The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, the largest city in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in 1988, 79 years after the previous Newcastle-based team, the Newcastle Rebels, had departed the Sydney competition with the formation of a separate league competition based in the Newcastle region.
The club has won the premiership twice, in 1997 and 2001. Notable players include: Paul Harragon, Robbie O'Davis, Danny Buderus and rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns. The team's home ground is McDonald Jones Stadium.
Contents
History
A Newcastle rugby league team had been assembled from players in the Newcastle Rugby League to compete in various competitions for most of the 20th century. The Newcastle Knights entered the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition in 1988 with Allan McMahon as coach. Newcastle had previously been invited to field a team in the NSWRL competition for the 1982 season but declined, worried it would weaken the area's local league competition. The Canberra Raiders were admitted to the 1982 competition in their place.
The team was a success from the start, becoming one of the most popular clubs in its first season. By 1990, the team was strong enough to enter a play-off for fifth spot.
The club won their first competition, the Nissan Sevens, in 1991 and made the playoffs in 1992, where they were beaten by the St George Dragons. The Knights made the semi-finals again in 1995 when the competition became the Australian Rugby League (ARL), and won the reserve grade premiership the same year.
The club stayed loyal to the ARL when Rupert Murdoch started Super League in an attempt to win pay television rights to rugby league. This decision was very popular in the Newcastle and Hunter Region areas. News Limited formed the Hunter Mariners to compete with the Knights in the only season of Super League in Australia, but the Mariners failed to win much support in the area.
From 1997 to 2003, the Knights achieved a finals berth for seven consecutive years. The Knights won the 1997 Australian Rugby League premiership, defeating the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 22–16 in the Grand Final. The match is best remembered for its classic finish – with Darren Albert breaking a 16-all deadlock with a try just seven seconds from full-time. This win was a huge morale boost to the district following the closure of the area's biggest employer, the BHP Newcastle Steelworks, being announced earlier the same year. Seventy per cent of the winning squad were Newcastle juniors. This year, Robbie O'Davis won the Clive Churchill Medal.
The following season, Knights players Robbie O'Davis, Wayne Richards and Adam MacDougall tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs; however, all three maintained they started use after the Knights' 1997 victory. The three were suspended, despite O'Davis' claims the club was not notified his drug was banned until after his positive test, and MacDougall's medical reason for taking the steroids (his usage continued after he completed his suspension, now approved by the NRL). In addition, the Knights terminated Wayne Richards' contract.
Emblem and colours
In 1988, the Newcastle Knights were re-established to represent rugby league in the Hunter region once more. Newcastle adopted 'The Knights' moniker as a reference to its 'steel city' industrial heritage. The jersey colours of red and blue were adopted from the district's representative side that wore red jerseys, white shorts and blue socks.
Players
Captains
All players who have captained the Newcastle Knights in first-grade.
Coaches
Allan McMahon (1988 – 30 June 1991)
David Waite (5 July 1991 – 1994)
Mal Reilly (1995–1998)
Warren Ryan (1999–2000)
Michael Hagan (2001–2006)
Brian Smith (2007 – 14 August 2009)
Rick Stone (15 August 2009 – 2011)
Wayne Bennett (2012–2014)
Rick Stone (2015 – 26 July 2015)
Danny Buderus (27 July 2015 – 5 September 2015)
Nathan Brown (2016 – 26 August 2019)
Kristian Woolf (27 August 2019 – 8 September 2019)
Adam O'Brien (2020 – September 2025)
Justin Holbrook (September 2025 - present)
Jersey
Manufacturers
Good Fellows (1988–94)
Peerless (1995–1996)
Canterbury (1997–1999)
Fila (2000–2001)
ISC (2002–2007)
KooGa (2008–2010)
