AT LAST, REILLY CONFIRMED TO GUIDE KNIGHTS - 22 Aug 1994,  Sydney Morning Herald
Great Britain Test coach Mal Reilly, was last night appointed by Newcastle for the next two years, confirming David Waite as the season's third coaching casualty.  Waite, who took the Knights to their first finals series only two years ago, will end a seven-year association with the club after Friday night's game against Illawarra at Steelers Stadium. Waite last night declined to comment and said he would not do so "for several days". 
Reilly, meanwhile, faces an agonising wait as officials at Britain's Rugby Football League deliberate on whether to sack him from this year's Ashes series following his decision to walk out on the remaining year of his contract with the national team. "I don't think that will happen," the 46-year-old former Britain, Manly and Castleford back-rower said in a telephone hook-up at last night's media conference. "I have to wait until (RFL chief executive) Maurice Lindsay gets back from America this afternoon." 
Reilly said that if he was sacked, it would not discourage him from taking the Knights job, for which he has been negotiating for two weeks. Newcastle chief executive Brad Mellen refused to comment on whether the decision had been unanimous. Another of the contenders, current Knights reserve-grade coach Robert Finch, was named football manager. In early 1994 Reilly considered coaching in Australia,  feelers were put out by his mate Ken Arthurson. a couple of clubs were interested but Newcastle were prepared to meet Reilly almost straight away.  By June 1994 (england off season) the Newcastle interest was developing.  Reilly meet the chairman and general manager of the Knights in hong kong to discuss the possibilities.  Reilly still had his two year club committment and was the current great brittain coach,  in a season where the australian kangaroos were touring. Reilly's appointment represented a huge financial gamble by the Newcastle club which at that time did not have a major sponsor and started the season $2 milion in debt with accumulated losses of a further $1.5 million. "Malcolm Reilly once told me that Newcastle was the capital of the rugby league world. It is something the club and the players are proud to claim." 
 

"I came out here to coach guys like Paul Harragon, the Johns brothers, Jamie Ainscough and the rest." Player -  won challenge cup twice with castleford in 1969 and 1970 Player - won sydney premiership twice with manly in 1972 and 1972 Coach - won challenge cup with castleford in 1987 Coach - won sydney premiership with newcastle 1997

Seventh Crusade - 1995
The team Reilly was taking over had been fifth place only seven rounds out from the 1994 semi finals under David Waite,  only to lose their way badly and drop the last seven games.  The 1995 season brought Malcolm Reilly to Newcastle.  He was a feared man as a player and when he walked into the first training session with his trademark sunglasses (as worn by prison guards in Hollywood movies) he became a feared coach as well. Mal believed the team was quite tactically sound but saw a team of boys trying to compete in a man's game.  He proceeded to turn us into a team that came within a whisker of a grand final appearance that year. Mal has an amazing aura, one you could even sense when watching him on television.
When news broke in Newcastle that Great Brittan Test Coach Malcom Reilly was appointed coach of the Knights there was a negative vibe around newcastle.  A few questions were asked about the signing of an English coach, even of Mals credentials.  Mal as a player was aggressive and had a vast array of skills, he was going to bring professionalis to the team also.  Reilly had every little detail taken care of and the players were looked after.  Reilly would not let his players play a match if injured, at times the players would have to beg him to play.  One of the first pre season training exercises was a run around the Broadmedow race track on a hot sticky summers day,  running into a strong wind the players brought in some slow times.  Each player received a letter from Mal saying that the training was unacceptable and if it was to continue, they could pack their bags. Over a short period of time, the players accepted Mal and showed the respect he deserved.
Superleague war certainly played a part in the 1995 season,  confusing and angering the league population. Not a day went by without a mention of the ARL - super league split.  It was April 1st, 1995. The day that people knew of "super league". The day the most controversial story in rugby league history broke. Super League had planned to start in 1996 but legal action prevented it. A 220-page court decision went in favour of the ARL - A decision that was dramatically over-turned in an appeal almost one year later. Then it happened - Super League was here.  1997 was the year that we had 2 competitions. Most people were not interested in what was going on in the matches, they were more interested in when the game would once again become together.
Newcastle came within one game of making the grand final in 1995 and with the ARL-SL split, many Newcastle players cashed in on Test jumpers, Harragon, both Johns brothers, Jamie Ainscough, Adam Muir and Robbie O'Davis all winning World Cup berths in 1995.  It was April 1st, 1995. The day that people knew of "super league". The day the most controversial story in rugby league history broke. Super League had planned to start in 1996 but legal action prevented it.   A 220-page court decision went in favour of the ARL - A decision that was dramatically over-turned in an appeal almost one year later.
The start of the season was a dream of Reilly,  Newcastle winning the first nine games straight, a club record.  The first game against Cronulla was a hard and fast game, the Knights winning 6 - 4 away from home.  There were some big wins,  54 against the Western Reds,  48 against Auckland, and a strong win against St George after Ainscough was sent off. Newcastle were playing with a different style,  a more open game.  Newcastle played with a format, and when the fundamentals were right, the team played football openly and aggressively.  In round 6 against Western suburbs, the Knights won in the last minute with a Ainscough field goal,  32 - 22 away.  The Newcastle players responded to Reillys coaching and were a premiership contender. Then Newcastle got a little confident and lost one they shouldn't have,  against South Queensland Crushers.  after 13 rounds,  Newcastle had 12 wins.  Newcastle experience a late seasons slump, then won against Norths 20 -10 and a struggling win against Cronulla 19 - 18, with a Mathew Johns field goal.  The following win Newcastle lost to Manly in a crunch game, 12 -4.  Newcastles season was over for 1995.
Manly knocked the Knights out a game away from the 1995 grand final. Looking back that young Newcastle side was still learning and maturing. There was some satisfaction in making it that far, and defeat was much easier to accept that the 2000 seasons final loss against Easter Suburbs. Reilly states that the team was below strength levels of clubs like Canberra and Brisbane.  boiling down to the fact that the players hadn't been doing specific training. The knights were a few seasons behind some of the clubs in physical preparation.  Over the next three years it was reillys aim to peg back this difference.  leg strenght and explosive training was used, and the players dropped body fat and were more effective as a result.

Season 1996
The following year, 1996, Reilly was in charge of the Knights - and not just in coaching terms, as officials and administrative staff bailed out en masse to join Super League's rival Hunter Mariners outfit. Superleague broke rugby league in two, with the people in the Newcastle area having to pick between two home teams and competitions. The Newcastle Knights or the Hunter Mariners. Mal brought a professional attitude to the club, every minor detail was taken care of and the players were allowed to concentrate on their football.  Even though 1996 was a bad year for the knights,  they played well below their best, and there was alot of room for improvement.  During the mentioned losing streak, Jamie Ainscough and Darren Tracey learnt through a newpaper rather than from the club, that they were no longer wanted at the knights and would be released at the end of the season. Andrew Johns spent a few weeks of the off season on a surfing sabbatical on a remote island in the phillippines.  Making the most of the surf, sun and solitude, he came back to the knights with the right attitude. It was unknown to Reilly how much hidden anger Mark Sargeant had for him. In 1995 Sarge was the Newcastle Captain, a foundation player at the club, immensely popular and well respected.  He was moving into the latter stages of his career as a front rower.  Sarge was used as an impact player, with the 10 meter rule is was difficult playing Chief and Sarge together as their defence was limited.  Playing the captain, Sarge off the bench offended him.  This did not surface until Sarge moved to superleague,  getting off the bus at Swansea instead of travelling down to Sydney to sign with the rest of the team. 
Newcastle finished the 1996 season on ninth, with a record of 10 - 10,  collapsing in round 2 like a pack of cards,  losing seven of eight matches in succession.  Players who had tasted success in 1995 were struggling to handle the success.  The day Balmain beat Newcastle in April at Marathon, where the players were jeered off their home turf. The papers said,  "The supporters booed, the coach was appalled and the players seemed lost."  Their was a chance to make the semi finals in round 19, a match against Parramatta where they lost 18 -16 in a Monday night game.  The last round newcastle were thrashed 22 - nil against Cronulla.

Why the Knights went downhill  1996 13 Aug 1996 Sydney Morning Herald 
What caused Newcastle's spectacular crash? According to several senior Knights players, one key to the downfall was the decision to release centre Jamie Ainscough and lock Darren Treacy at the end of this season. Monday night's 18-16 loss to Parramatta left the Knights without a win in eight weeks, and even three wins in their remaining games will not guarantee them a finals spot. Mid-season, they were tipped to make the top four. Knights captain Paul Harragon yesterday re-signed for three years, but fullback Robbie O'Davis, who was expected to commit himself to the club yesterday, did not do so. O'Davis was one of several players who yesterday claimed the July 21 announcement that Ainscough and Treacy would be cut so other players could be retainted had been disruptive. "Learning that a couple of players were going to be sacked certainly didn't help," O'Davis said last night. "At the time we had one win from our previous six games and it was added pressure we didn't need. "I think they should have tied up 'Chief' (Harragon) and I more than a year ago, and should be concentrating on the Johns boys and Adam Muir now. "Instead, they're still trying to tie up blokes who are off contract at the end of this year and seem to be throwing around money they don't have." 
Lock Marc Glanville agreed: "When the club announced they were going to brush Jamie despite his three-year contract, it had to have some effect. "A lot of us are on long-term contracts. What does that say for us? It doesn't make you feel very secure. But I don't think we can blame management for what has happened. We are the ones out on the field and most of the blame must rest squarely on our shoulders." Knights football manager Dave Morley, who broke the news to Ainscough and Treacy, admitted Ainscough's relationship with management had soured. "There is no problem between the players and Malcolm (Reilly, coach), but I don't thing Jamie is too happy with management," Morley said. "I'm comfortable with my role, I was the bearer of bad news, and I've got to accept that. 
Other reasons for the Knights' poor results late in the season include: * The toll of the representative season on several players, most notably halfback Andrew Johns; * An angry response to the results from a small band of militant supporters who made it clear they resented the sums players were being paid; * An expectation on the part of the players that their 1995 form would naturally continue, without the required effort; * A sizeble blow to players' confidence after they played well enough to beat Brisbane and Canberra in rounds 14 and 15 - but lost; * Increased awareness of the Knights strengths and weaknesses by opposition players and coaches; * A tendency to "peak too early" in the season. In announcing his decision to stay with the Knights for the rest of his career, 27-year-old Harragon said yesterday: "At this stage of my career if I can't win a premiership in Newcastle, I don't want to win one." Reilly last night again declined to make any changes to his side for the game against the Roosters this weekend, although centre Brad Godden is in doubt with a shoulder injury. Prop Glenn Grief (foot) is expected to miss the rest of the season.

