Long enough, in other words, to have a fair idea what he was in for.

As evidenced by his stoic acceptance of a neck injury that ended his playing career at the age of 27, after 172 games and three grand final defeats with St George, Brown is by nature a pragmatist.

"I've got to move forward and be happy, because life is short," Brown said at the time. "I'm going to die one day. There's plenty of time to be miserable then."

Within weeks of his enforced retirement, he was wearing the fluorescent yellow shirt, running on-field messages to his former teammates on behalf of coach Andrew Farrar. Less than two years later, after steering the Dragons to the 2002 Jersey Flegg (under-20) premiership, he replaced Farrar in the hot seat.

At 29, he was the youngest coach in the competition, in charge of men alongside whom he had played, in some cases, for the best part of a decade.

Brown coached the Dragons for six seasons, making the finals in four of those campaigns, including a grand final qualifier in 2005. When he was replaced by Wayne Bennett, he headed to England, where he spent four seasons at Huddersfield and then won a Super League title with St Helens.

After the sacking of Rick Stone, the Knights had changed coaches five times in the space of eight years. They were crying out for a long-term leader to provide stability.

"If you think about it, it's probably the most important coaching appointment for the club since they signed Allan McMahon in 1987,'' former Knights skipper Mark Sargent said as the club sifted through the candidates. Another Newcastle stalwart, Billy Peden, added: ''One thing I do know for sure is we can't afford to stuff this one up ... it's time to stop making mistakes and get it right."

Brown soon emerged as the front-runner and, at a media conference to announce he had signed a three-year deal, indicated he was under no illusions about the challenge ahead of him.

''You don't finish down near the bottom of the table if you haven't got some issues,'' Brown said. "But everything's repairable, and with the support of the local people and a few young players coming through, I'm sure over a period of time we can change that.''

Brown at least had a connection with Newcastle, having spent the majority of his playing career being coached by Brian Smith and David Waite, two men he said had given him an excellent education in the science of rugby league.

When the 42-year-old arrived at Newcastle, they were wooden spooners and had parted company with proven performers Kurt Gidley, Beau Scott, Clint Newton, Tyrone Roberts and David Fa'alogo.

Chris Houston and Adam Clydsdale were then moved on, after Brown advised them they did not feature in his plans. In addition, James McManus was given no chance of playing, as he struggled with the after-effects of repeated concussions, and young forward Joseph Tapine was released after signing a lucrative deal with Canberra.

The worst team in the 2015 competition had effectively lost more than 1200 games of NRL experience.

Of the incoming personnel, former Canterbury and NSW Origin halfback Trent Hodkinson was the standout signing, along with journeyman prop Mickey Paea, back from a stint in England, and giant Parramatta youngster Pauli Pauli.

Knights chairman Brian McGuigan, the ebullient vigneron appointed as head of the board selected by the NRL, announced boldly at the club's 2015 presentation night that Brown and CEO Matt Gidley had promised that "within three years we're going to have a premiership".

Brown found the chairman's optimism amusing. "I can assure you I haven't made any promises about premierships to anyone,'' he told the Newcastle Herald. "Before you hope to win premierships, you need to start playing in the play-offs consistently ... if you look at Newcastle over the past 12 years, they've been in the play-offs once every three or four years, and you can't win grand finals doing that.''

Brown's plight was highlighted when, for the season-opener on the Gold Coast, he named five NRL debutants: fullback Jaelen Feeney, centre Pat Mata'utia, twins Jacob and Daniel Saifiti, and Kiwi bench forward David Bhana.

Mata'utia's selection at centre, alongside his sibling Chanel, meant that all four brothers had made it to first-grade level, a feat matched by only a handful of other families in the code's history.

In a 30-12 loss to the Titans, one of Newcastle's few senior players, prop Kade Snowden, managed only 30 minutes.

A bulging disc in his back had ended his career. The 29-year-old had played in 174 NRL games for Newcastle and Cronulla, two State of Origins and a lone Test. But it is fair to say he never quite reached the heights forecast by his former benefactor, Nathan Tinkler, who predicted five years earlier "he's going to be the best prop in the game".

A week later, a 48-6 away loss to South Sydney sounded alarm bells, especially as the Rabbitohs seemed to lose interest in the final 20 minutes.

