Smith came within a few minutes of the wooden spoon in his first season with Newcastle, only for Kurt Gidley to perform a last-ditch miracle against Wests Tigers that left Penrith stranded in the competition cellar.

The Knights might not have finished last, but the season was doomed from the moment a neck injury forced the retirement of the club's greatest-ever player, Andrew Johns, only a few games in. A wholesale cleanout of long-serving players, the contractual saga involving Kirk Reynoldson and a spate of injuries combined to ensure the Knights were in disarray by the end of that demoralising 2007 campaign.

Many felt Smith was lucky to avoid the axe, yet within 18 months, he had transformed Newcastle, briefly, into a top-four team.

In 2008, they won half their games, 12 of 24, to finish ninth. By the halfway point in 2009, they had won eight of their 12 games - including five wins against teams in the top six - and were fourth on the ladder.

Then, as long-suffering Knights supporters will remember all too well, Smith signed with Sydney Roosters, lost the dressing room ... and it all rapidly turned to you-know-what.

He was sacked about a month later and replaced by his former assistant, Rick Stone, under whom the Knights won three of their last four games to finish seventh, before bowing out in week one of the play-offs.

Whatever his idiosyncrasies, I've long believed Smith was a better coach than is likely to be acknowledged around this neck of the woods. The value he got out of unheralded signings like Chris Houston, Zeb Taia, Matt Hilder, Junior Sa'u, Cooper Vuna and Richie Fa'aoso was remarkable.

But while all of the aforementioned were fine servants for Newcastle, through no fault of their own their recruitment changed the culture of the club.

Smith was the first coach to give the Knights a cleanout and complete makeover. Then along came Wayne Bennett, who did the same thing. Then along came Nathan Brown, who did the same thing.

In the process, Newcastle appear to have evolved into a club who, like so many others in the NRL, have rosters that are heavily dependent on the presence of imported players. By my count, of the 34 player profiles on the Knights' website, 13 could be considered "local" products, if you include the Saifitis, Bradman Best and Connor Watson from the Central Coast, or Mitch Barnett from Wingham.

If you want to be really pedantic and narrow it down to players to emerge from Newcastle RL junior ranks, I could count only five.

In the squad named to play Canberra on Saturday, the only bona fide Newcastle RL products are Brayden Musgrove and Brodie Jones, both of whom are Cessnock juniors, Lachlan Fitzgibbon (South Newcastle) and Pasami Saulo (Maitland).

Now I'm not suggesting for one second that I have any concerns about the players recruited, firstly by Brown and since by incumbent coach Adam O'Brien.

I believe Newcastle have assembled a quality roster over the past few years, who are yet to realise their potential, and have no doubt their players are as hungry for success as anyone else.

They're a tight bunch, they appreciate the support they receive from the most loyal fan base in the NRL, they enjoy living in Newcastle and they understand the impact they can have on the community.

If they can win a grand final for the Novocastrian faithful, nobody will give a second thought to who played junior football for which club.

They'll all just be heroes.

But I can't help wondering, as the Penrith juggernaut rolls on, whether at some point the Knights will evolve back into a development club, as they were during the club's glory days.

To provide some context, of Newcastle's 17-man squad in the 1997 grand final, 12 were local juniors. In the 2001 decider, there were 11.

Were the likes of Andrew and Matthew Johns, Danny Buderus, Paul Harragon, Matthew and Kurt Gidley, Adam Muir, Timana Tahu and Mark Hughes just a one-off golden generation, or can the Knights again become a heavyweight club largely populated by home-grown talent?

That might be easier said than done, in the modern era.

In saying that, I find myself reflecting on the final-round game of 2015, which still rates as one of the darkest days in Newcastle's rugby league history.

In a game labelled the "spoon bowl", the result would determine if Newcastle or Penrith finished last on the ladder.

Newcastle led 12-8 at half-time before capitulating 30-12. Among the stars for Penrith, incidentally, was ex-Knight Will Smith, with a try and four goals.

Since then the Panthers have built themselves a Centre of Excellence and invested millions in junior development.

In the seasons after playing off with the Knights for the 2015 spoon, Penrith have finished sixth, seventh, sixth, 10^th and second. Newcastle in the corresponding time finished last, last, 11^th, 11^th and seventh.

The Knights will have their own Centre of Excellence, at Broadmeadow, soon enough. We'll have to wait and see if if helps takes the club back to the future.