Fri, 11 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Rabbitohs 10, Knights 20
Sat, 12 Sept, 4:05 pm, Final score, Warriors 16, Dolphins 26
16 26 →Sat, 12 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Sharks 26, Cowboys 16
26 16 →Sun, 13 Sept, 4:05 pm, Final score, Panthers 19, Roosters 12
19 12 →Sat, 19 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Roosters 46, Sharks 10
46 10 →Sun, 20 Sept, 4:05 pm, Final score, Warriors 10, Knights 12
10 12 →Fri, 25 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Dolphins 20, Roosters 36
20 36 →Sun, 27 Sept, 4:00 pm, Final score, Panthers 14, Knights 22
14 22 →Sun, 4 Oct, 7:30 pm, Game not started, Roosters versus Knights
asserted
Warriors → start → Knights
→
The outpouring of emotion following Newcastle's return to the grand final after 25 years is proof you can't understand how good winning can feel until you've lost a few times.
asserted
you → follow → times
The Knights know it better than most because in the quarter-century since their glory days they've lost hard and lost plenty.
asserted
they → know → plenty
Before this season there'd been more wooden spoons than finals wins over the past two decades, survived financial turmoil that threatened the club's very existence and persevered through other struggles that proved there's more to life than football, even in Newcastle.
asserted
that → survive → Newcastle
But on the field the times were never harder than ten years ago, when the club won just a single game for the entire 2016 season, the equal fewest victories for a team in the past 60 years.
asserted
club → win → years
There's two men left standing from that leanest of winters and while Jacob Saifiti will miss Sunday's grand final through suspension, Dane Gagai has the chance to bury the old pain under a mountain of grand final glory.
asserted
Gagai → be → glory
The 2016 season was the lowest point amid three-straight last-placed finishes, but what Gagai remembers most is the indomitable hope of the faithful, against all odds and good sense.
asserted
remembers → place → odds
"The fans still kept turning up. There was still 20,000 people at a game, Knights jerseys on, even after back-to-back spoons," said Gagai.
asserted
Gagai → turn → spoons
"To be able to be in this position now and give these fans what they deserve, I couldn't be more proud to be a Newcastle Knight."
asserted
I → give → what
It's a similar story for Trent Hodkinson, who captained the Knights that season after arriving from Canterbury as the incumbent New South Wales Origin halfback
"
asserted
who → captain → halfback
I was excited to get there, I really like that it was a one-team town, seeing how they got behind their team — I wanted to be a part of that," said Hodkinson.
asserted
Hodkinson → get → that
"The first thing that comes to mind is the loyalty from the fans.
asserted
that → come → fans
No matter how tough we were doing it on the field they'd rock up in numbers.
asserted
they → do → numbers
"We were trying our best to win for them, we really were, but we were deep in that rebuilding phase.
asserted
we → try → phase
The times on the field were so tough but the fans got us through it."
asserted
fans → get → it
Both men are right about the support never wavering given the Knights had higher average crowds that season than three teams who made the finals.
asserted
who → waver → finals
They also, somehow, experienced an overall lift in crowds from the year before and had a higher average attendance than the club did in their 1997 premiership season.
asserted
club → experience → season
All the players and fans had was their faith, which is just another way of saying they had one another, and few teams have ever needed it more.
asserted
teams → have → it
Only six of their games were decided by less than one score and they conceded 24 points or more in 19 of their 24 matches.
asserted
they → decide → matches
There were special horrors that would rear their heads up from time to time that made the campaign seem like less of a bad season and more of a divine punishment, like an ironic torture dreamed up in the sick mind of a wicked and vengeful God.
asserted
campaign → be → God
Their sole win came in Round 6 against Wests Tigers, when a fan threw a ball on the field and prop Korbin Sims toed it through to force an error from Tigers winger Jordan Rankin as he tried to field a bomb.
asserted
he → come → bomb
The Knights scored from the ensuing set to claim an 18-16 victory but the next month was a taste of hell, as if they were being tormented for their one day of good fortune, for daring to have one happy day.
uncertain
they → score → day
They lost their next four games by a combined margin of 179-10 and were kept scoreless three times.
asserted
They → lose → 179
Gagai played despite his grandmother passing on the morning of the match and broke down in tears in Sims's arms afterwards after he was racially abused by a member of the crowd.
asserted
he → play → crowd
Tariq Sims, who began the season as one of the club's co-captains, left on a mid-season transfer to St George Illawarra a few weeks later and Jarrod Mullen, the club's most experienced player, had his NRL career end months later after testing positive to steroids.
asserted
career → begin → steroids
There were some days that were closer than others, but only close enough to make it sting all the more and show there can be no true despair without a little piece of hope.
asserted
it → be → hope
Newcastle took Canberra, who finished the regular season second and ended up in the preliminary final, to extra time twice.
asserted
who → take → time
They did manage, as a squad, to outscore Raiders centre Jarrod Croker, who finished as that year's top point-scorer but given it was 306 to 296 it was a close run thing.
asserted
it → manage → scorer
In their last game of the season, when a win might have meant most of all, the Knights conceded a last-second penalty to lose to St George Illawarra and confirm their status as one-win wonders.
uncertain
Knights → mean → wonders
There was talent enough on the Knights roster to be competitive — Gagai was a Queensland regular by that point and won the club's player of the year award, his first taste of being a stand-out soldier for a hopeless cause.
asserted
Gagai → be → cause
"Back then he was exactly like he is now — a true competitor who worked his backside off at training and always tried to help the young guys through," said Hodkinson.
asserted
Hodkinson → work → guys
"He'd try so hard, he'd do whatever it took to try and get a win for the team and the town."
asserted
it → try → team
Gagai and Hodkinson were just two of 12 players on the roster who would play Origin or for Australia or New Zealand at some point in their careers.
asserted
who → play → careers
But none of the timelines matched up.
asserted
none → match → timelines
"The new guys, they were up for it, they were next in line, but they were just young," Hodkinson said.
asserted
Hodkinson → say → line
"They did everything they could and I feel for a few of them but some of them have gone on to great careers — Josh King down at Melbourne, Jack Cogger is going great at Penrith, both Saifiti's turned into great players.
uncertain
Saifiti → do → players
"But when you have more youth than experience it makes it hard, especially when the roster and combinations keep changing."
Given the team was unable to give back to the community in glory, Hodkinson worked hard to find other ways to repay the love that meant so much.
asserted
that → have → much
His work in the community with ill children, including escorting 15-year old Hannah Rye to her high-school formal while she had terminal cancer in 2017, served as a constant reminder that rugby league could be bigger than winning and losing.
"That made some tough times on the field a lot easier, it put things in perspective when you know kids out there are doing it much, much tougher than anyone who's playing football for a living," said Hodkinson.
uncertain
Hodkinson → include → living
"Me and my wife still speak about it now, because we loved Newcastle, we loved the people.
asserted
we → speak → people
Off the field, we wouldn't change a thing."
asserted
we → change → thing
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
