Why so silent, Knights? Newcastle Herald calls out 'bare-minimum' media access to NRL club and players

Way back in 1987, as the newly formed Newcastle Knights were preparing for their foundation season in the NSWRL premiership, they were facing a slight dilemma.

The vast majority of Novocastrians had no idea about the motley crew of players the club had assembled, given that there wasn't a single household name among them. This, of course, was the era before some jerk invented the internet, so you couldn't just Google up the new recruits to check out their career CVs online.

Occasionally the Knights would rate a mention in the Sydney papers or Rugby League Week magazine, but those publications also had 15 other clubs to cover, most of whom were decidedly more glamorous than a start-up franchise at a blue-collar regional outpost.

This is where the Newcastle Herald played a crucial role.

In the countdown to that inaugural crusade, sports editor Stewart Roach launched a feature series - "Meet the Knights" - which a very green cadet journalist not long out of high school was entrusted with writing, and which ran every day for a month in the lead-up to the season kick-off.

So by the time Sam Stewart and his teammates ran onto the International Sports Centre for the Herald Challenge Cup - a glorified trial match - against reigning premiers Manly, the 21,460 fans in attendance at least had some idea who they were cheering for.

I'm not saying this paper helped put bums on seats, but we did play our part in spreading the gospel.

The Herald - and other local media outlets - were the conduit between the team and the town. And that's the way it always should be.

I've found myself reflecting on those days quite often recently, in particular after the Knights postponed a proposed "whole squad" media opportunity this week, in a show of solidarity with their fellow NRL players, who are at loggerheads with the governing body over collective-bargaining negotiations.

That situation was a one-off and largely outside the control of Newcastle officials.

But the whole issue of media access to Knights players - or lack thereof - is not a new phenomenon. It's been snowballing exponentially for the past couple of years now, and this pre-season, in particular, I'd suggest it's verging on ludicrous.

If I had a dollar for every interview request the Herald has had rejected over the past few months, I'd be as rich as Nathan Tinkler allegedly once was.

It's as if the Knights have erected a barbed-wire, electrified fence around their players, to keep the fourth estate at a safe distance.

From what I understand, the powers-that-be have adopted a policy of providing "bare-minimum" opportunities for the media.

Which is kind of funny, given that last year they didn't even meet the bare-minimum requirements under NRL protocols. And trust me, I checked with the NRL what that entailed.

Believe it or not, we found it easier to interview players at rival clubs - in particular ex-Knights Josh King, Zac Hosking, Max King and Jacob Kiraz - than we did in our own backyard.

Now, given the CBA impasse, Knights officials seem to have reached the conclusion that the NRL can't impose any protocols on their players, and hence they'll run their show however they see fit.

Why the intransigence?

I'd suggest it is best encapsulated in a text I received from head coach Adam O'Brien before Christmas, when, in declining an interview request, he told me: "I talked enough last year."

I don't agree with that, but what I would say is that on the rare occasions O'Brien did face the media, some of the things he said left me shaking my head in disbelief.

O'Brien seems to be taking the approach that this year the Knights will - to borrow a line from Des Hasler - "fly under the radar" and do their talking on the field.

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There is perhaps some logic in that, although it's a bit like sticking your head up your backside and hoping the narrative surrounding the club after a disastrous 2022 will miraculously improve of its own accord.

Meanwhile, as they continue to dead-bat our requests, the Knights keep rolling out in-house interviews and photo galleries on their own website.

All of which can be dismissed, of course, as a whinge from a journalist with a vested interest. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the other media outlets around town - and there aren't that many - share similar sentiments.

Presumably the Knights are hoping that if they win enough games this year the fans will come flocking back and nobody will give the media a second thought.

If that's their mindset, I'd point to Newcastle's average crowd in 2013 (18,836), which was almost 10 per cent less than 2012 (20,919), despite improved results that culminated in a preliminary-final appearance.

By that stage of Tinkler's tumultuous tenure as owner, his clueless acolytes had effectively blackbanned the "local paper" (their terminology) and there was already a disconnect between the town and the team.

Tinkler's clowns are long gone, turfed out in disgrace, but we're still here, trying to provide news about the Knights on a daily basis for their thousands of long-suffering fans.

Just as we have been since 1987, in good times and bad.

It's a job that is much easier when all parties have some concept of how a symbiotic relationship is supposed to function.

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