"The approach today is scientific and specific."

Season 1997 - Premiers
1997 saw Super League and the ARL go head to head in Australia for the first time. The ARL won the war due mainly to the stronger club football scene which had been built up over decades of tradition. ARL games were generally closer, more exciting and more interesting.  The Super league club football was always going to be a problem since it had to introduce two new teams just to make the competition table of ten teams. Newcastle started the season with three new buys,  Wayne Richards,  Adam Mac Dougall and Leo Dynevor, all were to play key roles in the up coming season. The club's junior development program has always been a nursery for players. Eleven of the players from the 1997 grand final team came through that system. 
For the Knights, the season 1997 started with pre season in Coffs Harbour.  There were certain expectations of the Knights with the competition being reduced and a top 7 play off format. A combination of injuries to Andrew Johns and Paul Harragon threw the gauntlet down to the other players. Andrew Johns missed alot of football through 1997 with a badly injured ankle in an early season trail against Manly in Coffs Harbour.  Johns had only played 40 minutes of football by round 14,  but was selected in the NSW state of origin side and was still carrying an injury as well.   Johns got through the game and started his come back with the Knights. Andrew Johns played only 11 games during the year,  but contributed to the Knights cause immensely.  The chief was struck down by severe migraines which caused him to miss 6 games.Leo Dynevor also played half back during the 1997 playoffs and the majority of the premiership matches as Andrew Johns was injured.  Dynevors efforts were and are forgotten with the grand final celebrations, and the fact that Joey sent Darren Albert in for the winning try.
Brett Grogan, who thought he would never play again, hopes to return to rugby league within two months. Grogan was struck down by bacterial meningitis and has lost 14kg in two weeks. He was thought to be under consideration for Queensland Origin selection. Very early on a racial oath was directed at Owen Craigie by North Sydney's Chris Caruana,  the incident became public knowledge by the media and Caruana apologised.  A distraction was the media hype of would Mathew and Andrew Johns stay in Newcastle.  By this stage,  Andrew Johns represents much of the team,  general kicking,  goal kicking, field goal kicking, general leadership, and combining with Matthew Johns as play makers.  Adam Muir and Mark Glanville played their last home game against Balmain.   Muir was off to North Sydney and Marc Glanvill was off to England to play with Leeds.  The Knights steam rolled Balmain and won 34 - 10.  The Newcastle forwards lifted and smashed the highly regarded forwards of Balmain.   As the Knights headed into the final series they were on a roll with an air of confidence.
The first semi final 97 -  Trailing 18 – 0 after 18 minutes against a Parramatta side that could do no wrong, the Newcastle Knights somehow dug themselves out of a deep, dark hole to conjure up a remarkable 28 – 20 victory over parramatta at the Sydney football stadium. Andrew Johns scored a brilliant solo try, stepping and swerving his way past six defenders to score the try that leveled the game at 20 all.  John  in the process suffered a bad rib injury as he was driven into the ground.  Johns ribs were to be the subject of many headlines leading up to the grand final.  During the second half of the match Matthew Gidley was injured with a broken leg and Robbie O'Davis was badly concussed.  Newcastle winning this match 28 - 20.
Semi final Two -   For a game not supposed to mean anything, it had everything.  Manly beat the knights 27 – 12 to earn the right to play Sydney City the following week for a place in the grand final.  Newcaste rested O'Davis, Johns, Gidley, Grogan and Clements. 
Semi final Three -  A last minute field goal to Matthew Johns broke a 12 all score line with under two minutes remaining in the game. The Knights scored after full time from an intercept from Paul Harragon to make the final score 17 –12. The Knights realized a life long dream by going into their first grand final against manly. A memorable moment in the match was Darren Albert chasing Matt Seers from the opposite side of the field and cutting him down centimeters from the line, and tackling him into the corner post and saving a certain try.  Going into the 1997 Grand Final, Manly dominated Newcastle in their recent history, having won the last elevan games.

Sydney Morning Herald by Steve Mascord.
If you are looking for winners out of the Super League war, look no further than Newcastle. Three weeks before the 1997 grand final Newcastle chairman Michael Hill set off for an urgent meeting with Australian Rugby League chief executive Neil Whittaker in Sydney. He got to the Hawkesbury River Bridge when his mobile phone rang. Whittaker was in negotiations trying to stitch the game back together and would not be able to reschedule a meeting for a month. "I was going to tell him that we needed urgent funding or we were not going to be able to pay our players," Hill said yesterday. The Newcastle Knights were at death's door. "Three weeks later we won the grand final and it didn't matter." With winger Darren Albert's try with six seconds left in the ARL decider against Manly, merchandising, prizemoney and sponsorship propelled Newcastle back into the black. "What we got out of the win elevated us into the top quarter of the competition," said Hill, "and we have been there ever since." 

Specialist on stand-by at decider for Joey's bung lung
By BRETT KEEBLE, 23 Sep 1997.  Newcastle Herald
A LUNG specialist will be on stand-by at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday in case Newcastle Knights halfback Andrew Johns suffers a recurrence of his collapsed lung in the Optus Cup grand final against Manly. The match-winning playmaker was still in hospital last night and although coach Malcolm Reilly rated him a better-than-even-money bet, Johns is desperate to play in the decider and will not hear of anything else. 
Johns and Leo Dynevor were bracketed at halfback for the game of the Knights' lives, while injury concerns over hooker Brett Clements (groin) and centres Matthew Gidley (lower leg) and Brett Grogan (ankle) meant they were named on the bench and will have to pass fitness tests later in the week. Bill Peden was named at hooker with Adam MacDougall in the centres and Mark Hughes on the wing, although MacDougall and Hughes swapped those positions in last Saturday's 17-12 victory over North Sydney. 
Johns will be released from hospital today but will return tomorrow for tests with specialists to check his rate of recovery. `I'll play, no two ways about it. I'm off the morphine and I'm feeling heaps better,' Johns said. `I'm coming back in on Thursday to do some tests on the treadmill to see if my lung stays inflated and won't collapse again. `One of the lung specialists will be at the game and the worst-case scenario is if it happens again, he'll be there to reinflate it.' 
Reilly will give Johns as long as possible to prove his fitness but would also consider using him in short bursts off the bench. `He can only go forward from here. The doctor said he should be fine by Thursday and then he's got another two days to recuperate,' Reilly said.  `If anybody can do it, Andrew can.  `If he's not 100%, there will also be a chance for us to use him on occasions and that will be contemplated also.'
Reilly said he would probably start Clements if he passed a fitness test, which would mean moving Peden to the second row and Wayne Richards back to the interchange bench.  With the spotlight on Johns and his damaged ribs and lung this week, Knights captain Paul Harragon was confident it would not adversely affect the team's preparation. `It won't be distracting to him because it will probably take his mind off the game a bit,' Harragon said.  `Maybe because he's such an important part of the team there's a possibility of it affecting us a bit but with blokes like Leo Dynevor, who did a great job there for us last game, and Matthew (Johns) we don't lose too much. I'm sure Mal won't let it worry us at all.' 
Meanwhile, Harragon believed the huge interest in the game among Newcastle fans and the weight of expectation from the city could only have a positive effect on the team. `I don't think we're feeling any pressure at all,' he said. `Manly are the championship side of the last two or three years so they're going to feel all the pressure. We've got a very inexperienced side and no-one's played in a grand final. `Mal's our only grand final experience. He's played in a few. `We haven't got any pressure on us and it's tremendous that we've got the whole town riding on our back and pushing us. `At the end of the day I think that will make the difference.'

Reilly threat to sue ARL;  Sun Herald. Jul 6, 1997. 
SOMETHING very funny transpired at the Phillip Street headquarters of the Australian Rugby League last Friday night. Three players from the third State of Origin game had to front the ARL judiciary of Alan Sullivan QC (chairman), Kevin Brasch (Queensland) and David Barnhill (NSW).
Gladys has discovered that Newcastle Knights coach Mal Reilly made some very substantial threats about Andrew Johns, his halfback and major playmaker.
Reilly told guests at a dinner party in Newcastle earlier in the week that he would initiate legal proceedings against the ARL if Johns were injured.
Reilly was angry that Johns was playing with painkillers. He took the view that if Johns were hurt playing for NSW and unable to take the field for Newcastle at the weekend against the Crushers, the ARL would be liable. Gladys has also discovered that Newcastle considered using the "Nuremburg defence" in order to get Johns off the fighting charge after the Origin game. This is the "acting on higher orders" argument used by Hitler's generals after World War II. In other words, someone at Newcastle considered using the argument that Johns was told to go the knuckle if fighting broke out on the field. As events transpired, this was not mentioned during the hearing. For the record, Knights football manager Dave Morley, who drove Johns to the hearing, says he knows nothing of this defence. But a major figure who observed the three hearings on Friday night told Gladys that "a defence was withdrawn".  Geoff Bellew, the counsel used by all three players - Johns, St George's Wayne Bartrim and Goold Coast's Jamie Goddard - quite rightly refuses to comment. St George chief executive Brian Johnston and Gold Coast boss Paul Broughton say they know nothing of any defence to blame higher orders for the fighting on the night. But they are concerned about their clubs being penalised for actions beyond their control. Gold Coast lost Goddard for three games during the series, then another two for his suspension. It seems Johns got off very lightly. He will miss only one match because of the split-round situation, yet he was involved in three fights with Goddard.
 