A 24-all draw at home to Canberra, featuring two tries by 18-year-old Swansea winger Cory Denniss, provided a smidgen of hope, as did competitive losses in Auckland (40-18) and Melbourne (18-14).

The Storm escaped from jail with two late tries, prompting Melbourne's champion skipper Cameron Smith to label the Knights "very brave", in the circumstances.

"They lost two guys before half-time, so they essentially played the majority of the game with 15 men, and they nearly beat us - in Melbourne," Smith said.

"I thought it was a great effort by that team today. They've got a lot of young guys that are new to the NRL, with not a lot of experience, but they certainly put in a very strong effort. "I've seen a couple of their games this year. Effort's not an issue for them. If they keep turning up like they did against us, I can't see a win being too far away from them."

Smith's prediction was spot-on. Inspired by the return of rugged Tariq Sims from a five-game suspension, Newcastle won their next game, 18-16 over Wests Tigers, in front of a 21,563-strong home crowd. Unfortunately it would prove their only win all season.

In the next month, Newcastle were humiliated by Brisbane (53-0), Manly (26-10), the Roosters (38-0) and Cronulla (62-0), a collective scoreline of 179-10.

After the hammering from the Sharks, a brutally honest Cronulla skipper Paul Gallen observed: "To be fair, and not to be too critical, the side we played against today were very inexperienced and there wouldn't be too many players who played for Newcastle today who would make any other first-grade side, really."

Exacerbating Newcastle's woes, playmaker Jarrod Mullen snapped a hamstring in the loss to Manly, sidelining him for 11 games after surgery, Tariq Sims was granted a release to join the Dragons, and Akuila Uate, the former NSW and Australian Test winger, was exiled to reserve grade after 161 NRL games and a club-record 110 tries.

The Knights, meanwhile, rushed in fringe first-graders Mitch Barnett (Canberra), Peter Mata'utia (Dragons) and Brendan Elliot (Roosters) as reinforcements.

When Newcastle were beaten 36-16 by the Sea Eagles at Brookvale in round 21, they equalled the club-record 13-game losing streak, after which Brown conceded that his first year of coaching at the Knights might one day "be a trivia question".

With five rounds to play, Brown said the Knights had "known we're going to finish bottom for a long time probably now''.

He added that it would be unfair to criticise the myriad rookies he had blooded in 2016, claiming Newcastle's season of woe had been years in the making.

"I suppose with what's happened to the club in the last few years, we're basically in a recession, aren't we?" he said.

"We've hit the rock bottom, where we are.

"And it's not a lot of the players' faults that we are where we are as a club.

"It's not their fault that the roster is how it is.

"It's not their fault that they're all out there playing together at the minute.

"It's probably harder than when the club first started in '88, because when the club first started in '88 they would have had far more mature players playing in first grade, and not a heap of young kids. It's just where we had to go to to move forward.''

Newcastle proceeded to lose their final five games.

Their misfortune continued right up until the last minute of the last round, when veteran Jeremy Smith, retiring after 214 NRL games (75 for the Knights), conceded a penalty that allowed the Dragons to win 28-26.

And so finished not only the worst year in Newcastle's history, but the worst season by any team in rugby league's full-time, professional era, which kicked off in 1995.

Not since Parramatta, way back in 1959, had a team lost 18 consecutive games. Newcastle had conceded a club-record 800 points and scored 305 - an average scoreline of 33-12 in the opposition's favour.

But among the 11 rookies Brown blooded, some outstanding prospects emerged, in particular the "Twin Towers", Daniel and Jacob Saifiti, Josh King, Brock Lamb and Jack Cogger.

Barnett and Kiwi hooker Danny Levi, who debuted the previous season as a 19-year-old, grabbed their opportunities, as did late bloomer Nathan Ross, who finished as Newcastle's top try-scorer, with nine in 19 games.

Utility back Dane Gagai also played in all three Origin games for Queensland, scoring the matchwinner in game one and a memorable hat-trick in game two.

He finished the year with more tries for the Maroons (four) than he did for the Knights (three).

Few teams in history have been so relieved for full-time to sound on their season.

After back-to-back wooden spoons, the only way for Newcastle was up.

The great unknown was how long that would entail.

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