Knights attracted more fans to a training session than some actual game days

Newcastle is partying like it’s 1997.

For proof, look no further than home ground McDonald Jones Stadium on Wednesday. More than 12,000 Novocastrians packed in to honour their grand-final heroes at an open training session. To put that figure into perspective, several actual NRL games this year have attracted smaller crowds.

Among those in attendance were dozens of mulletted teens paying homage to star playmaker Fletcher Sharpe. Former Knights player Alex McKinnon lent his support, while there was also a superfan whose head – clad in a forged knights-of-the-realm-style steel helmet – baked in the midday sun.

This is a community truly embracing its “Our town, our team” ethos.

“The community is so good up here, we know how important rugby league is to the Hunter Region,” said Knights coach Justin Holbrook.

“We understand our responsibility, and it’s great to be able to have a day like today and include the community. The boys want them to be proud of the team that runs out there, and we’ve done a good job of that this year. We’ve got to do it again on Sunday.”

It has been a quarter of a century since the locals last played in a decider, and after such a long wait, nobody wants to miss out. Across the road, the club merchandise store looks like it has been ransacked. When we popped in on Tuesday, there were rows of empty racks and coathangers where the team jerseys and other paraphernalia should be. Punters have been lining up outside every morning in pursuit of merchandise, but supply can’t keep up with demand.

Grand finals produce unexpected heroes, and we already have one, in the form of 88-year-old grandmother Dawn Dunning. Dunning convinced her sister Ailsa, 86, and friend June Hill, 88 to farewell Knights fans as they bussed their way to Accor Stadium for last weekend’s preliminary final victory against Penrith.

Footage of the octogenarians waving their flags quickly went viral, culminating in the trio appearing on the Today Show on Wednesday morning.

“Very overwhelming, it’s hard to take, I can tell you,” Dunning quipped when asked about her new-found celebrity status.

“We had a great time waving down all the buses. We had that many cars blow their horns at us, it was just ridiculous. We couldn’t get over it. It was the funniest day we’ve ever had.

“We watched the Knights bus go first and all of the buses, there must have been 20 of them. I knew my granddaughter was going on one, so every time a bus would come up to the intersection, I’d press the button so the bus would have to stop.”

Meanwhile, the locals have literally painted the town red (and blue).

Take, for instance, James St in New Lambton. Here, Teigan and Sam Jobbins, with a bit of help from their mate Aiden Kelaher, have Knight-washed their kingdom. After painting their fences for the semi-finals series a few years ago, they went the extra step this week and decked out the house in team colours.

“We’ve always wanted to do this,” Teigan said as passing cars tooted their horns in approval.

Local businesses are following suit. Eat Your Water, an independent surf brand on Darby Street at Cooks Hill, has repainted its shopfront red and blue. Customers are also offered a 25 per cent discount, a nod to the 25 years since the team’s last premiership victory. The paint hadn’t even dried and already the store’s Instagram page had an additional 150,000 views.

“The customers love it,” said store owner Liam Scanlan.

“One of the comments I saw was, ‘It’s good to see a business put their money where their mouth is and not just have an AI slop or a fake storefront’.”

With Knights merchandise almost impossible to procure, local artist Mitch Revs was inspired to produce a special edition “Better than Lego” t-shirt. It’s a catchphrase that entered the rugby league vernacular courtesy of Matty Johns, the day after Newcastle’s 1997 grand final triumph. In a tired and emotional interview with Sunrise reporter Natalie Barr, Johns offered those four words to describe his euphoric state.

Now that they are emblazoned on a $50 t-shirt, locals just can’t get enough of them. The idea was to just pump out a couple of hundred shirts, but sales are now in the thousands, even though most of the stock can’t be produced before the decider.

“I put it online, and my phone exploded,” Revs said. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of Shopify, but when you get a sale, it makes this ‘cha-ching’ sound. It couldn’t even get to the end of the sound, so it was glitching, just going ‘ch-ch-ch-ch…’”

None of this support is lost on the team. While some grand finalists bunker down to concentrate on their preparation, the Knights have enjoyed the warm embrace of the community they represent.

“The town, they’re here through our lows and our highs,” said Newcastle forward Pasami Saulo. “To be able to repay them this week is such a grateful feeling. We owe it to them; they’ve always got our backs, and this week we’re going to have theirs.”