Born in Penriff and went to a few Panthers games with my Dad when I was a kid. Moved to Newcastle though when I was 7 and one day I met up with my great grand father and he asked me "what footy team do you support son?" and I replied "the mighty Penny Panthers".
My great grand dad gave me this look of disgust and said "not any more you're not, from this day onwards you're a Knights supporter!" My grand dad made sure I received a Knights collector ball and Henny Penny jersey for my birthday that very same year I moved to Newy.
Before he passed away he used to sit on the hill for every home game and told me about the players. I used to marvel at the strength of Mark Sargent, Tony Butterfield and Paul Harragon. I used to cheer when Ash the Flash Gordon, Michael Hagan or Brett Grogan crossed over for a try.
My dad kept supporting the Panthers and my brother followed the Sharks up until the Super League War, then turned his back on the code entirely. The playing style was always attractive because the Knights for the most part placed an emphasis on expansive, attack-oriented football.
All my mates followed the Knights, except for one d***head who followed Souffs and actually considered them to be the pride of the league. He copped it deluxe in 1999 :lol:
My mates used to sit on the old wooden benches just to the right of the goal posts and we'd alternate between firing up our players and shouting insults at the visiting players. It wasn't just us though, most of the 20000 plus crowd at each home game would give it to the visiting team massively after Joey started banging in the nails. You could see it in the players' faces that they didn't want to be there.
The Joey years were the best. Most Knights fans would turn up at the ground expecting the team to win, and we rarely walked away disappointed. The biggest rivalry in those years imo was against the Roosters. The Fittler vs Johns battles were epic. Two great attacking teams going at each others' throats. That 2000 semi was gut wrenching.
