Richie Benaud, as was his way, put it in perspective better than anyone.
A dropped catch was not a tragedy. Life is far more important than the trivial matter of a butter-fingered outfielder wanting the ground to swallow them up.
Watch Australia’s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.
The late Benaud would be aghast if anyone dared describe Newcastle’s NRL grand final loss on Sunday night as a tragedy. It simply isn’t. It’s sport. Fairytales falter at the final hurdle, too.
The only tragedy this weekend was the out-of-control car driven by an 18-year-old which ploughed into a crowd of people lining the streets waiting to wave off the Knights’ bus to Sydney on Saturday. Ten people were seriously injured, two rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
Of the injured, one was booked for further surgery on Sunday. He told medical professionals it had to be done by kick-off so he could watch the game.
He woke up to watch one of the most courageous grand final performances of the modern era, where the Knights didn’t have their backs up against the proverbial wall, but must have felt like they’d been playing from the other side of it. They lost 19-18 to the relentless Roosters, and the second miracle for the weekend was the scoreline wasn’t more lopsided.
It was unfortunate the Knights lost. But it wasn’t a tragedy.
MORE FROM THE GRAND FINAL
ROOSTERS RATINGS:Recruit to go down in NRL folklore; star who swung epic GF
KNIGHTS RATINGS:All-time ‘one-man freak show’; Origin star goes missing
MATCH REPORT:DCE’s all-time redemption as Ponga emotional after Knights heartbreak
Knights captain Kalyn Ponga reacts as full-time sounds in the NRL grand final.Source: AFP
Newcastle fans have proverbially lived many lifetimes in the 25 years since their last grand final appearance in 2001.
There’s been Hazem El Masri from the sideline; Joey’s neck needing retirement; Brian Smith; the bushranger Kirk Reynoldson and the contract clause they wouldn’t let him trigger; Danny Wicks’ drugs; tubby Tinkler and the mythical millions; Wayne Bennett and the only club he never quite mastered; Alex McKinnon, a genuine tragedy by any Benaud measure; Nathan Brown’s big head and little head; wooden spoon after wooden spoon; Mitchell Pearce and the marriage which wasn’t quite; Kalyn Ponga’s strawberry milkshake.
It’s a helluva lot.
But the fans stayed with them, when the mind and money dictated the smarter option would have been to walk away. The Hunter’s footy team has a way of uniting a community like no other team in the NRL, with apologies to the Warriors and Cowboys. When the Knights are good, the town’s good.
It’s easy to argue the Knights might have found themselves this year on the other side of the world after opening the season with an upset win over North Queensland in Las Vegas. There was a glint in Ponga’s eye. He looked different, a leader rather than the one made to before his time.
His grand final effort was otherworldly, best shown by his side’s second try, a 95-metre runaway effort in which he made a lung-busting run just to be in position to get the ball before streaking away.
But the truth to Newcastle’s revival might have been closer to home.
Roosters crowned 2026 premiers | 03:28
To get out of the pits and from the bottom of the ladder, new coach Justin Holbrook took them down the pits. He showed his players who they represent, the blue collared miners liable to Monday mood swings on the bounce of the ball or a baffling bunker call. Alongside them, something clicked.
The NRL’s zany season has also helped.
The first half of the year when the six-again bell tolled relentlessly suited the Knights. They had bought in a largely run-first Dylan Brown on a mega $13 million, 10-year deal to play halfback. Some of the Old Boys couldn’t see the sense in it. But the set restart expansion suited Newcastle, whose speed was a bigger weapon in 2026 than rugby league’s traditional smarts and strength.
Ponga: “It hurts so much!” | 00:31
The Knights gritted their teeth just long enough, and at the right time of year, to tackle their way to a grand final and within one bounce of the ball from an unlikely premiership.
Who knows what would have happened if Billy Smith hadn’t managed to keep a fingertip on a ball as he was driven sideways over the tryline? Or if Daly Cherry-Evans’ kick didn’t cannon into the apex of the post and crossbar before Mark Nawaqanitawase’s second, and decisive try? Or if Cherry-Evans had scuffed his field goal attempt like he did in the first week of the finals against the Panthers?
Logic tells you they shouldn’t have been here, but somehow they were, without their entire starting front row of the suspended Jacob Saifiti and Phoenix Crossland as well as the injured Trey Mooney. Throw in their first choice No.7 in Brown, who did an ACL in the first year of his mega deal.
Knights support heartbroken after defeat | 05:22
The grand final stats were galling in the Roosters’ favour: possession 57-43, almost 700 more running metres, an extra 10 metres per set on average, 126 less tackles, so on and so on.
“I said to the boys, ‘I’ve never watched a harder game of footy’,” Holbrook said. “I’m so proud, but you just felt for them.
“We were coming off our own line facing baseball bats there. If you can win anything on heart and effort, we definitely won that. It was the hardest game of footy I’ve ever watched as a coach.
“I’ve never seen a gutsier performance from blokes.”
Which is why the Knights might have lost on the biggest day, but still somehow won.
They’re the NRL’s purest team who are the greatest reflection of their community, bar none. It’s hard not to be endeared to the Knights just because of who they are, which is why more than 10,000 people lined the streets of Newcastle yesterday to send them off for what has been one of Australian sport’s unlikeliest tales before tragedy. If you weren’t a Rooster, you were a Knight, for the night at least. They might have done something not even Anthony Albanese can do: unite most of the country. Most importantly, they’ve united their region.
“I think we represented them proudly,” Ponga said.
They did. And on Sunday night, they started helping the Hunter heal.