gong_eagle
First Grade
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By Josh Massoud
August 23, 2007http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22291264-5006066,00.html
MEET Sarah Matterson, the little girl who captures the disillusionment of Newcastle - Australia's crumbling rugby league stronghold.
After watching Penrith flog her beloved Knights 46-12 on Sunday, the nine-year-old decided to speak up on behalf of Newcastle fans young and old.
With a purple texta, she penned a hand-written plea to club management for the sacking of coach Brian Smith.
"Why has he wreked (sic) our team?" Sarah wrote.
"I reckon you should SACK him because you need to start winning."
Her simple sentiments were widely echoed when The Daily Telegraph visited Newcastle yesterday to gauge the city's reaction to Smith's first year as Knights coach and the controversial non-selection of Kirk Reynoldson.
But Sarah does not live among the other pained supporters. Instead, she was compelled to speak up from Albion Park on the South Coast - almost 400km away from Energy Australia Stadium.
The Year Three pupil watched Sunday's thrashing on television and, without being prompted by her Knights-mad mother Fiona, put pen to paper immediately after the coverage ended.
Ms Matterson posted the letter yesterday and is expecting a response from Newcastle CEO Steve Burraston when he receives it this morning.
"Sarah said, 'Mummy I think I'm going to write a letter to tell them they should do something'," Ms Matterson told The Daily Telegraph.
"I said, 'Okay, if you think that will help then go right ahead and I'll post it for you'.
"She even went onto the Internet to get the Knights' postal address from their website."
Asked why she decided to write the letter Sarah said: "When the game finished I looked at the score.
"They were really high and we were really low.
"That's when I decided to write it."
Sarah said she could hardly bear to watch her team lurch to its seventh straight loss at the hands of the wooden-spoon favourites.
"It hurt my eyes," she added.
"We need to start winning a bit. I want to get people thinking they should sack Brian Smith.
"We need someone who is good at coaching - maybe like the Storm's coach."
Although she lives in the shadows of the state's other steel city - Wollongong - Sarah supports Newcastle because her mum is a Knights member.
Ms Matterson said it was "out of character" for her daughter to write letters.
"She's never done it before," Ms Matterson said.
"She will normally just blow up and then calm down. This time she felt strongly enough and hoped that by doing this she might be able to stop them losing."