Great Britain captain Andy Farrell asked Matty Johns last year: "Isn't Malcolm a bit of a legend up there in Newcastle?"  "Legend?  Mate, if he came home tomorrow and ran for lord mayor he'd win in a landslide."

The Knights of their lives
TERRY SMYTH,  27 Sep 1997.  Sun Herald
ON the locker-room wall at the Knights' home ground is a sign which says it all: "Our town, our turf, our team." After 10 tough years, the Newcastle Knights finally get a shot at the brass ring today, and the town which bore them is beside itself. After celebrating a bicentenary in a year haunted by the banshee of steel-making, this is the shot Newcastle needs. 
Everything in the city is blue and red. There are streamers, balloons, banners and paint on office buildings, shops and homes, schools and churches, cars and buses. Cake shops are baking red and blue pastries; fast-food joints are making red and blue hot dogs; pubs are pulling red and blue beer. At the Knights' merchandise shop, fans have been in a buying frenzy all week, snapping up T-shirts, caps, flags and car streamers. On just one day, 2,500 T-shirts were sold by noon and a further 4,000 due later in the day were already spoken for, while suppliers were fast running out of jumpers and flags. 
After a mad scramble for tickets in Newcastle, an estimated 15,000 Novocastrians are bound for today's ARL grand final by bus, train and car. It is all about being there, it seems, and not just for the fans, but for the team itself. Even the most die-hard fan will admit that in their early years the Knights were all catch and kill, and it is still said that their game is more about tenacity than tactics. The bitterness of the ARL-Super League war lingers on in Newcastle and hackles have been raised by claims that the Knights would not have made it to the grand final had there been a united competition. Still, the city's mood is such that nothing can spoil the party - not even Manly. 
To Novocastrians, Manly is not just the team everyone else loves to hate but the Knights' nemesis. Manly has beaten them in 11 straight games and, in 1995, ended their only previous premiership hope by knocking them out in the semis. Winning. It would be a bonus, people say. But mostly it is as though no one dare think it aloud, as if that might jinx the team's chances. On a flying visit to his parents before the big game, Knights captain Paul "the Chief" Harragon reflected on carrying the hopes of a quarter of a million people on his shoulders. "It's no weight to carry," he said. "In fact, it's uplifting, like they will be carrying us. "A win would be great and we'll do our best. We'll do it, but it'sno burden because they're all very proud of us." 
At a roadside chicken outlet, Ringal Valley, passing motorists hooted approval for signs such as "Sea Eagle fillets, slightly off!" and"Battered Sea Eagles". But the main attractions are a red and blue striped car sporting Harragon's No 10 and a mannequin of his arch enemy, Manly's Mark "Spud" Carroll, battered and bleeding. 
At the Cricketers' Arms hotel, owned by Knights first-grade manager Dave Morley, everything is ready for the after-match celebration, including the biggest bottle of bubbly in town, a 12-litre magnum of champagne. At about $4,000 a pop, it has been donated by Moet Chandon to toast the team, win or lose. "They will win," said cellarman Brett Fairclough, willing to risk the jinx. "Ten years is a long time to wait to get a shot at it, so they're pretty motivated." 
Clutching red and blue beers, Steve Wilson, Scott Lyne and Paul Delany could not agree more. All junior Knights with first-grade dreams, they were preparing to join the army of fans heading south for the game. "We've got everything," said Mr Wilson. "We've got our flags and paint for our hair and we're ready to go." Mr Delany said there was no need to be coy about the outcome. He was emphatic: "They're going to win!" Win or lose, she said, the great joy for Novocastrians would be to see their team run out on to the field. There will not be a dry eye in town. 

Knights and their faithful find the holy grail
Author: GEOFF WILSON,  Date: 28 Sep 1997.  Newcastle Herald
IT was 9am and the red-and-blue army was on the march yesterday. The hopes and dreams were there, but none could have imagined what drama lay ahead. There they were: car after car, mini buses, coaches. Just about every mode of transport possible was heading south, all bearing red and blue . . . and plenty of it. 
By the time they started streaming into the Sydney Football Stadium the drama was already unfolding. The Knights cheer squad had been locked out of its dressing room and the girls were mad. `It was a great honour to be picked and this is every bit as big a day for us as it is for the players,' Renee Robinson said. `I just hope everything works out.' It did. Outside the fans were streaming in, and most of them were Newcastle supporters. Sam Stewart, the man who led the Knights at the beginning of the club's career, wore his original Knights jacket just for luck. And he wore it with pride. At 12.51pm Manly's bus pulled up. They got a cheer and a few raspberries. Leading the Manly players out was Jim Serdaris, the man suspended in last week's final. `Have a great game Jimmy boy,' one brazen Knights fan shouted. Well, it got a cheer from the Knights fans anyway. At 1.20pm the Knights coach lobbed. Stuck to the front window was the Faces of the Aces cut-outs from The Newcastle Herald. Then a sight, well some would even say a sign of what was to come. The doors of the coach opened and a beaming Andrew `Joey' Johns jumped out and grabbed his gear. The man that had been in hospital most of the week was ready to go.  The cheer as the Knights players made their way to the stadium was deafening and extra security guards were called to clear the way. They went as a team, well almost. Straggling behind was Adam MacDougall, who seemed to be soaking up all the atmosphere. The ground filled quickly. The stands were packed with the 42,482 fans by the time the pre-match entertainment started. The usual go here lots of kids, songs by Christine Anu and Jimmy Barnes and a presentation of former greats from the clubs. Representing Newcastle were Gary Wurth, Les Johns, John Cootes and Sam Stewart. Yep, and Slammin' Sam still had on that lucky jacket.  Just as well. 
At 2.59pm Manly ran on with a lot of cheers and a lot more boos. Minutes later the Knights ran onto the field. Now this was a lot like going to the Melbourne Cup. When the field jumps on the first Tuesday in November the crowd erupts. You know it is going to happen but it still gets to you when they yell themselves hoarse. The Knights had a tidal wave of support, and the fans let the players know with one almighty roar.  It was something special. By half-time things were looking dicey but the Knights fans remained optimistic. `Don't count us out yet,' Barbara Davis, who had been lauded by the ARL for her support, said. This was going to have to be one for the true believers . . . one for the diehard fans.   And that is how it worked out. By full-time the impossible had occurred, the Knights had come from a seemingly impossible position to win.  In the dressing rooms, the Knights basked in glory and sang a song. Take Me Home, Country Road, they crooned very badly. To the fans, a song never sounded so beautiful. And the army was back on the move, the war won. And to the victors go the spoils. 
 

Harragon and Reilly at the end of the ARL Grand Final..

First crusaders up where they belong -  26 Sep 1997,  Newcastle Herald
The chance to take on and beat the best teams in Sydney was one of the goals that drove the Newcastle Knights in their first crusade back in 1988. Actually being good enough to beat them all often enough to win a premiership was but a dream. That is why tomorrow's grand final against Manly takes on extra significance for the four remaining `Originals', Tony Butterfield, Marc Glanville, Paul Harragon and Stephen Crowe. Injuries aside, Glanville and Butterfield have been regular first-graders since the beginning and have played more games than anyone else in the club's history. Harragon and Crowe began in Newcastle's under-21 squad. 
Harragon, now the club captain and a regular in NSW and Australian sides, has since emerged as the Knights' most decorated player and Crowe has battled back from more injuries than he can remember to again be part of the top squad. Fittingly, all four played in last Saturday's 17-12 win over North Sydney to send the Knights into their first grand final. In Sydney earlier this week for the Australian Rugby League's grand final breakfast, the four men with almost 800 games in all grades for the club between them, reflected on the importance of being in a premiership decider. `It's very difficult to put into words what it means. It's more in the heart,' Butterfield said.`You've busted everything in your body to get to this stage, hung around probably longer than maybe you should have, but now we're in a grand final.' 
Crowe said the game would make the `bumps and troughs' of the long journey worthwhile. `After the siren against Norths, when the Newcastle fans were going berserk in the stands at the (Sydney Football) Stadium, my thoughts honestly turned to the pubs and mines of Newcastle and how much everyone would be rejoicing,' Crowe said. `Seventy per cent of this side are local blokes and if you count blokes like MG (Glanville), Buttsy (Butterfield) and Robbie O'Davis, who have been here so long we've adopted them, it would be even higher than that. `We've all come through the grades together, we've battled it out in successful lower-grade sides, and now we're on the verge of something great.' Glanville leaves the Knights after tomorrow's match, bound for English club Leeds, having played a record 188 first-grade and 204 grade games in the blue and red. `This is pretty special for the blokes who've been here since the start. It's been 10 years of blood, sweat and tears,' Glanville said. `I'm sure it means a lot for the blokes who first ran out in 1988 as the pioneers of the Knights, and all those that have played for Newcastle since then. I've been here for 10 years and am now a life member, so hopefully my last game in the red and blue will be a grand final win.' 
Butterfield's thoughts have also turned to some of his team-mates from the early days, many of whom have called him this week to wish him and the side the best. 
`The big winners are the boys who participated in the formation of the club,' he said. `All the old mates that have been through the training sessions, the grind through the early years, standing up to the referees and standing up to the more powerful clubs when our budgets were pretty low. We've climbed the ladder ever so gradually and this grand final is for all the ex-players and people who've contributed as much as it is for the players at the moment.'Harragon believed only the players that had been involved from day one could genuinely appreciate what went into reaching the championship game. He said: `Having been here from the start you understand it's been 10 years of hard work by a lot of people.' 

