Mining and the Newcastle Knights go hand in hand. The Knights made their first grand final appearance in 25 years in October, and thousands of fans showed up to support their team in red and blue, with a bit of high-vis too.
Newcastle knocked the Penrith Panthers out of the finals series to secure their spot in the Grand Final where they took on the Sydney Roosters losing by just one point, 19 to 18.
More than 12,000 people packed into McDonald Jones Stadium for an open training session in the week leading up to the final, 19,500 attended the stadium to watch the game on the big screen and thousands turned up again for a fan day after their loss to the Roosters.
Supporters painted their homes red and blue, spray-painted fences, coloured their hair, decorated shop fronts, even made red and blue food. Everyone got on the Knights bandwagon.
Knights Old Boy Kurt Gidley made his debut with the team in 2001, one of the years they won the Premiership. He captained the side between 2007 and 2015 and since retiring has worked in the NSW mining industry.
Gids told us the way the entire region showed up for their team was like nothing else.
“I remember as a kid waving the flag when the bus went past at Wallsend in 1997, in 2001 I was a fringe first grader so I was on the bus and I got to experience the training and the week after, but I think it went to a new level this time.
“I’m so incredibly proud of our Hunter region, the Upper Hunter, Newcastle and how they got behind our club, and our team. I don’t think there’s any sporting franchise in Australia that compares to what we experienced as a community. There are codes that have a larger member base sure, but I don’t think there is any franchise of members that go to the lengths Knights fans went to show their support.”
The Voice for Mining round is one of the most popular at home for the Club, and coach Justin Holbrook made it clear at the start of the season the team needed to understand their fan base.
A lot of them, in mining.
Earlier this year, Holbrook organised for the team to go underground at Centennial’s Myuna Colliery.
“When Justin got here, he spoke to everyone about who our audience is and who our community is and the big one was that the mining community is a huge supporter of the club not only financially but through our member base,” Gids explained.
“He asked if anyone had been to a mine site and the overwhelming response from the players and staff was that they hadn’t. So, he organised for everyone to see the coalface and see who our people, and our supporters are so he really set the scene and the narrative for the year about who the Knights wanted to represent.”
Justin has spoken about the trip underground in many interviews since.
“We talked about how hard working our area is and how much the guys in mining love talking about the footy and our team.
“Obviously mining is a big part of our region, we speak about it a lot. It’s that hard working part of the city that none of us have experienced, including myself, so it was great to be able to organise a trip to a couple of local mines,” explained Justin.
“A big part of our fanbase is those who work in the mines or someone in their family does, so it was great for us to get an appreciation for it and see how hard of a job it is.”
Tony Butterfield, also a Knights Old Boy who has worked in mining since retiring, experienced the 1997 Premiership and said the performance he watched at Accor Stadium in October was one of the greatest he’d seen from the Knights.
“They delivered the unthinkable the week before and were within an ace of doing it again on the biggest stage, that is a quality team.
“For the players, for the team, and the town it was always going to end one of two ways, in equal measure delirium or devastation. That’s footy, that’s the grand final, which is why when we won we were in a space that was incredibly rare for a team like Newcastle. This will fire them on for next year. It’s the game that keeps giving.
“As a city, as a region, we’re sometimes overlooked compared to the big city teams. We certainly made everybody sit up in ’97 and earnt the respect on the footy field. I was amazed when I moved from Sydney to Newcastle that everyone felt like the little brother, but we really earned a name for ourselves after that win.
“We can do anything we put our minds to, if given a chance.
“Our motivation is there; it’s about how hard you work for each other and that is such a Newcastle trait. I think it’s that philosophy that the fans have embraced and understood as well.
“Unashamedly our supporters are the best.”
Butts had nothing but praise for Kalyn Ponga and how he held himself as well.
“The great Paul Harrigan led the way in ’97, Andrew Johns in 2001 and Kalyn Ponga lost nothing on those two with his performance. Not to pick one player out but he led from the front, he led with confidence, drive and belief and the boys are with him.
“He’s certainly reached another level. It takes time to become the leader. Look at the workshop for instance, you’ve got blokes who are in charge who have been there for 25 years. You listen to them because they’ve seen it all before, previous to this Kalyn hadn’t seen everything but now he has really grown into that captaincy.”
“There’s two things that come from this year,” Gidds added.
“The Club and the team have shown great hope and belief for the community, we’ve always had very loyal and united supporters no matter the result but we’ve certainly lured some more in.
“And now the players have experienced the response from the community and what it feels like to be successful so that’ll inspire them going forward to try and replicate this year on year.
“Congratulations to everyone, the community, the supporters, the members, players, coaches, staff at the Newcastle Knights. I feel really proud to be a Novocastrian and I really feel like it brought everyone together even closer which has been so cool to see,” said Gidds.
