It was meant to be the day the Newcastle Knights and their fans celebrate the club's stunning 2001 grandfinal upset win over Parramatta.
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Instead, a thoughtless NRL has rained on the parade, ignoring a request from Knights officials to allocate a Sunday for the club's final home game next season to honour Old Boys Day and pay homage to the class of 2001, who are planning a 20-year reunion.
Rather than a Sunday or Saturday, the Knights have been handed the dreaded Thursday night graveyard time-slot and to make matters worse, they'll be up against the low-drawing Gold Coast Titans rather than a traditional rival.
Premiership-winning coach Michael Hagan echoed the thoughts of many at the club when he said: "What an absolute joke.
"It just shows a total lack of understanding and knowledge from the powers-that-be at the NRL for our club's history and traditions.
"The timing of games impacts every year on Old Boys Day but this just makes it much worse. Ideally, you want it on a Saturday or Sunday and I don't think that is too much to ask to be honest given the history of the day and what it means to the club and the fans."
Hagan claims it puts a spanner in the works as far as the premiership reunion is concerned.
"Certainly in the current climate, it is going to be difficult now to get all of the players from our 2001 side back given it's a Thursday game and it will impact on the size of the crowd to get there in support as well," he said.
"I don't know how much pressure was put on the NRL from the club's perspective to make sure Old Boys Day was a Saturday or Sunday but whatever was said, it hasn't worked."
Contract moves
Given he will be 33 next year and playing his 15th season in the NRL, it will come as no great surprise Mitchell Pearce won't be offered anything longer term than a new one-year deal for 2022 when he sits down with the club in the coming weeks to talk over his future.
The Knights extended highly talented young winger Starford To'a's contract for a further two seasons until the end of 2023 yesterday with Pearce understood to be the only other priority at this stage.
We're told there is no rush just yet to extend the likes of Kurt Mann, Connor Watson, Edrick Lee, Hymel Hunt and youngsters Tex Hoy and Phoenix Crossland, who also come off next year although Lee's Origin debut for the Maroons suggests he should be a must keep.
There'll be no such delay with Bradman Best though. Best still has two years to run on his current deal but very preliminary talks to extend him out further are believed to be already underway.
Storm for trial
The Knights will take on defending premiers Melbourne in their only pre-season trial game two weeks out from next year's premiership kick-off in March.
The trial will be played in Melbourne with the Storm to return the favour the following year by playing the Knights on their home turf.
Knights coach Adam O'Brien's close friendship with Storm coach Craig Bellamy and football manager Frank Ponissi no doubt sealed the new relationship between the clubs.
Family comes first
In a sign of how close their families are, Canberra Raiders star Josh Hodgson will spend a week in Newcastle with his nephew Bailey Hodgson to help settle him in when the new teenage Knights signing arrives in town after 14 days of quarantine in a Sydney hotel.
Young Hodgson, who comes with huge wraps after debuting for Castleford in English just after turning 18 a month ago, has just over a week left in isolation.
His uncle has agreed to pick him up from his hotel on Monday week before bringing him up to Newcastle.
Meanwhile, the club's other teenage English signing, giant centre/winger Dominic Young, gets out of quarantine tomorrow and will have little time to acclimatise to the heat before starting training next week. Young will spend a week at Alex McKinnon's place to give him time to meet his new teammates and have a look around the city.
"I'm sure all the boys will get around him quickly and make him feel at home," McKinnon told us.
Hughesy's new venture
It was a little over 12 months ago, when Mark Hughes was preparing for his grueling Mt Kilimanjaro trek to raise money for his brain cancer Foundation, that he discovered the benefits and a love of altitude training.
The inspirational former Knights star and several of his trekking party were training at Air Locker in Newcastle, a fitness studio where anyone can work-out in a simulated high altitude environment that enhances performance and endurance.
Hughes loved the experience so much, he and his wife Kirralee are going into business together and launching their own Air Locker studio at Kotara.
The official opening is next Saturday with a whose who of ex-Knights, including the likes of Paul Harragon ["Chief loves the workouts as well"], Danny Buderus, Kurt Gidley, Brad Godden and Aku Uate, all set to attend, along with a host of family and friends.
"It's just a great way to train with a heap of benefits but all with less impact on your body," Hughes said.
"It started here in Newcastle and we're now going to franchise them out - there is one in Bondi - but this one at Kotara, it will be me and Kirralee owning this one so it's pretty special for us.
"There are a few discussions about a few other franchises in the Hunter Valley as well but in the short term, we're putting everything into getting this one started.
"I put everything into the Foundation so it's good to have a business that hopefully, can make a bit of money for my family as well.
"I've learned through the Foundation the power of helping people and making a difference and this will do that as well so it's a really nice fit."
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