Great Britain captain Andy Farrell asked Matty Johns last year: 
"Isn't Malcolm a bit of a legend up there in Newcastle?"

"Legend?  Mate, if he came home tomorrow and ran for lord mayor he'd win in a landslide."

Season 1998
Newcastle slowly wound down the celebrations from the premiership win and started to concentrate on 1998.  Season 1998 The loss of Adam Muir and Mark Glanville did not help.  Both the Johns brothers re signed for another three years.  Sponsorship and merchandise sales were high for the year after the grand final.  However, every move the players made were headlines in the local papers. Andrew Johns said, `I've been dying to play all off-season, it's a new challenge, not only for myself but for the whole side. A lot of people are going to say, "Yeah, you won the comp but it was when it was a divided competition", so we can really lay those critics to rest if we have a very big year.' Matthew Johns said, `I've never seen us train so well, our ball work and our skills and everything we've done, and I think we're really ahead of ourselves. `Whether we can maintain that through the season is another thing and something we've got to work on, but coming into this game I'm looking no further than ourselves. `To play to our ability week-in week-out is a tough ask but I think if we do that, it's going to take a good side with a fair share of luck to beat us. `It's not so much arrogance but if we play to our ability, the cards will fall in the right places for us. We've improved at least 10 or 15 per cent on last season.'
With many injuries during the season of 1998, the Knights faltered away in the semi-finals despite Andrew Johns having the best season by any individual in many years.  The Knights still kept their Home ground advantage for the season by winning 66% of their home-games. Andrew Johns carried the injury riddled and suspended reduced Knights to a top two finish before bowing out in the finals. Coach Mal Reilly had a disappointing farewell to Newcastle's Marathon Stadium when the Knights collapsed to lose 26-15 against Sydney City. With many injuries during the season of 1998, the Knights faltered away in the semi-finals despite Andrew Johns having the best season by any individual in many years.  Despite a disappointing year for the premiers, Newcastle had the highest consistent crowd averages for the season and a 66% home-game winning average. While running on the mini trap, the chief stepped off and came crashing down.  A bone spur snapped and was jammed in his knee making it impossible to walk or move.  Due to complication, the chief did not play until the start of the semi finals.  The knights lost Darren Albert when he went over his ankle on a wet day during pre season training.  A minute fracture on the outside of his foot put him out before a game was played in 1998. A few minutes into his come back game in late April, Albert opened up the fracture again and was out for another three months. Matty Johns hurt his hamstring,  Troy Fletcher shoulder, bill pedan ankle, owen craigie knee, mark hughes glandular fever, Brett grogan ankle.  The second last game against balmain was played to keep pace with Brisbane for the minor premiership, the knights played without 13 regular first graders. The knights won.
During the season, all knights supporters will remember Andrew Johns and Lee Jacksons dummy spit.  During the televised game against Souths at Marathon,  after a few way ward passes from Lee, Joey was heard to yell to the trainers on the side line to "Get him off."  As the knights headed to the finals, it became apparent that the team chemistry was not what is should have been.  To help this problem, Danny Buderis was picked as hooker for the final series. Marc Glanville was in his last season with the knights, heading to england at the end of the year. He had been voted the players player more times than anyone else.  Having fought two knee reconstructions during his career.

Blue and red, never dead - 11 Jun 1998,  Newcastle Herald
A PHRASE coined by Newcastle Knights tough nut Tony Butterfield many moons ago. Approached by a long-faced reporter after a Newcastle loss early in the Knights' history, an upbeat Butterfield greeted him with: `Cheer up mate! Blue and red, never dead.' Knights coach Malcolm Reilly has preached the theme of mental toughness to his troops since arriving from England in 1995 and slowly, but surely, the message is sinking in. `Honestly, we've got one of the best offensive teams in the competition and yet we're still not playing to our potential in that area,' said Reilly, issuing a warning to rival teams that the National Rugby League leaders can only get better. `I think there's a little bit of arrogance in the fact that we know we can score tries. `So if we can keep teams under 12 points, then there's every likelihood that the opposition will succumb to pressure. `I think that's what is underpinning the team's success. They realise that if they do the fundamentals and get back on track with the basics, they've got the class and ability to put together two or three tries.' 
Reilly has honed their mental muscles with the help of leading sports psychologist Jeff Bond from the Australian Institute of Sport. Again, the coach believes the players are yet to realise their full potential in that area. `I think we're only half-way there at least,' he said.  `Jeff's been very good for us. `Along with the coaching staff, he can help them prepare themselves and focus and sustain concentration longer and be more single-minded about what they want to do but the secret is for them to do it themselves. `It's just like working out in the gymnasium to improve our strength or on the track to improve our speed.' 
REILLY said the prevalence of youth, especially in the back-line, should not be mistaken for inexperience or immaturity. At 25, fullback O'Davis is their elder statesman. Take him out of the equation, tally up the years on this earth of Owen Craigie, Matthew Gidley, Darren Albert, Adam MacDougall, Jason Moodie, Brett Grogan and Mark Hughes, divide it by the number of players and you get an average age of just 22. And the only ones in that group not sporting premiership rings from last year missed out because they were injured. `Our experience across the board is pretty good,' the coach said. `Matthew (Johns) made the point in the press conference after the Cronulla game that we'd conceded two tries and 12 points but the guys realised the game was far from over and we have the ability to come back.' MacDougall credited the efforts of Reilly and the rest of the coaching staff for the team's new-found quality of fearing no opponent. 
`It probably was a big confidence-booster coming back last year in a lot of games. We gained a lot of experience and confidence out of it and that's started to show this year,' the State of Origin winger said. `I know it's had a big bearing on my mental preparation and toughness and I'm sure a lot of the guys would agree with that. `By winning the grand final last year we proved ourselves at another level and the mentality of the guys now is that we are a champion side. We do have a world title belt to protect as such.' 
Anthony Butterfield said, "But it's an 80-minute game and the teams that don't panic and adapt better to the situation will usually come out on top. `You've got to hang in there until your chances come, even if that takes until the last few seconds.' Andrew Johns explained. `It shows our ability to hang in there and just wait for something to eventually come. When it does, we're hungry enough to get it.'  MacDougall said the Knights knew that teams were going to lift a notch to try and beat the ladder leaders but the players were ready for that and enjoyed the challenge. 

The Newcastle Knights played well for most of the season.  The knights were a one man show - Andrew Johns who had his best seasons ever.  He carried the injury riddled and suspended reduced knights to a top two finish before bowing out in the finals.  Johns won just about every major club award available in 1998.  Matthew Gidley cemented a permanant first grade spot with an injyry free year playing in all 26 matches. Three players caught in the one year using performance drugs will forever cast a bad shadow over the Knights 1997 ARL premiership and any matches in the future. Nothing more needs to be said, it was very sad for the game and will forever tarnish both the Knights and the game.
Former Great Britain coach Mal Reilly had a disappointing farewell to Newcastle's Marathon Stadium when the Knights collapsed to lose 26-15 against Sydney City. Newcastle led 15-0 at half-time before the Roosters ran in three tries within 11 minutes of the restart. Sydney City finished with six tries for the half. "I've told the players that was probably their best performance," said coach Phil Gould. "We had to believe we could do it. We were down by 15 but it could have been 20 or 30 because they were just all over us." Newcastle's fans gave a rousing national anthem before the kickoff and hung around for Reilly's lap of honor at the end. Reilly decided to leave at the end of the season to move home to England. "It was embarrassing," said halfback Andrew Johns. "At 15-0 up, we should never have let them back in the game."
Newcastle should focus on what they did in the first half. A near perfect half of football, almost no handling errors, sensational defence, and crisp attack. What was in their half time drinks I don't know but they weren't the same side in the second half. The Johns brothers were again lethal, while Glenn Grief, Tony Butterfield, Paul Harragon and Peter Shiels were great in the forwards. Buderus and then Lee Jackson were outstanding around the ruck in the first half but the second half effort was nowhere near up to scratch. The dislocated shoulder for Buderus won't help the club already struggling with injuries.

