IT probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
But before Newcastle's round-17 clash with Manly at Brookvale Oval had even kicked off, Joey Johns was in a state of despair over a dubious decision he had more than 24 hours earlier.
As a gee-up, Johns asked his then girlfriend (later his wife) Renae to dye his hair bright red. But when he awoke on game day and caught his reflection in the mirror, his heart sunk and he started frantically searching for hairdressers in North Sydney capable of restoring his usual brunette tint.
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No such luck. Johns ran out looking like a circus clown and played accordingly. His new "do" was described as "a shade of Ronald McDonald" in one newspaper. Another columnist said the 23-year-old looked like "a punk with pecs".
Brother Matthew, who had dyed his hair purple, was massively relieved that he had washed the colour out before it set.
It was not as if Joey needed the attention.
By that point in the 1996 season, he had established himself as a bona fide superstar of rugby league.
The remarkable progress he had made in 1995, culminating in his player-of-thetournament award at the World Cup, was his launchpad to even greater heights.
During a full-strength 1996 State of Origin series, in which Johns accompanied Knights teammates Paul Harragon, Adam Muir and Jamie Ainscough in a team featuring Super League-aligned Laurie Daley, Glenn Lazarus and Brett Mullins, the NSW halfback was a dominant force.
The Blues won 3-0 and Johns, wearing the No.9 jersey but calling the shots as Brad Fittler's halves partner, had emerged as arguably the best player in the world.
Yet no sooner had the Origin series finished than Johns, frustrated with the goldfish-bowl attention he was attracting in his home town, started to binge-drink and experiment with illicit drugs.
Unbeknownst to his legion of fans, and also to the club's hierarchy, he was also suffering bouts of manic depression. He would not be formally diagnosed as bipolar for another four years. Teammates nicknamed him "Cyclone", in that he blew hot and cold.
When he was drinking, Johns would warn them to watch out, jokingly describing himself as a "head case". On one occasion, after a drunken argument with elder brother Matthew turned physical outside a Darby Street restaurant, he copped such a beating that teammates bundled him in a taxi, shirt bloodied and ripped, and sent him home.
As their most influential player went off the rails, so did Newcastle's season.
A campaign, incidentally, that started extremely promisingly. It was a year that initially augured well for the Knights.
Their squad from 1995 looked like being depleted by Super League departures. But Justice James Burchett's Federal Court judgement, effectively annulling the breakaway competition before it had even kicked off, meant that quality players Robbie McCormack, Paul Marquet, Brett Kimmorley and Brad Godden returned to the Knights.
Newcastle hit the ground running, winning their second World Sevens tournament - an event devoid of Super League teams - in the pre-season, demolishing North Sydney 48-18 in the final and pocketing $80,000 in prizemoney. Almost inevitably, Joey was named man of the match in the decider, and afterwards provided an optimistic appraisal of Newcastle's premiership prospects: "We've been knocking at the door to become a good side for a couple of years and I think we have the right combination this time ... I know we'll be a better side than last year."
Coach Reilly, however, was more circumspect. "I don't think we can make too much of it to be honest," he said. "It's an indication we've got a bit of pace out there but it's really just a fun day."
The Knights received a gift two points in round one of the season proper when, in an unprecedented move, the eight Super League-aligned clubs refused to play, meaning Newcastle was awarded a win over Cronulla by forfeit.
By the second round, ordered by Justice Burchett to resume playing or surrender their wages, the rebel teams begrudgingly returned to the field, as News Limited launched a legal appeal.
A 22-16 win against the Reds in Perth was followed by consecutive losses to St George and the Tigers, after which Newcastle found their groove.
A run of six successive wins suggested that, for the second consecutive season, the Knights would feature prominently at the business end of proceedings.
But between rounds 13 and 19, the only competition point Newcastle collected was from a 14-all draw with North Sydney. Wins against the Roosters (28-12) and Reds (24-20) meant that the Knights went into their final preliminary round, against Cronulla at Endeavour Field, clinging to eighth spot.
Needing a victory to guarantee a play-off berth, they arrived at Shark Park to encounter a howling southerly and torrential rain. Their opponents were no more hospitable, handing the Novocastrians a 22-0 towelling.
One lingering memory was Newcastle's hapless 19-year-old centre, Matthew Gidley, dragging himself disconsolately out of the mud after missing tackle after tackle, including two one-on-one defensive lapses that led to tries. As Gidley wiped away post-match tears, coach Reilly defended the rookie, who was appearing in his 15th top-grade game, and only his fifth in the starting line-up.
"The kid's got a great future. Maybe the pressure got to him on this one," Reilly said.
"It was a very important game and he might have frozen a little bit.
"But I'm not really concerned.
