Raiders and Knights fans at McDonald’s Park, Wagga Wagga, in May 2021. From left: Trent Morrison,(Knights supporter); Steven Peake; Rocky Burnell; my Dad, Wayne Winchester; my little brother, Kenrick Winchester; and Rick Cadwallader.
I know, Canberra. It still hurts.
Another NRL season has come and gone, and there’ll be no lime green sausages or fairytale ending for Big Papa. But before you head to the coast for the long weekend and turn off the TV, I have some good news.
We have a team.
The Newcastle Knights are heading to their first grand final in 25 years and, if you’re from Canberra and you’re not going for Newy on Sunday, frankly, give yourself an uppercut.
I’ll admit my interest in Newcastle has come on rather suddenly (about 5:57 pm last Sunday, to be precise).
For most of my life, I’d mainly thought of it as the place Silverchair came from. Sure, people have been calling Newcastle “Queanbeyan with a beach” for years, but I’ve never given the comparison much thought.
Until now.
Because when it comes to rugby league, I’m beginning to think Canberra may have found its twin flame.
Still not convinced? Here are seven reasons to go for the Knights this weekend.
1. Because Canberra has a long memory
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: 2019.
Canberra has a long memory. And if there’s one thing Raiders supporters know how to do, it’s hold a grudge.
The Raiders hadn’t made a grand final in 25 years when they finally got there in 2019, only to lose 14–8 to the Roosters in a game that can still make an otherwise rational Canberran start yelling “SIX AGAIN!” seven years later.
There was the ball-hitting Roosters trainer. There was referee Ben Cummins signalling six again before reversing the call. Canberra handed over possession, and the Roosters scored the match-winning try on the next set.
The NRL later maintained the eventual last-tackle decision was correct while acknowledging the original signal created confusion.
Fine.
I’m sure that’s very comforting. To no one.
So yes, this is mostly a story about civic similarities, shared rugby league DNA and supporting our slightly more coastal cousins.
But let’s not pretend there isn’t also a little voice inside every Raiders supporter whispering: “Newcastle, we have some unfinished business we’d be delighted for you to take care of.”
2. They know what it’s like when the footy team belongs to the town
Henny Penny Georgetown: If you squint, that could be a Kingsley. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Long before GIO Stadium, corporate boxes and Viking Claps, there was Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan, the Raiders’ spiritual home, where going to the footy felt less like attending a professional sporting event and more like a school reunion.
The Raiders weren’t just Canberra’s football team; they became part of the culture. They were Big Mal and Laurie Daley, Video Ezy across the jersey and kids spending Sunday afternoons on front lawns pretending to be Ricky Stuart.
Newcastle gets it.
Their version was Marathon Stadium, red and blue everywhere, and Henny Penny across the front of the original Knights jersey. And if, like me, you’re from Canberra and wondering what the hell Henny Penny is, it’s essentially Newcastle’s answer to Kingsley’s Chicken, and suddenly this whole relationship makes even more sense.
They had Henny Penny, we had Kingsley’s. They had Marathon Stadium, we had Seiffert Oval. They had the Johns brothers, we had the McFaddens. They had the Chief; we had Queanbeyan’s own Brick with Eyes, Glenn Lazarus. They had Joey; we had Laurie.
They painted their town red and blue. We had dyed green sausages.
Honestly, Newcastle, where have you been all our lives?
And appropriately, our relationship goes right back to the beginning. The first time Newcastle played Canberra was at Seiffert Oval in 1988.
Canberra won 30–12. But we’re trying to make friends this week, so let’s move on.
3. Their fans are our kind of crazy
Raiders supporters understand loving a football team that occasionally appears determined to ruin your weekend.
Following Canberra, and Newcastle too, is an emotional pendulum. One week you’re quietly calculating your path to the grand final; the next you’re threatening never to watch rugby league again, all while enduring a constant barrage of WhatsApp messages from the tipping chat for being the most loyal (or daft) fan ever.
We wear Viking helmets. We dress head-to-toe in a shade of green rarely seen outside a packet of highlighters. Thousands of otherwise sensible adults stand up and perform the Viking Clap without a hint of embarrassment.
Newcastle has the same slightly unhinged relationship with the Knights. When Newcastle won its first premiership in 1997, Darren Albert’s last-gasp try against Manly sent the city into a 72-hour celebration.