It was an unfortunate way to farewell successful coach Mal Reilly, who took over the Knights in 1995. He guided them to their most successful finals series to date that year, finishing in the top four. 1996 was a disaster, but in 1997 he provided the struggling town with their greatest glory: their first premiership. A fairytale event that saw hundreds of thousands of fans swamp the streets to salute their heroes. 1998 was a triumph of grit and determination in the face of adversity, and it was a tearful farewell to a man who brought pride to an ailing club and has set it up for a bright, successful future.
The 1998 Elimination Semi-final between Canterbury and Newcastle was one of the most superb and exciting games of football I have ever witnessed.   Because of the euphoria of Canterbury's win a week later against Parramatta this game was overshadowed and is a little less remembered by non-Canterbury fans, but it was up till that stage the best game of the season....if not the best in the past three or four seasons. It was a sensational game, it had everything you could ever possibly want to see in a football game. It was tense, full of excitement for the entire 100 minutes and it was just great sudden death football. From pin point kicking to end to end sets of six and brilliant stand out performances by players on both teams it was a game for the ages. Coach Steve Folkes rated the win as one of the greatest he has been involved in, in his entire 25 years association with the Bulldogs. He was spot on.....these types of games are the rarest of all in football and to have two in a row like this in semi-finals football, its the greatest memory to have and to treasure. The Doggies were breathtaking, showing their finals brilliance to knock out second placed Newcastle, coming from 16-0 behind and winning spectaculary in extra time with two tries in the 93rd and 96th minute. Again the Bulldogs rode high on emotion, pride and passion and it was too much for the injury plagued yet very gallant Newcastle side.  It was incredible and exciting football and it looked inevitable that the Dogs would run out winners. In the first period of extra time, the Knights threw everything they had left in their tanks. They attacked our line for about 3 sets and some of the greatest defence I have ever seen by the doggies kept them out. Johns had a few opportunities to set for the shot but like the Bulldogs they took the shot at a try when the defence rushed up and it almost came off on a number of occasions. There was no joy for the Dogs in the first period, but they were content just to hold the knights out.
In the second period of extra time, the Dogs sealed the match with two great tries. The lead up to the try was one that we long live in my memory. Johns put a precision kick into the ingoal with the ball pulling up right on the dead ball line forcing Silva to pick the ball up and run it out. I reckon the knights would have sealed the match had we have been forced to take a drop out. But Silva swept past defender after defender down the touchline and went all the way to the the halfway line. From there the doggies promoted the football and played some awesome footy. Talua went within inches of the goaline and touchline on one play, with Norton again being cut down inches short. Sterlo then said on the commentary: 'Oh, they've goto score!!', and they did 3 seconds later when Britt swivelled past a defender and placed the ball down under the posts. He looked up disbelievingly at his teammates, because he had finally snatched the match sealing try.  Off the kick off the Bulldogs onslaught continued with the dogs taking it the full 100 metres to send Rod Silva over for a much deserved try and a 28-16 classic extra-time, sudden death football victory. No one took much notice of the last six minutes, with supporters in continual scenes of tremendous celebration. Knights finished 2nd place in the minor premiership before crashing in the finals.  It will be remembered as the year that Andrew Johns stamped himself as one of the elite players in the game today.

Season 1998 - Knights finished 5th
Reilly tackles tragedy; Knights mentor comes to grips with his grief - Herald. Apr 9, 1998.
IT was Malcolm Reilly's worst nightmare, the death of one of his parents while he was on the other side of the world. As one of the game's original hard men, he has never been one to show fear but this thought privately haunted him since arriving in Newcastle more than three years ago to coach the Knights. It was the reason why Reilly was making this his fourth and final year at the helm of the Knights, so he could go home to the north of England to be with his parents for the last years of their lives. But private anguish became public grief last month when his father Robert died of a massive heart attack. Reilly rushed home to attend the funeral and to help his mother Annie and sister Jennifer through the tragedy, sparking speculation about his future with the Knights. A fortnight after returning to Newcastle and he is still coming to terms with the loss of his father and close friend. `It's very difficult but you've just got to work your way through it,' Reilly said, taking a deep breath to control a slight waver in his voice. `You're constantly reminded of it or involved in situations where you're emotionally affected. It's not something that goes away. I think it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, being over here whilst this has occurred. It was something of a nightmare that always worried me and that was the reason I was going back. If my parents were a lot younger or if they weren't part of the equation, I wouldn't be leaving. I'm only going back because of them and another one or two issues. It's been that difficult.'
It had been suggested that Reilly might not come back to Newcastle, that the pain of leaving his mother alone would have overpowered any desire to complete his duties with the Knights. He said that was never a consideration but his father's death only strengthened his resolve to head home at the end of the year.
`Absolutely. At the moment my sister is looking after things but I just want to get back now and make sure everything is all right and spend some quality time with my Mum,' he said. The former Great Britain Test coach might investigate the possibility of returning to the national team post now the Super League war is over, or find a position with an English club side. I would love another opportunity (with the Test team) but that's for the powers that be and I know that they're well down the track with maybe putting their money on another horse,' he said. `As for a club side, there have been one or two inquiries but obviously at this stage I'm not really too interested and I won't be chasing anything.'
The Knights' maturity in the area of mental toughness has been apparent this season as they have followed last year's Australian Rugby League grand final victory with four wins from as many games to lead the new National Rugby League. No sign of post-premiership hangover yet and Reilly believes the team can only get better. `We can improve and we will improve, there's no danger of that. That's why I was so excited at the beginning of the season because the experience of last year has allowed the players to realise that it's not an impossible dream,' he said. `They can achieve things if they work hard in certain areas. There's no lack of skill in the club and there's no lack of fitness, it's just a matter of them working on their mental toughness and goal-setting, making sure they're very positive in relation to what they want to achieve and trying to improve their concentration skills. To be honest I'm struggling with it in a few cases because they're very complex personalities and they need dealing with individually. I treat them all differently but the main objective is to make sure they're prepared for the competition.'
While it is premature to start reflecting on Reilly's tenure with the Knights, he feels satisfied with what the club has accomplished but the hunger remains for further success this year. The next win will be his 50th with the club and if the Knights play at least three games in this year's finals, he will have coached them in 100 matches. His success rate of 64% is far greater than that of predecessors Allan McMahon (41%) and David Waite (45%) but Reilly said it was not his style to take any credit. Coaching the likes of Matthew and Andrew Johns, Paul Harragon, Robbie O'Davis, Adam Muir and Jamie Ainscough in most cases players who realised representative goals under his guidance and brilliant youngsters such as Owen Craigie and Matthew Gidley was reward enough.
`I don't think it's up to me to form those assumptions and I don't want to be analysing it all or giving myself a rap,' he said. `That's not my carry-on. I'm just very pleased to have been able to work with these kids. `I don't think I've approached this year any differently than what my objections have been ever since I came to the club and that's to maximise the potential of the talent we have. Let them express their ability on the football field without too much structure. I don't want to be telling them how to play the game because it's a game of seconds. It's a game of plays and pressure and I'm not on the field at the time. Only they can react to certain situations and I want them to back their ability but at the same time to take professional options, to take calculated options at the right time and make sure that they're playing not for themselves but for the team.'
More than anything, Reilly wants to leave the Knights in better shape than when he arrived. `That's right. I want to see a good coach come in and I'd like to think that my recommendations would be appreciated,' he said.

Knights aim to keep players' minds on job -  9 May 1998 Newcastle Herald 
In his never-ending search for an extra edge, Newcastle Knights coach Malcolm Reilly has again called in leading sports psychologist Jeff Bond in the build-up to tomorrow's grand-final rematch against Manly at Brookvale Oval. Bond, the head of the Australian Institute of Sport's psychology department, first worked with the Knights in 1996 then again last year in the run to the Australian Rugby League finals. Reilly said Bond's involvement was part of an ongoing program to help the players improve their mental approach to the game. `Jeff's trying to help the guys, just like our nutritionist is trying to help them in another area. It's all part of the preparation and we just want the players to maximise the opportunities that are there,' Reilly said. `The psychological approach to the game is so significant. It has such a profound effect on your performance. We've been looking specifically at individual players and their goals on and off the field as well as team dynamics. `The strength of the team is greater than the sum of the individuals and the Knights certainly proved that when they won last year's grand final.' 

THE DRUG SCANDAL - 1998
A drug bust hit Newcastle in 1998 with O'Davis, Adam MacDougall and Wayne Richards receiving lengthy suspensions.  On June 29, 1998 Robbie O'Davis and Wayne Richards suspended for 22 matches for using the banned drugs stanozolol & androstenedione respectively. On July 3, 1998 a marathon Knights board meeting voted to tear up Richards' contract after his admission to the NRL drugs tribunal that he knowingly took the anabolic agent stanozolol to hasten his recovery from an ankle injury. The Newcastle board retained Robbie O'Davis who was fined $AUS10,000 for misconduct, had $AUS50,000 deducted from his annual $AUS300,000 salary and sacked as the Knights' development officer. It was later revealed that a board member kept the NRL's drug code booklet in his car, and most of the Newcastle players and trainers were not aware of the changes. The reasons stated by the board was that Richards Knowingly knowingly took the banned substance while O'Davis did not, stating that he bought the substance from a New Zealand sports suppliment company.
Another drug scandle hit Newcastle on July 8, 1998 when Newcastle winger Adam MacDougall returned a positive test, he was immediately stood down. On July 28, 1998 Adam MacDougall was advised his sample from a random drug test on June 6 was positive for the stimulants ephedrine and amfepramone. MacDougall's two samples recorded an epitestosterone to testosterone level greater than the allowable 6:1 ratio - indicating the possible use of steroids. On August 25, 1998 Adam MacDougall pleaded guilty to using one banned stimulant and was found to have inadvertently used another and received a 11 match ban, being outed until the Knights' round 12 clash against Souths. MacDougall later challenging the right of Canterbury club doctor Hugh Hazard to rule on his application to use a banned substance, applying to continue his use of Sustanon 250 for health reasons. Another scandal hit Newcastle on September 29, 1998 when Ben MacDougall, 21-year-old brother of Adam MacDougall was suspended for 22 matches after pleading guilty to using and anabolic agent. On July 29, 1998.  The National Rugby League revealed that all samples in its recent blanket testing program (515 players) returned negative results. The Newcastle Chairman Michael Hill stated, "The Newcastle Knights are doing all we can to ensure that we get on with the job of playing football in a drug-free environment,"  "The Knights are not a team of drug takers or cheats, I couldn't be prouder of them." Mal Reilly.
 
