IN normal circumstances, 2010 should have been the best year of Chris Houston's rugby league career.
Toohey's News: Listen to Barry Toohey's new podcast in your Podcast app
In his two seasons since joining the Knights from St George Illawarra, Houston had featured in 47 out of a possible 49 games and established himself as one of the most promising young forwards in the game. Tall and athletic, his workhorse efforts had attracted the attention of representative selectors, who named him as a standby player for NSW Origin in 2009, and as a member of the Kangaroo train-on squad for the Four Nations.
When he re-signed a two-year extension, tying him to Newcastle until at least the end of 2012, he revealed two burning ambitions: "I believe we can win a premiership. On a personal level, I'd like to make those rep sides." Houston was not to know that, at the time, he and his former flatmate Danny Wicks were at the centre of a police surveillance operation, and their phones had been tapped.
Within days of Wicks' arrest for drugs supply, the Sun-Herald reported that other Knights players were under investigation. Houston was named as "a potential witness" but was "not suspected of any wrongdoing". For the next few months, as the Knights continued with pre-season training, there was speculation that he was regularly attending Newcastle police station to help with their inquiries.
Matters came to a head in March, 11 days before the season kicked off, when the 25-year-old was charged with supplying ecstasy and cocaine. He was immediately stood down by the Knights and, like Wicks, soon tendered his resignation.
"I feel obligated to disassociate myself from the club until my matter is resolved,'' Houston said in a statement. "I hope by resigning ... that my teammates will now be able to focus completely on the 2010 season without distraction, and that the club will remain strong and united."
It was a devastating blow for the Knights on two fronts.
Houston was, statistically at least, Newcastle's best all-round forward, and at such a late point in proceedings they had no chance of replacing him. Moreover, the club's reputation had again been dragged through the mud. The theory that Wicks was a lone rogue was now at best questionable, especially when transcripts emerged in court hearings that suggested other players may have been involved.
With this as a backdrop, Newcastle had to focus on a daunting first-round assignment. They were drawn to face Canterbury, the team who eliminated them from the 2009 finals, at the same venue, ANZ Stadium.
Adding to the challenge, skipper Kurt Gidley was unavailable after tearing his hamstring in the inaugural All Stars pre-season game, in a tackle by Knights teammate Cory Paterson. Coach Rick Stone appealed to his players to show "some unity and resolve" in the lead-up to the season-opener. "We want to show everyone out there that the Knights aren't a basket case,'' Stone said.
A 20-16 boilover was a courageous start, under the circumstances, but with Gidley sidelined, Newcastle lost their next four games and slipped to 14th on the ladder. The captain played his first game in round six, a 36-18 win at home to North Queensland, but for the rest of the season, Newcastle climbed no higher than 11th, which is where they finished, four points adrift of the top eight.
Of their 10 wins, one highlight was beating the Roosters 34-18 at Gosford, the first time that Brian Smith had coached against Newcastle since his departure. Smith, however, proceeded to steer the Roosters from the 2009 wooden spoon to a grand final loss to the Dragons, one of the most remarkable coaching feats of the modern era.
Undoubtedly the saddest news of the season was the retirement in August of former NSW and Test forward Steve Simpson, at just 29. Simpson had battled a chronic knee injury for years and, after arthroscopic surgery in May, reached the conclusion that his playing days were over.
"I don't think I could come back and play the footy I wanted to play," Simpson said. "That was a big thing in my mind. I didn't want to come back and be a passenger ... it comes to the stage where you're going backwards a little bit."
His retirement was surely a relief for opponents. During his 12 seasons and 216 games for Newcastle, seven Tests and 13 Origins, the man they called "Big Horse" dominated rivals with ruthless efficiency.
As former Knights coach Brian Smith observed in 2007: "Simmo's the modern-day enforcer ... the bloke who can intimidate anyone in the opposition either with the ball or in defence."
As well as his grand final heroics, Origins and Test matches, an abiding memory of Simpson was the 40-8 loss at Parramatta in 2009, which proved to be Smith's last game before he was sacked. Simpson suffered a badly smashed nose and, while receiving treatment in the dressing room, vomited blood. Even though the Knights were getting thrashed and the result was beyond question, he insisted on rejoining the game.
"Unless he's got a broken leg or a knee injury, he stays on the field until he physically can't,"Knights skipper Kurt Gidley said. "I've seen him battered plenty of times." Gidley noted that he had seen "numerous" opposition players knocked unconscious after unsuccessfully trying to tackle Simpson.
