I've just been going through an old book of mine, and I found a couple of paragraphs both interesting and strangely current.
It is basically talking about how the Knights came about. They were asked to submit a proposal to the NSWRL for the 1982 season, but they declined due to them feeling a team in the NSWRL would weaken the Newcastle Rugby League, and that they didn't feel they were ready. Canberra then got given the licence instead (as Illawarra was already given a licence). After a couple of years of planning and research, Newcastle then submitted their proposal to the NSWRL, but was turned down. I quote the book from this point:
By 1985 Newcastle had a concerted proposal to drop on Sydney's doorstep. The NSW Rugby League was most impressed but rejected the idea on the basis that the game's expansionist policy had been placed on ice. In fact, the policy makers had adopted a plan for fewer, rather than more, clubs. Newcastle re-applied in 1986 only to be met with the same response.
Yet help was at hand, and it came from the most unlikely source. The Victorian Football League had decided to spread the Australian Rules gospel by relocating the South Melbourne Swans to Sydney and launching the Brisbane Bears in Queensland. Suddenly, the rugby league heartland was under siege from an expansionist and ambitious code. To counter the threat from the southern game, the NSW Rugby League plucked its own expansionist policy from the bottom drawer, dusted it off and put it right back on the agenda. When the Newcastle delegation took their case to Sydney again, the response was entirely different. To answer the Aussie Rules challenge, the NSWRL had committed itself to a plan that would increase the premiership composition from 13 to 16 clubs.
In April 1987, the NSWRL's Phillip Street headquarters issued a bold proclamation. Not one, but three new clubs would take part in the 1988 premiership. They would be Brisbane, the Gold Coast.......... and Newcastle.
This is from the book 'Our Town, Our Team: The Story Of The Newcastle Knights' by Neil Jameson. I think it came out in 1992 sometime.
The more things change ...!