Reilly hits back at Raiders' drug reaction;; Herald. Jun 20, 1998.
NEWCASTLE coach Malcolm Reilly has applauded the likely drug-testing of all players after tomorrow's game against Canberra at Bruce Stadium but questioned the motivation of such a call from the Raiders. In the wake of the Knights' drug crisis, Canberra chief executive Kevin Neil called on the National Rugby League (NRL) to test all players after the match. Neil recommended that the winning side be stripped of the premiership points if any of its players tested positive.
Canberra players and officials had earlier considered boycotting the game. Reilly returned serve on the Raiders yesterday, and the war of words helped promote tomorrow's game in the national capital as something of a grudge match. Canberra football manager Robert Finch, who left the Knights in 1995 to join Super League's Hunter Mariners before linking with the Raiders, stirred the pot further with comments in a Hunter Valley newspaper criticising Newcastle's handling of the Robbie O'Davis affair. Finch and Reilly also had a very public falling out when Finch quit the Knights at the height of the Super League war. `I really don't know what their problem is,' Reilly said. `I can't understand their mentality at all. We'll have some tests after the game and there isn't a problem. Let's see how many panes they've got to break. We're all right. It can't get any worse for us. I hope we are tested. That's what I want and that's what the players want so we can get the whole thing over and done with.'
NRL public affairs manager John Brady would neither confirm nor deny suggestions that the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) would test players en masse tomorrow. But after the 20 NRL clubs agreed at a meeting yesterday to allow blanket testing of all players, the league issued a press release to announce a `massive increase in its random drug testing program, which will see every player tested in the near future'. ASDA will conduct the tests with no warning after games and at training sessions. 
Meanwhile, Reilly has also welcomed the challenge of trying to beat the Raiders after the most turbulent and traumatic week in his four-year tenure at the Knights. Apart from the drugs scandal, the Knights have been without State of Origin representatives Andrew Johns, Adam MacDougall, Tony Butterfield and Robbie O'Davis, and Matthew Johns was a late addition to the Blues' squad yesterday. The Knights have never won at Bruce Stadium and Reilly has called on some of his younger players to accept more responsibility. `I don't think there has been a harder week in my time at the club but then again it's just another challenge, it's just another game and they've got to get tough with it,' Reilly said. `I really don't know how they'll be on Sunday. It's been a difficult week, but I think we're capable of doing it. The players have talked about it and now it's up to them. At training today, guys like Gids (Matthew Gidley) and Fletch (Troy Fletcher) were the most senior players within the side and they were the ones making the calls. Sometimes it falls back on those players and they have to accept responsibility.'
In terms of injuries unrelated to last night's Origin game, prop Glenn Grief has battled a badly corked thigh all week while second-rower Peter Shiels missed training yesterday with an ankle problem. Club sources said Grief was still in some doubt, although Reilly was confident he and Shiels would both play. If he makes it in time, Grief will be expected to shoulder much of the workload up front because of the absence of skipper Paul Harragon (knee) and the fatigue factor on Butterfield after his Origin debut last night.

Mal's mission; Reilly takes on Huddersfield job - Herald. Aug 27, 1998.
OUTGOING Newcastle Knights coach Mal Reilly was last night handed the reins to struggling English Super League club Huddersfield. Reilly, who formerly coached Great Britain as well as club sides Castleford, Leeds and Halifax, will take over at the club when his commitments with the Knights finish next month.
Caretaker coach Phil Veivers will stay on at Huddersfield as assistant to Reilly, who is returning to be with his widowed mother. Since confirming his intentions of returning to England, Reilly had made it clear he wanted to continue coaching but was always reluctant to discuss speculation about his next position.
He often spoke of `a few irons in the fire' but never of any firm offers or details. When asked on Tuesday at the Knights' weekly press conference whether he had a new job, Reilly said: `Yes, but I've not announced it yet'.
Before last night's Huddersfield appointment, Reilly had been linked to leading English clubs Bradford and St Helens. Meanwhile, Canterbury officials responded to a breakdown in merger talks with Western Suburbs by initiating negotiations with Parramatta yesterday. Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald and Eels president Alan Overton met their Canterbury counterparts Bob Hagan and Barry Nelson for an hour and agreed to meet again next week. The Bulldogs were disappointed that discussions with Wests chief executive Martin Bullock had reached a stalemate over ground and naming rights, a joint logo and the distribution of control on the board. Fitzgerald cannot be accused of ignoring merger opportunities as the NRL's inevitable cut from 20 to 14 teams approaches. After saying last week he believed no more than 18 sides would contest next season's premiership, Fitzgerald is holding talks with Balmain, Penrith and now the Bulldogs.
`It was just an initial chat between myself and Alan and Bob Hagan and Barry Nelson,' Fitzgerald said. League liftout inside.' 

End of an era; Coach Reilly's sad farewell - Herald. Sep 14, 1998.
THE 'best four years of his life' came to a premature end on Saturday when Malcolm Reilly's Newcastle Knights went down 28-16 to Canterbury in a heart-stopping extra-time epic at the Sydney Football Stadium. The Bulldogs fought back from 16-0 down to run the battle-scarred Knights 
off their feet and them-selves into next Sunday's National Rugby League grand final qualifier against Parramatta. One more game would have given the 50-year-old Yorkshireman a century as the Knights' coach but after four years and 99 games in charge, for 63 wins, 33 losses and three draws, he will return to England next month to care for his widowed mother Annie and to take the reins of  Euro League strugglers Huddersfield. Rather symbolically his replacement, Warren Ryan, will move into Reilly's Bar Beach residence when he takes over at the Knights in the off-season. In a sombre dressing-room which only a year ago hosted the Knights' grand final celebrations, Reilly choked back tears and struggled to find the appropriate words when asked to reflect on Saturday's game and its result which abruptly ended Newcastle's tumultuous season.'It's a bit of an anti-climax. There's not much you can say is there?' Reilly said. 'No profound words. That's it.'
But captain Paul Harragon, who tore a rib muscle and was one of several Knights unable to finish the game, revealed what Reilly told his players behind closed doors. 'As far as Mal's concerned, he was very proud of the boys,' Harragon said. 'You feel like apologising to the big fella about the result but that's the way it goes and he's had a great four years; the best four years of his life he said so that'll do me.'
Like most of the players, Reilly believed the game mirrored the season: a great start before injuries and other problems became too much to bear. 'I don't know how many people we had missing from last year's grand final (team) but we certainly missed the class of people like Robbie O'Davis, Darren Albert, Wayne Richards, Adam MacDougall, Owen Craigie; the list goes on,' he said. 'I think we've battled through the season pretty well to be honest but the injuries have just caught up with us. We've got great depth at the club but not many clubs could have sustained what we've sustained and given it a go to get this far.'

Reilly gets year of beer; Herald. Sep 18, 1998.
NEWCASTLE Knights coach Mal Reilly received a going-away present yesterday that may cause him plenty of headaches. Reilly, who is heading home to England in five weeks, was at Broadmeadow yesterday to present the trophies to the connections of Joss Sticks. But it was Reilly who was presented with an amazing gift. Tooheys regional manager Dave Williams gave Reilly a year's supply of Tooheys beer. `There is a pallette already landed in England for when you get home,' Williams said. `And there is more to come.'  Reilly was overwhelmed. `I thought it might be tough to get used to the beer back home but now I won't have to worry,' Reilly said. `I didn't know this was going to happen but it is certainly a gesture I will never forget.'  The NJC also made a presentation to retiring jockey Wayne Harris.

Coach blasts initial failure to defend O'Davis in drugs row; Reilly a life in rugby league - Herald. Sep 28, 1998. 
By BRETT KEEBLE DEPARTING coach Malcolm Reilly is adamant the Knights' drugs inferno could have been contained to a brushfire if the front office got involved with the defence of fullback Robbie O'Davis from the outset.  O'Davis, who returned a positive test to the anabolic agent androstenedione, escaped punishment through a legal loophole at his first appearance before the National Rugby League drugs tribunal on June 15. Reilly felt that strategy only antagonised the NRL, which he said came down heavily on O'Davis at the tribunal and the Knights in other areas for the rest of the season.  O'Davis eventually was suspended for 22 matches by the same panel, in line with the Australian Rugby League drugs policy and procedure, a fortnight later. Team-mate Wayne Richards, who tested positive to the anabolic steroid stanozolol and pleaded guilty, received the same penalty on the same night. Pointing the finger at chief executive Ian Bonnette, who he openly criticises in his autobiography Reilly: a life in rugby league, Reilly believed the statement in a press release issued a day after the first O'Davis hearing that `as far as the Newcastle Knights are concerned, the O'Davis matter is closed' was naive. `(Chairman) Michael Hill is very professional in his approach in these issues and he speaks really well but he was exposed to an extent because of the inexperience of the people in the administration who knew very little about this area and couldn't relate to it,' Reilly said. `We allowed Robbie to take his own course of action and we shouldn't have done. We should have said: "Whoa, wait a bit, there's a bit more at stake than just Robbie O'Davis. What's at stake here is the reputation of this club. With that in mind, we shouldn't have been sneaking around corners, we should have been knocking on the front door of the house and said: "Hey listen, we've got a problem."
`We neglected to do that and they (the NRL) didn't take that lightly. We were seen to undermine them, to an extent embarrass them, and all of a sudden our public relations, which had been pretty decent until then, were blown away. From then on it has reflected on the season, I believe, and the public perception of the team and the club which is pretty unfortunate because it's something I didn't want in my last year.'
Reilly said the Richards case reflected badly on O'Davis then Adam MacDougall, who returned positive tests to two banned stimulants and is still having an excessive testosterone/epitestosterone (T:E) ratio investigated. MacDougall was suspended for 11 games after pleading guilty to using the banned stimulant amfepramone, found in an appetite suppressant, but the tribunal was satisfied that he inadvertently took the stimulant ephedrine in energy bars bought at a health food store. The results of MacDougall's final test on his T:E levels are yet to be announced but there's a possibility of him reappearing before the drugs tribunal if the NRL is not satisfied with the findings. Reilly has stood by O'Davis throughout the Queensland and Australian star's ordeal and jumps to his defence several times in the book, saying he was not a drug cheat and had been harshly treated. The `goalposts were shifted' because androstenedione was added to the banned list after O'Davis had started taking the tablets containing the substance and the player only became aware of the change in status after he was tested.
`Robbie O is an individual case and the time scale in relation to what he was taking, when ASDA (the Australian Sports Drug Agency) notified the NRL, when the NRL got back to us . . . I think he's been very, very hard done by and I think it was compounded by the fact Wayne was caught,' Reilly said. `As for my feelings about Wayne, I think he's a lovely man but he did by his own admission do the wrong thing and it reflected badly on others. Doogs (MacDougall), I'm really not sure about his situation because not everything has been revealed yet. But he's got a medical case, a medical history.'
He was certain O'Davis and MacDougall would have received much more lenient penalties had Richards not openly admitted using stanozolol, which Reilly said was indefensible. `I think if you took his (MacDougall's) case on its merits, without the other two incidents (O'Davis and Richards) and all the publicity, it would have been handled quite amicably for the NRL, Newcastle, everyone,' he said. `I think the Robbie O case would have been the same. That by itself would not have caused too much of a problem because of the sequence of events, if that could have been proven. But what compounded everything was the stanozolol charge. That was really the catalyst to all the problems. We couldn't hide from that. We couldn't argue any circumstances about it. With stanozolol there was no use arguing the point because it was illegal and that made all three of them a disaster. It was like they were guilty by association. `I'm sure people probably think I condone the use of banned substances but that's not the case, never has been, and couldn't be further from the truth,' he said. But it would not taint the memory of his four years in Newcastle and the team's achievements under his guidance.

