The families of Newcastle's three debutants - Tex Hoy, Chris Randall and Brodie Jones - had the best seats in the house on Sunday at Campbelltown Stadium after getting a special dispensation to attend the milestone game.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
And they had the generosity of the Penrith club to thank for it. As the home team, the Panthers were given permission by the State government and NRL to have 10 people attend the clash with the Knights.
But following a request from Knights director of football Danny Buderus, the Panthers agreed to give up the seats so that the club's debutants' families could witness their sons' debuts first hand.
"We asked during the week about the possibility of getting the families of our first-gamers into the ground for the boys' debuts but it didn't look like it was going to be possible," Buderus told the Newcastle Herald.
Toohey's News: Listen to Barry Toohey's new podcast in your Podcast app
"But being the designated home team, Penrith were allowed to bring 10 extras in for the game and when we asked, they were good enough to give up their allocation for us which was fantastic of them."
It's understood Hoy's mother Leanne and his brother and sister and grandmother made the trip to Campbelltown.
Randall's mum Margaret and grandparents were there to support the Knights' back-up hooker while Jones' mother Natalie and his sister and girlfriend attended after the young backrower's late call-up.
"We didn't think anyone was going to be allowed to go so having them there was special,"Randall said.
