If Newcastle were going to pull off a classic finals ambush on South Sydney they were going to need some new heroes to be born under the bright lights of the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Knights went into the game light up front, not in size, strength or willingness, but certainly in experience and definitely in recognition. After their 20-10 win over South Sydney, however, they will never have the luxury of being underestimated again.
Across 80 minutes of a classic blood-and-thunder final, fresh faces and young legs won the day as the star-studded Rabbitohs outfit fought on despite being busted until they were finally beaten.
Perhaps it could have all been different were it not for Cody Walker falling to a sniper’s shot early in the second half, suffering a calf injury that ended his night early.
The ageless Walker is what binds the Rabbitohs left edge together and takes it from a series of talented individuals to the closest thing rugby league has to a hammer of the gods.
But you’ll find little sympathy for an injury up Newcastle way. They were without Dylan Brown, Dylan Lucas, Trey Mooney and Jacob Saifiti heading into this and while plenty expected them to fight few expected them to win.
After their first finals win away from home in 13 years, expectations be damned. They defied them all over the park, perhaps no more than down their right, where backrower Jermaine McEwan had the game of his young life.
It was always going to be a big night for the 21-year old, one way or the other. It was he who would be tasked with setting up Newcastle’s defences against the Rabbitohs knockout left.
He did that with aplomb, even before Walker went down, from setting the tone with driving hits from the inside to holding his width and his nerve when Souths gave their chainsaw a rip.
Throw in two tries and it’s the last time McEwan will catch anybody by surprise.
Together that Knights edge put together some of the best defensive plays of the night, but it wasn’t the biggest — that honour must belong to McEwan’s backrow partner, Francis Manuleleua.
They call him “Big Frisco” and people were put in Alcatraz for the type of violence he dropped on Cameron Murray late in the first half as he raced out of the line to dish out one of the hits of the season.
Technically it was illegal — the shot was clean, but Manuleleua was half a metre offside. The red and blue hordes at the southern end of the ground didn’t seem to care, even though Souths scored off the field position, because sometimes it’s worth it.
Paying the blood price for a little bit of rough stuff is something Dane Gagai and Latrell Mitchell know well.
The two centres fought like demons after a scuffle midway through the first half and while both won their share of battles it was Gagai who won the war.
Gagai is one of the few older heads in this side — you can call him older but don’t call him old, whatever you do — and only a player as sure as himself as the 35-year old would risk poking a bear like Mitchell.
It’s something few have done while surviving to tell the tale but Gagai didn’t just weather the might and power, he fought like a far younger man, with nothing held back and no regard for his own safety.
His try in the 25th minute was a snapshot the endless love of competition that keeps him young even as the years keep passing and his roar of triumph after he was first to a Sandon Smith kick was among the first harbingers of what was unfolding.
There were other fine battles and contributors — Bradman Best and Jack Wighton, who was close to his side’s best, went hell for leather on the other side of the field to Gagai and Mitchell.
Tyson Frizell had a game up front that puts the war back into warhorse and Keaon Koloamatangi left everything out there in his final game as a Rabbitoh.
Kalyn Ponga, once the sun around which everything in Newcastle orbited, was prominent throughout but the class of Smith and Fletcher Sharpe meant the whole game was not on his shoulders and the Knights fullback thrived as a result.
It meant he was able to access the best parts of his game, something the Rabbitohs found difficult throughout even as a torrid defensive effort and several last gasp saves by Campbell Graham kept their heads above water.
They will be haunted by the hypothetical over the summer after their first trip to the finals in four years fell at the first hurdle.
Walker cut a forlorn figure on the South Sydney bench. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer )
If only Walker didn’t get injured, or at least had made it through more of the game.
If only Bud Sullivan’s circus act of a try wasn’t chalked off for a knock on from Alex Johnston that could have easily been called a strip, just as Dom Young’s try could have easily been rubbed off the board.
If only Brandon Smith’s last desperate effort with three minutes left — which would have forced a big finish at the very least — didn’t come up a blade of grass short.
If only, on a night where they played something resembling their top side for one of the first times all season, they were able to tap into the tried and true talent that lurks somewhere within and rises to the surface enough to tantalise and tease.
They are a team built for the present with stars who made their reputation on tearing down what came before them. That’s the law of the jungle and the nature of the game.
The Rabbitohs will fancy their chances of returning to the mix next year but this time around were served a reminder there comes a time when the young feed on the old.
This night was such a time and with nothing to lose and everything to prove, Newcastle was ravenous.
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