Mal's book bombshell; Revelations of dark and stormy Knights - Herald. Sep 26, 1998.
MAL Reilly, the coach who took the Newcastle Knights to their 1997 ARL premiership, is set to stun the Hunter with revelations in his new book.
Reilly, a life in rugby league, will be released on Wednesday, held back at the request of Reilly until after he completed his obligations to the Knights he has coached for the last four years. In a frank account of his 30-year playing and coaching career, revelations about the Knights in his book include:
* The night the Knights coach and Newcastle's first international, Mark Sargent, almost came to blows in the men's toilet at the Cricketer's Arms Tavern.

* His stormy relationship with the Knights' chief executive officer, Mr Ian Bonnette, of whom he says: `I don't feel I ever had his support for some of the things I wanted to do for the betterment of the club and its players. It just seemed that everything constructive I proposed was blocked. Our confrontations were on a weekly basis'.

* The end of his friendship with then Knights chairman Mr Terry Lawler in the middle of the Super League war after Mr Lawler visited him at his home and told him: `The fact that you have signed with the ARL may not be in the best interests of the club. In fact we are disappointed that you have done it when the club has not yet decided the direction it is going to take.'

* His perception when he arrived in 1995 that there may have been drugs in and around the club. He organised an in-house test and there were three positives (for social drugs).

* The `blundering, heavy handed administration an important matter clumsily mishandled' surrounding the dismissals of Jamie Ainscough and Darren Treacy in 1996.

The September 1997 clash between Reilly and Sargent almost led to blows between two of the Hunter's most high profile and popular sportsmen.
Reilly writes that it was only that night after Newcastle beat Norths to win its way into the grand final that it was driven home to him how deeply Sargent had been cut by the way he was used in the Newcastle team in 1995 in short bursts when Sargent was Newcastle's captain, a foundation player and immensely popular and well respected. Of that September night Reilly writes: `"Hello Sarg,"' I said, and offered him my hand. He refused to shake it. So I just told him to piss off, and that I'd be about any time he cared to make an issue of it. I was fuming; it had been a wonderfully successful day and I didn't need this. My blood was boiling. And as you may have gathered, there is an element of latent aggression in me that can boil to the surface at times like this. `I stood there eye-balling him from across the room; then Sarg headed towards the men's room and beckoned me to follow. I didn't need asking twice, I just threw my coat off and followed him in'. Apart from angry words, nothing eventuated. In Eye of the Storm, Reilly recalls his arrival in Australia in the middle of the Super League war.
`I quickly became aware that the club I had joined in this city that was to be my new home was seen as the jewel in the crown in the war between the game's two opposing forces. There was the now famous morning when the Chief, Paul Harragon, loaded the players into a mini-bus and drove them to Sydney to talk to the ARL negotiators. Aboard the bus Mark Sargent took a call on his mobile from Knights chairman Terry Lawler. Sarg was one of Terry's favourite sons. My understanding is that the message was along the lines of: "This is what's going on and we want you to be part of it (Super League)". At Swansea, Mark Sargent got off the bus. That trip to Sydney proved to be a significant event in the ARL "holding" Newcastle. The club had been widely tipped to go Super League. As Mike Colman reported in his book Super League - The Inside Story: 
"It (Newcastle club) was one of the first to sign a confidentiality agreement with News Ltd and one of the last to sign the ARL's loyalty contract. John Ribot and other Super League officials believed it was just a formality that the Knights would take up a Super League franchise . . . Super League believed it was a done deal". `Colman's book includes a telling claim from Super League chief Ribot: "Their board was in it up to their eyeballs. They were at the meetings we held up to that stage, we thought all along they were with us. Terry Lawler certainly made us believe that. He talked tough, he just didn't have the ability to pull it off".'

 . . . and a falling-out with Mark Sargent; Reilly a life in rugby league; Herald. Sep 29, 1998.
THE following is an edited extract from the chapter Sarge and Me from Reilly, a life in rugby league:
IT wasn't until a long time later that it was driven home to me how deeply Mark Sargent had been cut by the way I chose to use him in the Newcastle team of 1995. When that hidden anger did finally surface a couple of years later Mark and I were suddenly at each other's throats in an incident that could easily have got way out of hand. In 1995 Sarge was Newcastle captain, a foundation player at the club, immensely popular and well respected. He was also moving into the latter stages of an excellent career as a front-row forward. I used him accordingly in a way that we now (in 1998) mix the Chief, Tony Butterfield and Glenn Grief. Mark was obviously a very proud individual and he had a career he was entitled to be proud of. The way I used him, off the bench when he was captain, definitely rankled a lot more than I realised. He had obviously been very deeply offended. However, there was never any great drama on the surface, until a night in September 1997. Up to that time, we seemed to be okay even after he went to Super League and the great chasm had opened up between the two sides. We'd pass in the gymnasium and say hello. Mark had told the media in February 1996 after making the switch to Super League: `As far as my relationships with the Newcastle players are concerned there have been no problems. I guess the only problem was the working relationship with Mal Reilly became a little bit tense after my decision.'
There was no evidence of any great problem. But after the North Sydney game in September '97 the match that earned us a place in the grand final I bumped into Mark in the Cricketers' Arms Hotel, where we had stopped for a celebratory drink. `Hello Sarge,' I said, and offered him my hand. He refused to shake it. So I told him to piss off and that I'd be about any time he cared to make an issue of it. I was fuming; it had been a wonderfully successful day and I didn't need this. My blood was boiling. And, as you may have gathered, there is an element of latent aggression in me that can boil to the surface at times like this. I stood there eye-balling him from across the room; then Sarge headed towards the men's room and beckoned me to follow. I didn't need asking twice; I just threw my coat off and followed him in. Some of the players had seen what was going on and followed me in. Eventually, apart from some angry words, nothing eventuated and I'm glad it didn't. It wouldn't have helped anything, but it would have been interesting. It's obvious that the situation of 1995 had been eating away at Sarge all this time. Maybe it was my fault; maybe I didn't explain things as clearly to him as he required. I honestly thought I did; we certainly had plenty of talks about it. I definitely didn't want to humiliate the man. I respected him; he was the captain of the Knights whether he was on the field or not. But I think there comes a time in every player's career when they have to assess themselves and say, "Maybe this is the role I should be playing now." And accept it. On that night in 1997 it became quite apparent that Mark Sargent had never really accepted the way things were for him in '95.

Mal Reilly out of line with parting shots; LEAGUE 98;  Herald. Sep 30, 1998.
HE came, he saw and he con-quered, but I hope he dosen't leave a stench when he heads back to England.
I'm talking about Knights coach Malcolm Reilly and his book Reilly, a life in rugby league. I think he has a hide taking to task members of the Newcastle club that lifted him to hero status, when they have few opportunities to reply, or when to do so would be to the detriment of the club. Maybe co-writing a book with Ian Heads needed some sensationalism, or is it just another money grab?
Reilly did better out of his trip to Australia than Captain Cook or Governor Phillip, yet he leaves with a mouthful of sour grapes. He signed for the Knights when the club was broke, and leaves next month a multi-millionaire. Certainly he did his job very well, but his main remuneration came from his loyalty agreement to the ARL at a time when the Newcastle club's future looked bleak. Reilly spent four fruitful years in Newcastle, was treated like a god because his team won a premiership, and is now relating his side of the story to denigrate long-time Novocastrians. Even more disturbing is the revelation Knights management listened to his advice not to appoint Peter Sharp as his successor. It is ironic that Reilly's initial Australian club, Manly, will get the benefit of Sharp's expertise in years to come while the Knights use the recycled Warren Ryan. Sharp did more for the Knights overall in his term before heading for Parramatta than Reilly did in his four years and those efforts should have been appreciated. Sharp, along with Robert Finch, David Waite and Keith Onslow, all no longer with the club, did the hard yards long before Reilly appeared on the scene. They selected and developed the star players Reilly moulded into the grand final winners, yet he claimed Sharp showed no loyalty to the club because he took a better offer from Parramatta. Fancy Reilly talking about loyalty when he left the Great Britain and Halifax club coaching positions also without much notice to come to the Knights. And what loyalty did Reilly have himself to the Knights' sponsors. While driving around in a Ford car through a sponsorship deal with Klosters, Reilly was doing television commercials for Newcastle City Holden the opposition. That became more ludicrous when the Knights switched to car sponsorship deals with Kelly Holden and Reilly was still plugging the opposition. No doubt Reilly will add to his accumulated funds through enormous sales of his book, especially in the Hunter Valley. Let's hope after such a successful and short time in God's country, he hasn't left a mess in his nest.