XBlades (2011)
ISC (2012–2019)
O'Neills (2020–2022)
Classic Sportswear (2023–present)
Record
Head-to-head records
Last updated on 3 March 2023. Source:
Major sponsors
Henny Penny (1988–1990)
BP (1991–1993)
Stockland (1995–1997)
Impulse Airlines (1998–2001)
Flight Centre (2001)
QantasLink (2002–2004)
Coal & Allied (2005–2011)
Hunter Ports (2012–2014)
Newpave Asphalt (2015–2016)
nib Health Funds (2017–present)
Palmerbet (2021–present)
Club Premiership honours
Premierships: 2 (1997*, 2001)
Finals Series: 17 (1992, 1995, 1997*, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024)
* ARL season only
Statistics
Individual records
Most Games
Danny Buderus 257
Most Points
Andrew Johns 2,176
Most Tries
Akuila Uate 110
Most Goals
Andrew Johns 917
Most Points
Andrew Johns (2001) 279
Most Tries
Dom Young (2023) 23
Most Points
Andrew Johns (Rd 21, 2001) 34 v Canberra
Most Tries
Edrick Lee (Rd 16, 2022) 5 v Gold Coast
Greg Marzhew (Rd 8, 2026) 5 v St. George Illawarra Dragons
Most Goals
Kalyn Ponga (Rd 18, 2023) 11 v Canterbury-Bankstown
Andrew Johns (Rd 2, 2006) 11 v Canberra
Club song
Go Hard, Go Knights (1995–present)
Playin' hard, playin' tough,
Just plain good is not good enough,
We're gonna show you what league's all about,
If there's a lesson to be learned we're handing it out.
This game is our game,
This town is our town,
Turn the heat up and listen to the crowd.
Go hard, Go Knights, Go proud.
This game is our game,
This town is our town,
Turn the heat up and listen to the crowd.
Go hard, Go Knights, Go proud.
Supporters
Newcastle Knights fans have been described as being among the most rabid in the NRL and in 2008, 2011 and 2012, were the third best supported club in the league. In 2008, the average home game attendance was 18,750, 19,186 in 2011 and 20,919 in 2012. In 2012, the Knights also had the largest Monday Night Football crowd of the year with 18,637 fans turning up in Round 16.
Some notable supporters of the club include;
Women's team
On 11 June 2021, the Newcastle Knights were granted a licence to compete in the 2021 National Rugby League Women's (NRLW) competition. Recently retired Knights player Blake Green was announced as the head coach. The season was planned to commence in August 2021, postponed to October 2021 and further postponed to 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
On 1 July 2021, the Knights announced their first ever NRLW signing in Indigenous All Stars and Prime Minister's XIII representative Caitlan Johnston, who was a foundation Tarsha Gale Cup player for the Knights in 2018 before spending two seasons with the Sydney Roosters NRLW side.
On 25 November 2021, it was announced that Knights Tarsha Gale Cup coach Casey Bromilow would be taking on the head coach role after Green had been appointed into a specialist halves role alongside Andrew Johns with Newcastle's NRL side. Jess Skinner was announced as the assistant coach. On the same day, the Knights announced a further six Newcastle and Hunter based signings in Bobbi Law from the Sydney Roosters, Jayme Fressard from the Brisbane Broncos and Georgia Page from the St. George Illawarra Dragons, as well as Phoebe Desmond, Chantelle Graham and Kyra Simon from local teams. Six development players were also announced in Bree Chester, Sophie Clancy, Matilda Jones, Kayla Romaniuk, Jesse Southwell and Tylah Vallance.
On 1 December 2021, the Knights signed nine Kiwi Ferns representatives in Ngatokotoru Arakua, Maitua Feterika, Annetta Nu'uausala, Charntay Poko, Krystal Rota, Charlotte Scanlan, Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly, Katelyn Vaha'akolo and Kararaina Wira-Kohu, Two days later, the club signed Romy Teitzel from the Brisbane Broncos, AFLW player Paige Parker, rugby sevens player Emma Sykes and North Queensland Gold Stars players Rangimarie Edwards-Bruce, Katie Green, Emma Manzelmann and Tahlulah Tillett.
In January 2022, the Knights signed Kirra Dibb from the New Zealand Warriors after Emma Sykes withdrew from the squad. On 21 February, the 24-woman squad was finalised with the signing of Shannon Evans from the Central Coast Roosters and Romy Teitzel was named team captain, Caitlan Johnston and Krystal Rota named as club captains.
The club played in 5 matches without a win in its inaugural season.