WHEN the rumour first surfaced, as the city of Newcastle was still contentedly nursing a post-grand final hangover, it was indignantly rejected.
In November 1997, with the Knights preparing to kick off pre-season training, Newcastle-based Daily Telegraph journalist Barry Toohey revealed there was mounting speculation that several of their players had tested positive to performance-enhancing drugs during the recent semi-final series. Knights CEO Ian Bonnette reacted angrily, labelling the rumours "baseless and false" and an attempt to "smear" the club's finest hour.
Unfortunately for Bonnette and the Knights, within six months they would be revisiting the same subject, and this time the denials would not be so vehement, nor so widely accepted.
In the meantime, the Knights continued preparing for a title defence - and a united competition. After a compromise between the Australian Rugby League and News Limited, a new 20-team premiership was formed, to be re-badged as the National Rugby League.
Fans of Newcastle and Brisbane - champions of their respective competitions in 1997 - were eagerly anticipating the round-eight showdown between the two clubs, which was touted as rugby league's unofficial "Super Bowl". The game certainly lived up to its billing.
By the time round eight rolled around, Brisbane were first on the ladder. The Knights were second, on points difference. Each team had six wins to their name.
Newcastle's early-season form was rewarded in April when three players, Andrew Johns, Paul Harragon and Robbie O'Davis, were selected in a full-strength Australian team, who were upstaged 22-16 by New Zealand in Auckland. O'Davis, at the peak of his powers, suffered an early knee injury against the Kiwis and was replaced by Lockyer, who proceeded to have a nightmare in slippery conditions.
There were no such nerves from Lockyer on "Super Bowl" day, when a parochial Novocastrian crowd of 27,119 was silenced by a 26-6 loss to the Broncos, for whom the dynamic No.1 scored two tries. Newcastle hit back with a 50-16 humiliation of Manly at Brookvale, and then wins against Norths, Souths, the Roosters, Cronulla and Canterbury lifted the Knights to the top rung on the ladder.
But just when excitement should have been reaching fever pitch, the Knights were blindsided by what would become the greatest crisis the club had encountered.
On June 12, veteran Sydney Morning Herald journalist Roy Masters reported that O'Davis had recorded a positive test for "elevated levels" of a naturally occurring hormone that can also be associated with steroid use. O'Davis, who had just been named in the Queensland team for the Origin series decider, reacted furiously when contacted by the SMH: "You're kidding, aren't you? I don't know where you got the story from and please don't bother me at home again."
If the Knights relished the attention they received eight months earlier, suddenly they were dealing with a scandal. And it soon got worse.
Two days after Masters' scoop, O'Davis helped the Knights beat Canterbury 12-4, but the game was upstaged by revelations that another of Newcastle's grand final winners, back-rower Wayne Richards, had also tested positive to steroids. Within days, veteran forward Steve Crowe had stepped forward to reveal that he, too, had taken medically prescribed steroids two years previously, but the ARL drugs tribunal had accepted doctor's evidence that he was being treated for a chronic groin injury.
While Crowe dodged a bullet, there was no such luck for O'Davis and Richards. O'Davis was at least able to help the Maroons win Origin III 19-4, against a NSW team featuring 32-year-old debutant Butterfield (a replacement for the injured Harragon) and stopgap hooker Matthew Johns.
For O'Davis, it would be the last game he would play for almost a year. Initially he appeared to have escaped suspension through a legal loophole, after his lawyers successfully argued that the registration form he signed to play in the newly formed NRL was invalid, and hence the code's drugs tribunal had no jurisdiction authority. The NRL promptly moved to re-register all players in the competition, and O'Davis was re-summoned to the tribunal and hit with a 22-game ban.
His excuse, that the dietary supplement he was taking, Andtrib-400, was added to the banned-products list two months after he started using it, was not enough to persuade tribunal chairman Sir Laurence Street. Sir Laurence ruled that O'Davis had committed a "gravely serious" offence, in that he knew the product was performance-enhancing but did not check with the club doctor or Australian Sports Drug Agency hotline whether it was permissible.
O'Davis insisted his only mistake was that "I did not check the product as well as I should have - for that I am paying the penalty". Yet Dr Brian Corrigan, the inaugural chairman of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, told Roy Masters that O'Davis' testosterone/epitestosterone ratio of 14.8:1 was the second-highest he had ever encountered. The normal ratio is 1:1.
As well as losing almost a year of his career, the man fans once hailed as "Robbie O'Save-Us" was hit with a $90,000 fine by Knights officials. He continued to maintain his innocence. "I've never cheated at anything in my life and this whole thing has been very upsetting for me," he said.
At least he was not sacked, like Richards was. The 26-year-old Country Origin representative admitted self-administering Stanozolol - the same drug that Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson made infamous - to overcome a torn hamstring. He also received a 22-game ban and Newcastle management tore up his contract.