"He'll learn a lot from that game.
"I'm sure he'll be a better player for it."
We've been knocking at the door to become a good side for a couple of years and I think we have the right combination this time I know well be a better side than last year.
ANDREW JOHNS
Meanwhile, at Campbelltown, the Wests Magpies were in the process of beating Illawarra 12-8 to claim the last play-off position and consign Newcastle's season to the dustbin.
On the long bus trip home from the Shire, there was plenty of soul-searching. The Knights, undoubtedly, had underachieved.
Their cause was not helped by the unsettling mid-season decision to off-load Jamie Ainscough and Darren Treacy, two talented but high-maintenance players who each had two years to run on their contracts.
Teammates suddenly started to ponder their own job security. As veteran Marc Glanville told the Sydney Morning Herald: "When the club announced they were going to brush Jamie despite his three-year contract, it had to have some effect ... it doesn't make you feel very secure."
Both Ainscough and Treacy subsequently signed to play with St George in 1997. At the time, Ainscough was the highest try-scorer in Newcastle's history (47 tries in 87 games) and an established Origin representative.
He was also a quirky character, as evidenced by an amusing anecdote after the 1996 Origin series opener at Suncorp Stadium. During the national anthem, players from both sides noticed a $5 note fluttering on the grass but gave it little more than a second thought. After NSW scored the first try, Ainscough saw his opportunity, grabbed the cash and stuffed it in his sock. He would later have it framed as a unique souvenir. "Five bucks is five bucks," he told the Newcastle Herald's Brett Keeble. Indeed it is.
If the departures of Ainscough and Treacy was a drama that created headlines for weeks, the mid-season retirement of Knights legend Mark Sargent was comparatively anti-climactic.
After Justice Burchett cruelled the former Test prop's hopes of playing for the Mariners, he signed with his original club, Canterbury, with whom he hoped to make a comeback from his 1995 knee reconstruction. But his swansong season was short-lived. After a long bus trip to play reserve grade on a bitterly cold night in Canberra, Sarge decided enough was enough. He hung up his boots, having played in 145 top-grade games, four Tests and one Origin, and will forever be remembered as one of Newcastle's true champions.
As is always the way, when one career ends, others are just kicking off. The emergence of Matthew Gidley, Owen Craigie (eight games), Darren Albert (10 games) and Troy Fletcher (11 games) was a source of hope. Craigie was a prodigious talent.
The only player ever to represent Australian Schoolboys in three seasons, from Year 10 to 12, he was also the youngest to appear in first grade for the Knights, debuting off the bench against Brisbane in 1995 at the age of 17 years, two months and 20 days.
Matthew Johns has often said Craigie had more natural gifts than any other teammate he played alongside.
Yet from the outset, the utility back from Tingha struggled with the concepts of discipline and professionalism. Freakish ability elevated him to first grade while most of his childhood mates were still in school, yet his work ethic and attitude attracted scrutiny throughout his career.
He would regularly be seen on his days off spending hours in the TAB, bag of hot chips in one hand, betting tickets in the other. It was hardly the recipe for a long, lucrative career. Years later, when he was long since retired, Craigie would reveal in a newspaper interview that he lost more than $1.5 million gambling and at one point pondered suicide before getting his life back on track.
Albert, from Scone in the Hunter Valley, moved to Newcastle as a teenager to take up a scholarship with the Knights while working as an apprentice electrician.
In his rookie first-grade season, he scored three tries, including one on debut in a 22-16 win against Western Reds, and showed glimpses of searing pace.
He was easily Newcastle's fastest player, and would eventually claim the mantle of the NRL's quickest man, winning a Footy Show 100-metre sprint in 1999. Knights speed coach Bruce Gulliver described him as "a pure sprinter who happens to play football" and reckoned he could travel from tryline to tryline in a blistering 10.6 seconds.
Fletcher was a promising junior soccer player, good enough to trial for a contract with Newcastle Breakers in the National Soccer League.
But at the age of 18, he switched to rugby league with Lakes United and showed immediate potential.
Signed on spec by the Knights, he featured prominently in their 1995 reserve-grade grand final win and, 12 months later, had established himself as a regular in their top side.
Meanwhile, skipper Paul Harragon's decision late in the season to re-sign for two years offered some solace for disappointed fans. He was now destined to remain a one-club player.
"At this stage of my career if I can't win a premiership in Newcastle, I don't want to win one," he declared.
Most importantly, Andrew Johns had regained his desire and focus - after a confrontation with coach Reilly that reduced the world's best player to tears, followed by a re-energising surfing trip to the Philippines.
But not even Joey could have imagined the rewards his redemption would deliver.
Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Available to purchase from theherald.mybigcommerce.com/books/ $19.95