Another long-time teammate, Danny Buderus, said he was relieved he never had to play against Simpson. "I just know when you try to tackle Simmo at training, it's awful ... he's all bones," Buderus said. Knights five-eighth Jarrod Mullen had a theory that Simpson's bones "are made of titanium".
Announcing his retirement, the former diesel mechanic from Broke in the Hunter Valley, who joined the Knights as a skinny teenager in 1997, said it came down to a simple decision: "I didn't want to let my teammates down." It's safe to say he never did.
While Newcastle were consigned to the status of also-rans from early in their 2010 campaign, there were some notable individual performances. Gidley received the Brad Fittler Medal as NSW's player of the Origin series - which Queensland won in a whitewash - and earned a unique place in history after captaining the Blues off the bench in game two. He also added four more green-and-gold jerseys to his collection during the year.
Fijian flyer Akuila Uate finished as the NRL's top try-scorer with 21 in 24 games, including three hat-tricks. On the other flank, Cooper Vuna crossed for 16 tries in 17 games, including four in a 44-18 rout of Brisbane, before signing with Super Rugby franchise Melbourne Rebels.
More importantly, in December, nine months after he was charged, Houston's stint in purgatory ended when magistrate Elaine Truscott ruled in Newcastle Local Court that his case should be dismissed through lack of evidence. Unlike Wicks, Houston was never caught with drugs in his possession. The entire police case hinged on recorded phone conversations and texts.
The Knights wasted no time in re-signing Houston - who spent his season out of the game working as a brickie's labourer - to a two-year contract with an option for a third season. It was a decision that was not universally applauded. A scathing column from Newcastle Herald sports editor Kevin Cranson attracted widespread support. Knights CEO Steve Burraston responded with an ABC radio interview in which he said it was "ludicrous" for the Herald to appoint itself "judge, jury and executioner".
"Most people know that Chris is a good footballer but also, most importantly, he's a good person ... we're very pleased to have him back," Burraston declared.
The Knights may have offered Houston a warm welcome, but there was no red carpet being rolled out for another high-profile figure attracting his share of headlines - Nathan Tinkler. The cashed-up tycoon agreed in September to buy Newcastle's ailing A-League franchise, the Jets, when former owner Con Constantine fell on hard times.
Within weeks, he tabled a $10 million bid to privatise the Knights, which was immediately rejected by chairman Rob Tew, who feared the offer did not guarantee to maintain the club's existing revenue streams. Whatever hopes Tew had that negotiations would be conducted confidentially disappeared when the Tinkler Group's executive chairman, Ken Edwards, contacted the Herald to leak the story.
Edwards said his multimillionaire employer was "frustrated" that the Knights had not been more receptive, adding: ''The reason we have gone public is really to make this a community issue and let the community have a say on what they think the right model is going forward."
We want to show everyone out there that the Knights aren't a basket case.
RICK STONE
State Minister for the Hunter Jodi McKay, already at loggerheads with Knights management over a stadium-hiring dispute, then ill-advisedly entered the debate by declaring she was "very supportive" of the Tinkler group's bid, and had "grave concerns" about how much information Tew and Burraston had shared with their fellow board members. In years to come, she would have cause to reassess her outspoken position. If Tinkler,
Edwards and McKay thought they could use the media to put pressure on Tew and Burraston, they underestimated who they were dealing with. Tew responded by picking holes in the so-called "$10 million offer", in particular a vague clause that promised: "The Tinkler Group will ensure adequate working capital at all times."
"It's a matter of ensuring that any deal that we countenance to take to the members is a deal that places our club in a superior position than it currently is in," Tew told the Newcastle Herald. "To do that, you need to have a guarantee on particular revenue streams. Alternatively, you run the risk of recommending to your members that they expose themselves to a potential catastrophe. That's not something that I'm comfortable with. Nor would I recommend it."
In what would become a no-holds-barred stoush, the gloves were now officially off. Tinkler had drawn first blood with a king hit, but Tew was still standing and had replied with some clinical uppercuts. Nonetheless, in his rags-to-riches rise, Tinkler had famously shown a reluctance to take "no" for an answer. The suspicion was that Knights officials, whether they liked it or not, had not heard the last of him.
Hard Yards: The Story of the Newcastle Knights. Available to purchase from theherald.mybigcommerce.com/books/ $19.95
