This club are the Steelers with a trophy cabinet. Headed for the same fate as well...
Newcastle might as well go back to being a junior region for the richer Sydney clubs without a top flight team, just as it was for 80 years before 1988. It's a different town from the one that welcomed the Knights into the comp. The steelworks are closed, people have more to do than just go watch the footy on the weekend and there's already a generation who are indifferent to the Knights- partially due to this demographic shift and partially because they've grown up remembering little else but the club being a joke. That culture of "be the player the bloke next to you wants to play alongside" that defined the first 15 years of this club and attracted me as a fan in the first place- despite having never lived in the Hunter my entire life- are long gone. So is the player culture of giving it a fair dinkum slog every week and of still holding our heads high, even in defeat. It's dead, and has been ever since Brian Smith left. The Crusade is a memory. So is the home crowd that used to have the same aura for visiting teams that Lang Park held for NSW. It's all just a memory, best left for an updated edition of "Our Town, Our Team" and for us to reminisce about those good old days...
In its' place is indifference and an ineptitude that'd be comical if so many of us didn't continue to get so upset by it. The Knights brand is so unfashionable that nobody would even follow us ironically. Tomorrow's generation are currently watching garbage served up like today, with no end in sight. Apart from the hardcore, the rest of the budding Rugby League fans in the region will end up following Sydney clubs. Some of that is the NRL's fault for neglecting this team in favour of The Big 5, but the club has to shoulder much of that blame as well.
It's been a good run and we'll always have that amazing high of '97. And the "nobody rates us- who cares?" against the odds glory in 2001. And we can tell our grandkids about what it was like to sit on the hill at the old Marathon Stadium and have the privelege of watching Joey play. Of watching The Chief and Spud charge full-on at each other. And the 15,000 that came to the ground and waited until 3am to welcome the team back with the NRL trophy after topping Parra. But those days aren't coming back. The Knights are just a token existence to the NRL and with other expansion areas banging down the door to get into the comp, how long will the NRL justify keeping us afloat after today? After the last 3 years?
I've felt nothing for this club for a long time. It's like a bad relationship that's run it's course. I thought about watching the game on TV today, but I was at a mates' and instead found myself out the front of his place with him, sinking beers and enjoying the winter sun while it lasted. When I checked Fb on my phone and saw the final score, I felt nothing. It could've been the Penrith-Souths game. It could've been the Broncos-Storm game. F**k, it could've been the Western Reds vs the Adelaide Rams for how I felt.
The NRL isn't a level playing field- not for us, anyway. That isn't changing anytime soon. I don't see the point investing energy or money following a club playing a game where the house is against us- and even then, the people involved with this club find a way to shoot themselves in the foot anyway.
The way I'm feeling right now, I'd say that's it for this season and see you next year- but I don't know if there will be a next year. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I don't see how the next 10 years is going to be any different from the last 10- and that's if this club even has another 10 years?
I have enough demands on my time and I've had to make enough sacrifices already the past few years- if somebody can give me a reason why tuning in to the Knights should remain part of that, I'm all ears...because I can't think of a single reason why that should remain the case, and today only served as a further coin tilting the scales in favour of me saying "Thanks for the memories" and moving on.
