Former Knights star Matty Johns has broken down in tears as he heaped praise on the Newcastle team and its fans after a gripping and gritty NRL preliminary final win over Penrith.
The Knights played more than half the game with 12 men on the field after Phoenix Crossland was sent off for a hip drop that graphically broke Nathan Cleary’s leg.
Penrith scored shortly after to take a 14-6 lead into half-time, but Justin Holbrook’s Knights defended resolutely against a scrappy Panthers side and managed to score three second-half tries to progress to the grand final against the Roosters.
The women’s team won back-to-back NRLW premierships in 2022 and 2023, but Newcastle has not played in a men’s grand final since Andrew Johns led the Knights to victory over the Eels in the 2001 grand final.
A quarter of a century and five wooden spoons later, the team will return to the final day of the season next week after a similarly remarkable upset win over the most dominant team in NRL history.
So it is hardly surprising that Hunter native and former Knights star Matty Johns was incredibly emotional straight after full-time.
“To be honest, I don’t know what to say,” he said on Fox Sports.
“It was unbelievable. Incredible effort in that second half. I just feel so happy for all the fans.”
Players past and present, as well as coach Justin Holbrook, hailed the fans who travelled to the game. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)
It became increasingly hard to find the words as tears started to flow and emotion took over.
“They’ve had to put up with a lot of shit for a lot of years to get back to where they are now,” Johns said.
Even getting to the game on Sunday was tough as an issue with a freight train caused delays and cancellations on the Central Coast and Newcastle train line, forcing fans to find alternate routes and replacement services to get down to Sydney, which led to traffic jams on the M1 motorway on a sodden afternoon.
“But it just didn’t stop them in the wet,” Johns said of the crowd at Homebush, which was hugely in favour of the visiting Novocastrians.
The Stadium Australia crowd was heavily favouring the away team. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
“When you run onto a field like that and you look up and you see all those Newcastle fans, you don’t leave the field defeated.
“If not for the fans they don’t win today.”
Holbrook sprinted around the field to pay tribute to the fans who turned up, and who have continued to turn up even when the team was struggling, including last year when they finished last for the fifth time in 21 seasons.
“We want to make our community proud, our Hunter region, and for the boys to deliver that performance, it was so good to see them all hang around,” he said.
“We went down to 12 [when Crossland was sent off] and then 30,000 make you feel like you’ve got 14 out there.”
Captain Kalyn Ponga agreed the supporters helped the team get over the line.
“They’re a big reason why we won today,” he said.
“They’re loud, they’re passionate, they’re vocal and we’re gonna need them next week.”