{"id":907918,"date":"2026-09-27T23:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907918\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T23:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:44:13","slug":"nrl-grand-final-news-2026-silverchair-reunion-social-media-petition-newcastle-knights-andrew-johns-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907918\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL grand final news 2026: Silverchair reunion, social media petition, Newcastle Knights, Andrew Johns comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knights fans are partying like it\u2019s 1997<\/a> and the calls are growing louder for iconic Aussie rock band Silverchair to reunite for the NRL grand final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fresh off the best Newcastle victory in 25 years, there is a renewed push for Silverchair to end their hiatus and come together next Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Sandon Smith celebrates the game-winning try.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

The win over Penrith, despite being down a man when Phoenix Crossland was sent off in the first half<\/a>, produced some of the most incredible scenes in the game\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns<\/a> was crying in the Nine commentary box. His brother Matthew<\/a> was equally emotional on his Fox League show in the moments after the win.<\/p>\n

Kurt Gidley, who played 252 games for the Knights and was there for some tough times, was spotted in tears in the crowd at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

The emotional reaction has prompted fresh calls for some other hometown heroes to help celebrate the Knights\u2019 journey from the 2025 wooden spoon to this year\u2019s grand final against the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

Silverchair are synonymous with Newcastle and frontman Daniel Johns<\/a> is just as revered to the people of that region as his namesake Andrew.<\/p>\n

It would require NRL executive chairman Peter V\u2019landys<\/a> to backflip on his stance that the game\u2019s marquee event doesn\u2019t need entertainment. <\/p>\n

The league had attempted to land Tones And I for the grand final<\/a> but that fell through, prompting V\u2019landys to take a shot at the AFL for spending $3 million on Kylie Minogue<\/a> to perform at their showpiece event this past weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t buy the cheeseburger for the pickle,\u201d V\u2019landys said last week, claiming that NRL fans are more interested in the game than entertainment. <\/p>\n

While there might be merit to those comments, V\u2019landys could earn some extreme goodwill with footy fans, Aussie music lovers and the city of Newcastle if he can help facilitate an unlikely reunion more than a decade in the making.<\/p>\n

Silverchair split up 15 years ago and despite Knights legend Johns claiming it was \u201cno chance\u201d of happening, that hasn\u2019t stopped social media from petitioning for it.<\/p>\n

If enough people make noise and V\u2019landys puts some money up, who knows? <\/p>\n

Silverchair has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide, with smash hits Straight Lines and Tomorrow garnering global attention.<\/p>\n

After the Knights\u2019 inaugural 1997 premiership win, Andrew and some teammates broke into Daniel\u2019s house to celebrate in the early hours. Years later, the champion halfback gave a tongue-in-cheek apology to the Silverchair singer.<\/p>\n

An iconic photo of both Johns \u2013 who are not related at all \u2013 has become part of rugby league folklore for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andrew Johns and Daniel Johns in 1997.\u00a0Instagram\/@mattyjohnsaus<\/p>\n

The other popular Newcastle-based band that fans have started clamouring for is The Screaming Jets<\/a>, whose iconic hit Better has become a song associated with the Knights for the majority of the club\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

While it might be a big ask getting Silverchair over the line, Johns believes he could help get the other Newcastle rockers to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilverchair\u2019s no chance. I can get The Screaming Jets for sure … that\u2019d be incredible,\u201d Johns said on Wide World Of Sports\u2019 Immortal Behaviour last week. <\/p>\n

V\u2019landys has hinted at a surprise before kick-off on Sunday night and if one or both of this Knights-affiliated bands are involved, Accor Stadium would erupt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knights fans are partying like it\u2019s 1997 and the calls are growing louder for iconic Aussie rock band…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-907918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}