Zealand, before even playing at Origin level.

Moreover, the Knights knew that Parramatta had a number of players who, while skilful attackers, lacked size and were potential liabilities in defence, in particular Jason Taylor, Brad Drew, Michael Buettner, PJ Marsh, Brett Hodgson and Luke Burt. Newcastle felt if they could control the ball and their heavyweight starting props, Matt Parsons and 19-year-old Valentine-Eleebana junior Josh Perry could make inroads up front, there were plenty of weak links to be exploited across the field.

The Knights wasted no time in putting their game plan into practice. After just three minutes, the underrated Peden skipped and jinked and Parramatta, distracted by Kennedy's decoy run, paid the price for taking their eyes off the man with the ball, who scored. Four minutes later, Newcastle hit the opposite edge and the raw-boned Steve Simpson carried Taylor across the line. Rudder, expected to take a back seat to Johns, had produced both try assists.

In the 21st minute, Peden scored again after a virtual action replay on the left edge, and Johns nailed his third conversion to give Newcastle an imposing 18-0 lead. Parramatta appeared to have narrowed the gap minutes later, only for Simpson to miraculously tackle lock Andrew Ryan and prevent him from grounding the ball. Then Kennedy powered over from dummy-half in the 32nd minute and Johns converted, to give the Knights a mind-boggling 24-0 half-time lead.

To Parramatta's credit, somehow they fought back to ensure the game was still alive until the final play. Scoreless until the 57th minute, in the remaining time fullback Hodgson and centre Jamie Lyon both scored doubles, all converted by winger Luke Burt, who was born in Newcastle and played his junior football with Dudley-Redhead and Valentine-Eleebana. But a fortuitous Timana Tahu try in the 64th minute, after Parramatta allowed a Johns torpedo bomb to bounce, and a Johns penalty goal would prove the difference between the two teams.

The Eels were left with one final set to salvage a draw, only for the ball to end over the sideline in their last, frantic attempt to keep it alive. The final scoreline of 30-24 flattered them, because realistically the game was in the balance for less than a minute.

Amid the jubilation of Newcastle's celebrations was a poignant image: rookie coach Hagan consoling his veteran Parramatta counterpart, Brian Smith, who was now none from three in grand finals, after losses with St George in 1992 and 1993 against Brisbane. "I feel for Brian Smith and the fact that he's had to go through so many years without having won a competition," Hagan said afterwards. "You've got to be fortunate and grateful for things that come your way. I'm a big believer in fate. We've worked hard for it, but we've certainly had an ounce of luck towards the back end of the year."

A shattered Smith acknowledged the "great football" Newcastle had played. "In the first half they made one error ... when a team gets that sort of roll on it is very hard to stop," he said.

While Peden and Kennedy would have been worthy candidates for the Clive Churchill Medal, awarded to the man of the match, nobody was arguing when Johns added it to his swag of memorabilia. Newcastle's skipper described the victory as the "greatest moment" of his illustrious career.

"This award is for the whole club, not only for myself and the 17 blokes out here tonight, because everybody has worked really hard,'' he said. "I can't do without my forward pack, they stuck it to 'em tonight. I'm so proud of them. They just keep going."

Johns also paid tribute to the Novocastrian faithful and took the opportunity, in front of a 90,414-strong crowd and with millions more watching the telecast, to make a political statement. "I'd like to thank the people of Newcastle," he declared. "You provide our motivation. Every week you turn up rain, hail or shine. I think you deserve a new stadium."

In the champions' dressing room, Newcastle's forwards took delight in responding to critics who had queried their credentials. "You could probably say: 'Get that up ya'," Kennedy said. "We've won the grand final. It doesn't get any better than that, so hopefully we've shut a few people up."

Perry added: "They said our forwards aren't strong enough, aren't big enough and aren't fast enough, but apparently we've won a premiership."

For the quiet achiever Paul Marquet, it was the perfect way to end a career that kicked off with Newcastle's under-20s in their 1988 foundation season. "Winning at Melbourne in '99 was great, but to win a grand final where you started, with the boys you started with, it doesn't get any better than that," he said.

Two-try hero Peden summed up a night that followed a fairytale script by observing: "The sun even shines on a dog's bum sometimes."

Eventually Newcastle's players and staff boarded the bus for the triumphant drive home. After rugby league's first-ever night grand final, they did not leave Sydney until past midnight. By the time they arrived at Marathon Stadium, it was close to 3am, yet they were astounded to discover a crowd of around 15,000 waiting to congratulate them.

That number was dwarfed three days later, when an estimated 80,000 lined Newcastle's Foreshore Park and surrounding streets as the new champions paraded the Telstra Premiership trophy in open-top cars. "We knew it was going to be big, but this is just beyond belief," Johns told the adoring crowd. "It is just unbelievable, you people blow our minds."

If any further cause was needed for celebration, four Knights - Johns, Kennedy, Buderus and Gidley - were named for the end-of-season Ashes campaign against Great Britain. At the end of Australia's 2-1 series victory, Johns was presented with the prestigious Golden Boot, awarded to the world's best player. After also winning it in 1999, he thus became the first two-time recipient.

As the dust settled on a dream season, there was no longer any debate about who was rugby league's premier performer. The only question was whether Joey Johns was the greatest of all time. As far as Knights fans were concerned, he could be as "noisy and boisterous" as he liked. Nobody was complaining.

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