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<\/p>\nThe blueprint of a Newcastle Knight was inked in black and white before anyone wore the red and blue.<\/p>\n
Newcastle’s inaugural coach Allan McMahon spelled out his vision in a 1987 newspaper column, ahead of the club’s 1988 debut.<\/p>\n
“Our guidelines for recruiting players are that the major part of their football be in front of them,” McMahon decreed.<\/p>\n
“[Players] will have an in-built desire to win as well as strength, tackling ability, and speed.<\/p>\n
“There’s a fantastic nursery for rugby league around Newcastle and that will be looked after.<\/p>\n
“Promising, strong players with their careers ahead of them \u2014 that’s the only way to go.”<\/p>\n
Allan McMahon’s weekly column in the Canberra Times, the day after he was announced to be leaving the ACT for Newcastle in 1987. (Supplied: National Archives of Australia, The Canberra Times)<\/p>\n
McMahon, who died in 2003, will undoubtedly be looking down on the 2026 Knights with a special brand of pride only Novocastrians know.<\/p>\n
And if any player embodies every ounce of his dream-Knight, it’s Phoenix Crossland.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to put into words what this club means to me and the whole team,” Crossland said.<\/p>\n
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2026 Danny Buderus medallist Phoenix Crossland, leading out the Knights at an open training session earlier this week. (ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old half-turned-hooker was sourced from the Erina Eagles, at the border of Newcastle’s nursery, crafted through the club’s pathways, and unleashed into top-flight footy in 2019.<\/p>\n
“We can do something special here; we just need to focus,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always been inspired and motivated to play for this club and to do my best for them and the fans.”<\/p>\n
Crossland said “Justo” (coach Justin Holbrook) gave him a simple to-do list at the start of the season.<\/p>\n
“[He said] all you need to do, and make sure you’re the best in the comp at it, is tackling, defending and turning up for your team.”<\/p>\n
Phoenix Crossland 2026 statistics\u00a0Games played23 matchesTotal tackles1,055 (most in the NRL)Tackle efficiency (successful tackles)93 per cent40\/20 kicksFour (most in the NRL)Pass receipts1,835Tries scoredThreeClub identity<\/p>\n
The motivation Crossland feels going into this weekend’s preliminary final against the Penrith Panthers is a club-wide sentiment.<\/p>\n
“There’s a belief that whatever’s thrown our way, we can overcome it,” the Knights’ director of football Chris James said.<\/p>\n
“I reckon you can sense that, for these players, no opposition scares them, no situation in a game scares them.<\/p>\n
“After winning in New Zealand, that very quickly turned to, ‘Right, let’s go after winning the comp.'”<\/p>\n
James, a former NRL referee, joined Newcastle from the Roosters at the start of last season.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the reasons that Allan McMahon put in that article is why I came here,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added one question has been asked by the coaching staff, and it’s driving the players’ hunger for success: “What is your ‘why?'”<\/p>\n
“If you can make that greater than an individual ‘why’, by representing this town and the region that’s supported us for so long and playing in a style that would make them proud, then you’ve got something special.”<\/p>\n
Young and hungry<\/p>\n
Half of Newcastle’s extended 22-player squad named earlier this week wasn’t born by the 2001 grand final, when the underdog Knights upset the Eels to snatch a second premiership.<\/p>\n
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One of them is Fletcher Sharpe, the Cessnock boy who can play halfback, five-eighth, wing and centre.<\/p>\n
He’d probably have a crack in the front row if things got desperate.<\/p>\n
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Fletcher Sharpe is a fan favourite amongst Newcastle supporters. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
“We’ve enjoyed putting a bit of pressure on ourselves this year to go out there and represent the town and the community, and make them a part of the team,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position, and now it’s about going out there and executing.”<\/p>\n
In the context of this weekend, it’s eerie to look back and see what Allan McMahon wrote about Penrith in his column.<\/p>\n
He referenced a young Mark Geyer as an inspiration for what a Knight should and could be, a local junior moulded into a die-for-his-jersey Panther.<\/p>\n
“That’s the sort of thing we will be encouraging, the youth of Newcastle and young players from surrounding areas,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Crossland is that. Sharpe is that. Maitland’s Cody Hopwood, Lachlan Crouch and Tom Cant all fit that bill too.<\/p>\n
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20-year-old Cody Hopwood, a West Maitland Wallaroos junior, made his NRL debut in the final game of last season. (ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)<\/p>\n
And for the formidable Penrith, it is embodied in Nathan Cleary, Brian To’o, Lindsay Smith, Mitch Kenny, Moses Leota and several more.<\/p>\n
The challenge<\/p>\n
McMahon didn’t mince his words in 87. He knew it was going to be a tough slog to build the Knights.<\/p>\n
When Holbrook arrived at the end of the 2025 season, he didn’t mince his words either.<\/p>\n
He said he’d focus on connecting with the region’s pathway clubs urgently, and connecting the players to the Hunter’s real roots.<\/p>\n