And maybe that’s another reason Canberra gets it. Newcastle has 1997. We have 1989. The premierships that didn’t just win a football game, but became part of the folklore of the cities that celebrated them.
4. We both live outside the Sydney rugby league universe
Seiffert Oval, the Raiders’ spiritual home. Photo: Holly Winchester.
Canberra entered the competition in 1982. Newcastle followed in 1988.
And both have spent the decades since proving that rugby league does, in fact, continue to exist once you leave Sydney.
Sydney rugby league has its own geography: Brookvale, Belmore, Leichhardt (aka, the Eighth Wonder of the World). Places spoken about with the reverence usually reserved for religious sites.
Meanwhile, Canberra and Newcastle are close enough to reach by team bus and far enough away that Sydney fans scoff at the idea of attending an away game.
We’re cities with our own supporters, our own history and a longstanding suspicion that perhaps the rest of the rugby league world forgets we’re here until we start winning things.
Basically, we get rugby league.
5. At this point, we’re practically related
If shared emotional dysfunction isn’t enough, take a look at the family tree.
A surprising number of the current Green Machine have Newcastle fingerprints all over them. Hudson Young played SG Ball for the Knights. Tom Starling came through Newcastle’s junior ranks and was once named the club’s best junior. Simi Sasagi moved from New Zealand as a teenager to join the Knights’ SG Ball program before eventually making his NRL debut for Newcastle.
Then there’s Joe Tapine, recruited to Newcastle as a teenager and making his NRL debut in red and blue, and Jayden Brailey, who arrived in Canberra directly from the Knights this season.
In fact, when Canberra played Newcastle earlier this year, five of the Raiders’ 17 had significant Knights or Newcastle connections.
And the revolving door spins both ways.
Former Raiders Pasami Saulo and Trey Mooney both found their way to Newcastle, although Mooney’s season was cruelly cut short by a fractured shoulder blade in Round 26.
Then there’s former Canberra forward Brett White sitting in the Knights coaches’ box. White later coached under Ricky Stuart and was part of the Raiders’ 2019 grand-final run before joining Newcastle’s coaching staff.
Basically, shake the Newcastle rugby league family tree hard enough and a Raider falls out.
At this point we’re not rivals; we’re cousins who keep swapping clothes.
6. Because we all have that one mate
You know him.
Slightly unhinged. Has supported Newcastle through years when doing so could medically be classified as insanity. He owns a Knights jersey and, more importantly, sees absolutely no reason there should be an occasion when it isn’t appropriate to wear it.
Raiders game when Newcastle isn’t even playing? Jersey. Mate’s barbecue? Jersey. Nan’s birthday? You guessed it. Jersey.
His Tinder bio reads “heavy mind traffic” and ticks the box for recreational plants.
You bully him because you love him.
And while watching Newcastle lose has provided you with an unreasonable amount of joy over the years, you know exactly what will happen if they win this thing.
It will make his year.
Actually, scratch that.
It will make his life.
He’ll talk about it until at least 2047. You’ll regret supporting Newcastle by approximately 10:13 pm on Sunday night. There will be messages. There will be Facebook posts. There may be tears.
Heavy mind traffic may become completely gridlocked.
But beneath decades of lovingly taking the piss out of him, you know you want to see your mate ridiculously, deliriously happy.
And before the blokes claim ownership of this particular form of emotional instability, plenty of women have also spent decades allowing 17 men in short shorts to determine the entire mood of their weekend.
Every Canberra friendship group has one.
This Sunday, do it for them.
7. Because everyone loves a fairytale, especially when it gives us hope for 2027
Raiders fans know better than most how quickly rugby league can turn. Photo: Jaye Grieshaber.
Newcastle finished dead last in 2025.
Wooden spoon. Seventeenth. Thanks for coming. See you next year.
Twelve months later, they’re playing in their first grand final in 25 years.
If that doesn’t give every rugby league supporter whose team has ever finished a season somewhere in the vicinity of “well, that was bloody embarrassing” a tiny bit of hope, I don’t know what will.
Raiders fans know better than most how quickly rugby league can turn.
So yes, part of me wants Newcastle to win because they’re our slightly more coastal cousins. Part of me wants it for their wonderfully unhinged supporters. Part of me wants it for my wonderfully unhinged mate.
And part of me wants it for purely selfish reasons.
Because if the team that collected the wooden spoon in 2025 can lift the trophy in 2026, then Canberra, start planning the Northbourne Avenue parade for 2027.