If Knights fans thought things could get no worse, they were soon pondering the adage that bad news comes in threes.
Twelve months earlier, Adam MacDougall was virtually unknown. But on the strength of 25 first-grade games spread over three seasons, he was picked in the NSW team for Origin I and held his spot for the whole series. After scoring a try in a 26-10 win against the Maroons in game two, he backed up 24 hours later to help Newcastle win 18-16 at Cronulla.
After that game - six days before Masters delivered the O'Davis bombshell - MacDougall tested positive to banned substances. The news did not break for almost a month so, just as the Knights were trying to put the O'Davis-Richards drama behind them, they were king-hit by another furore.
You're kidding, aren't you? I don't know where you got the story from.
ROBBIE O'DAVIS
MacDougall was soon reported to have tested positive to a "cocktail" of drugs, namely ephedrine, which was contained in a brand of "energy bar" he ate before the game, and amfepramone, which was in an appetite-suppressant tablet he took. In addition, he recorded a testosterone/epitestosterone ratio greater than the allowed limit of 6:1.
The tribunal handed down a warning for the ephedrine and an 11-game ban for the amfepramone. Five months later, in the middle of the off-season, he received a further 11 games for the T:E breach.
The NRL, however, allowed him to continue taking the banned product Sustanon 250 under strict supervision. MacDougall claimed he had a medical condition and, like O'Davis, maintained he had been harshly treated by the authorities.
By this stage, the media and rival clubs were looking at Newcastle's 1997 fairytale in a whole new light. As the Newcastle Herald's senior sports writer Stewart Roach declared in a brutally honest column, the whole sordid affair left "a stench over the club".
The innuendo and accusations created a siege mentality, even a persecution complex, highlighted by Harragon's warning that Newcastle's players would take legal action against anyone who dared suggest their grand final win was drug-assisted. A Newcastle Herald front-page editorial exemplified the staunch support for the Knights in their home town: "We can't defend the indefensible, but ... we are proud of our football team."
Sydney's Daily Telegraph, however, labelled Newcastle "a city with a chip on its shoulder."
Coach Reilly told the Sun-Herald he was "secure in my own mind that the success we achieved in 1997 ... is not tarnished in any way. The Knights are not a team of drug takers or cheats."
Knights chairman Michael Hill, speaking on ABC radio, insisted his players had been clean during their triumphant 1997 campaign: "Our players were randomly tested and none of them was found to be positive. As far as we're concerned, it doesn't taint the 1997 grand final win, but beauty's in the eye of the beholder."
But another Sydney Morning Herald story by Masters, again quoting former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chairman Dr Corrigan, left Hill's conviction open to question. Dr Corrigan said O'Davis had produced a "very, very strange" T:E swab of 2.5:1 on September 20, 1997, eight days before his man-of-the-match performance in the grand final. "In my opinion, if he was not taking androstenedione around grand final time last year, he was taking something else,'' Dr Corrigan told Masters.
In response, Hill asked Masters why Dr Corrigan was querying a ratio that was "well below" the International Olympic Committee threshold of 6:1. Hill added: "I have to say that the constant sniping at one of the great moments in Australian sporting history is depressing and disappointing."
Depressing and disappointing it may have been, but it was also inevitable.
Despite the off-field distractions, Newcastle finished runners-up to Brisbane in the minor premiership with 18 wins - the most they had ever registered in a season.
But the absence of three senior players, plus the loss of Darren Albert to injury for all but one game, was always likely to test their depth. The 10-team finals series would prove a step up in class and intensity.
In their first play-off assignment, Newcastle blew a 15-0 half-time lead to lose 26-15 to the Roosters and leave a 26,482-strong home crowd stunned. Next week there was a sense of deja vu as the injury-riddled Knights raced to a 16-0 lead, only for Canterbury to equalise and force extra time. In the additional five minutes each way, the Dogs scored two converted tries to prevail 28-16.
Newcastle's most tumultuous season was over, and so was the Reilly era. After four years and 98 games in charge, for 62 wins, 33 losses and three draws, he was returning to England.
Reilly presented a steely face at his last press conference as Newcastle's coach. "It's a bit of an anti-climax," he told the media. "There's not much you can say is there? No profound words." In the dressing room, however, he choked back tears, telling players and support staff his stint with the Knights had been "the best four years of my life".
The hard man from Yorkshire, who will always be welcome in Newcastle, was to be replaced by veteran Warren Ryan.
The season finished on the highest of notes for Andrew Johns, who became the first Knight to win the coveted Dally M gold medal. He also collected the Provan Summons Medal: chosen by fans, and Rugby League Week's player-of-the-year award, then appeared in two Tests against New Zealand. Joey was now unrivalled as rugby league's No.1 player.
Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Available to purchase from theherald.mybigcommerce.com/books/ $19.95
