Is This Good Enough?
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday February 18, 1998
ONLY the flashy blue and red training gear gives them away.
But at first glance the 40 footballers slogging it out around Smith Park near the Goninan plant at Hamilton North could be any old team of scrubbers.
The spartan surroundings would suggest that but this is, in fact, the Newcastle Knights, the reigning Australian Rugby League champions and our town's premier sporting team.
Harragon, the Johns brothers, O'Davis ? some of the highest-profile and highest-paid footballers in the world ? have to train on a sprawling series of fields which flood in a decent shower of rain.
On the edge of the fields is a ramshackle brick shed which the Knights use as a makeshift gym and store for their training equipment and strappers' supplies.
Their co-tenants are a motley crew of rats, cockroaches and spiders and nearby is a rundown toilet block which serves as a canvas for budding graffiti artists.
The floodlights would struggle to illuminate the average backyard, meaning the fast-approaching end to daylight saving will force the Knights to train elsewhere.
Probably just as well, considering the nearby residents don't even want them there.
Seems the Knights aren't welcome at Adamstown Oval either.
The Newcastle City Council oval board governing that ground has declined a request from the Knights to train there but the club remains hopeful of having that decision overturned.
A $300,000 proposal for an elite training facility at District Park is before the NSW Government's Department of Sport and Recreation, but even if that was approved today, it would not be ready until the end of the season at the earliest.
What's wrong with training at Marathon Stadium?
Nothing, if coach Malcolm Reilly had his way, but the Wildfires rugby union team will also use the ground this season and Knights chief executive Ian Bonnette wants to share the wear and tear.
Bonnette said various football codes co-existed at other grounds such as the Sydney Football Stadium, Parramatta Stadium and North Sydney Oval without a problem and it was a matter of finding the right balance.
The Knights will use Marathon for late-week training once the season kicks off but that still leaves them without a decent back-up ground.
The council acknowledges the need to help the Knights and insists it is doing everything it can.
Bonnette backed up that sentiment yesterday, saying he had held further discussions with Lord Mayor Greg Heys and general manager Robert Gibbons and expected a resolution within a fortnight.
That would be a pleasant surprise given the council's track record for dealing with problems in the sporting arena, but here's hoping.
The same council was happy enough to jump on the bandwagon four months ago when the Knights' grand final win over Manly sparked unprecedented scenes of celebration throughout the city.
Cr Heys told a civic reception how taken he was by the Knights' enthusiasm and how they shook up the city's optimism and pride.
If he was genuine, he should be making like `Chief' Harragon and running full-bore into the face of any opponent standing in the Knights' way.
The players are not prima donnas and neither demand nor expect luxury, just the basic requirements for a world-class football team defending their title in the toughest rugby league competition on the planet.
The current state of play is simply not good enough.
AAP reports: The National Rugby League's 20 clubs would have to wait longer than expected for the criteria needed to survive in next year's 16-team competition, chief executive Neil Whittaker said yesterday.
Whittaker said he had expected the criteria to be finalised by the end of the month.
But organising the unified 20-team competition after three years of war and forming the NRL company had proved more time-consuming and complex than expected.
© 1998 Newcastle Herald