Knights now know they have what it takes to become king of the castle; Reilly a life in rugby league; Herald. Oct 1, 1998.
IF Malcolm Reilly leaves one lasting legacy at the Knights it will be that he turned a courageous bunch of try-hards into winners.
Predecessors Allan McMahon and David Waite built the club on solid foundations but Reilly instilled a sense of self-belief into his players which empowered them to take the quantum leap from finals fringe-dwellers to champions. Reilly's four-year tenure as the Knights' coach ended two weeks ago when eventual runners-up Canterbury knocked Newcastle out of the NRL finals with a remarkable 28-16 victory in extra time. It brought down the curtain on the most successful period of the Knights' 11-year history, when they emerged from the middle of the pack to join the likes of Brisbane, Canterbury, Manly and Canberra as the premiership's elite clubs. Signed under a veil of secrecy after a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong with then Knights officials Brad Mellen and Terry Lawler, Reilly arrived at the end of 1994 as Waite's replacement. Far from being treated with cautious suspicion as some sort of a Pommy blow-in, the former Great Britain Test mentor was warmly received by Knights fans and Novocastrians alike. Despite the unsettling developments of the Super League war, the popular Yorkshireman guided his adopted Australian home town within a game of the grand final in his first year in charge. The Knights slumped to ninth place in 1996 but finally lived up to their potential last year when they celebrated their 10th season of existence by winning the ARL premiership with a fairytale victory over Manly in the grand final.
The factors contributing to them slipping up two games before a second straight title decider this year have been well documented but the framework is in place for Newcastle to remain a perennial contender. Before Reilly arrived, the Knights seemed incapable of taking that last step. Winning the big game took self-confidence and mental toughness as well as talent. They displayed those characteristics sporadically but not consistently enough to convince themselves they could be great, not just good. His transformation of the team's character is remarkably similar to the make-over he performed on the British national sides, who were whipping boys before he took over in 1987. Under his guidance they won a Test in each of the Ashes series against Australia in 1988, 1990 and 1992.
He could not believe the skill levels of players such as the Johns brothers and quickly compared them with his British Test halves. Reilly felt the players had been stifled under previous coaching regimes and while he still wanted some structure, he encouraged them to break the shackles. `To be fair, I was amazed when I first came to the club at just how much natural talent there was in the side,' he said. `When you see people passing left to right and right to left, like Matthew and Andrew and Jamie Ainscough, or the ball skills of Adam Muir, or the physical attributes of someone like Darren Treacy . . .
`I coached people like Shaun Edwards and Andy Gregory and they were two of the best ball-playing halfbacks over there for a long while,' Reilly said.
`But these lads (the Johns boys) were playing in a club side and had every bit if not more skill than they (Edwards and Gregory) had. `I thought if you were going to restrain them, then what's the point in these kids having these skills?'
The club's junior nursery and talent identification program has since produced highly promising players such as Matthew Gidley, Owen Craigie, Danny Buderus and Darren Albert. `They've just got such natural ability,' he said. `They weren't difficult kids to coach.'
Apart from the team's maturity into success, seeing so many of his players achieve representative honours has been particularly pleasing. `I've got to be satisfied (with the club's achievements in the past four years) because people came to the forefront and played international football; people like Adam Muir,' he said.
`When I first came here there were only Chief (Harragon) and Sarge (Mark Sargent) playing international football but since then we've had Adam Muir, Andrew and Matthew, Robbie O'Davis and Jamie Ainscough all go through and play international football. `Adam MacDougall could still play for Australia, Darren Albert can get there, Matthew Gidley can reach those heights if he continues to progress. He (Gidley) is going to be an awfully good player and his prospects of becoming a full international are realistic.'
Reilly is leaving Newcastle with great reluctance but has satisfied himself that it is the right decision. His worst nightmare came true earlier this year when his father Robert died of a heart attack. Reilly returned for the funeral, which only strengthened his resolve to go through with his departure plans at the end of the season so he could care for his widowed mother Annie. So as he hands over the reins to Warren Ryan, Reilly is confident the Knights are in good shape. `I think the self-belief in the team is going to be a feature to any success they have in the future,' he said. el,2mvcf,hen,7 Reilly, a life in rugby league was released yesterday. 
REILLY a life in rugby league - Malcolm Reilly with Ian Heads - Pan MacMillan $24.95

Coach says red-and-blue wins through; Reilly a life in rugby league - Herald. Oct 1, 1998.
By BRETT KEEBLE IT takes a committed fan to follow their footy team through the bitter chill of an English winter.
Malcolm Reilly knows of thousands of league lovers who have peered through a thick Yorkshire fog and endured sub-zero temperatures to support their side.
Reilly said they still don't compare to the blue-and-red army which packs into Marathon Stadium or follows the Knights to wherever for away games. He never ceased to be amazed at the lengths they would go to or the wild weather they would put up with just to cheer on their side. Reilly can understand fans hero-worshipping players but has been blown away by the warmth and affection afforded to him. Of the three coaches in the Knights' history, Reilly is the only one to have left the club of his own accord. Foundation coach Allan McMahon quit midway through 1991 amid speculation about dissatisfaction from some players about his team selections and other issues, and David Waite instigated legal action when the club chose not to reappoint him at the end of 1994. `I certainly wasn't accustomed to the adulation that the Newcastle people have shown,' said Reilly, who will have been guest of honour for at least six farewell functions by the time he returns home to England later this month. `It's not something I'd choose but it's not that so much, it's the people in the street, the Joe Bloggses, who will come up to you very frequently just to say, "Well done", or "Thanks, you're doing a good job".'
Reilly can relate to the fighting qualities and spirit displayed by the Knights and Newcastle because they are personality traits which have characterised his own life.
But the club and the city will also occupy a special place in his heart because it was here that he felt he proved himself as a first-class coach. `It was a challenge when I came out. I was still finding out about myself as well, so it wasn't just the team,' he said. `I'd coached a team to Wembley, in front of 80 or 90 thousand people, and having played there too I know that's a great achievement, but I wanted to test myself. Winning close games against Australia, against the best in the world, that was very satisfying too but I still had some reservations about myself as a coach. That's why I came out. It's been pleasing to be associated with the side but I've been pleased with myself too because it's been a great experience for me as a coach. There's been some difficult times, particularly with some situations with the club's administration and at times a lack of backing and support from certain quarters. But the team and the town have been great.'

What was, what might have been; Reilly a life in rugby league; Herald. Oct 1, 1998. 
ONE of the greatest frustrations for a coach as passionate about his football as Malcolm Reilly was sitting back helplessly watching his wounded troops limp through the second half of this year's NRL season.  Even at 50 years old, Reilly is fitter than many men half his age and often confided to close friends that he would have loved to have pulled on the blue-and-red and had a run with Harragon, Butterfield and the Johns brothers. Reilly harboured high hopes for his Knights when the season kicked off in March and would not hear of a post-premiership hangover, despite Newcastle's tendency to follow a great year with an ordinary one.
But the drugs crisis which struck mid-season rubbing out grand final heroes Robbie O'Davis, Wayne Richards and Adam MacDougall and the steady loss of other key players through injury proved too much to overcome during the finals series. Such is the depth of talent in the club, the Knights still managed to tie with Brisbane at the top of the table after the regular season and were in winning positions in both their semi-finals against Sydney City and Canterbury before fatigue took its toll. Reilly also believed the club's initial ham-fisted handling of the drugs affair put it offside with the powers-that-be at the NRL.
`My expectations this year were higher than last year, they truly were,' Reilly said.  'I believed the learning curve we went on last year with the grand final, the maturity and the experience we took from that, would have seen us through. But I think it was a big ask once the drugs scandal raised its head and the hammering we took from the NRL. They really came down on us heavy and we've got a fair bit of public relations work and some bridges to build at the moment.'
Before Reilly arrived there was a feeling in the Knights' camp that they often received a raw deal from referees. By establishing a friendly rapport with referees coordinator Mick Stone, he helped change a perception among some whistle-blowers that the Knights were an undisciplined team but Reilly sensed a swing back against them as the season unwound. The Knights had a slightly positive (149-146) for-and-against penalty differential after the preliminary rounds but lost the penalties 8-3 (Roosters) and 10-3 (Bulldogs) in their two semi-finals. `I thought we'd really turned that around from those early stages,' the coach said.
`The referees were pretty fair, everything was fair dinkum and I had a good relationship with Mick Stone. I still have but I think Mick's been restrained to some extent. `Having won the battle, overall I think the war was badly lost.'
Reilly does not blame refereeing decisions for Newcastle's demise and would be the first to congratulate the Broncos on their premiership success. `Dead-set, I hold the same feeling as the players, and if we'd have had our full squad on board this season and hadn't been struck down by injuries we'd have given any team a shaking,' he said. `We beat Parramatta up here and Sydney City wouldn't have been a trouble for us. `At their best, we were 15 points up then we closed shop and just lacked personnel at the end. Canterbury was a similar story. The penalty count was a factor too but I don't want to whinge on those issues. No club had to go through what we did, going without 11 or so first-team players at different stages. All credit to Mark Hughes and the others but Robbie O is a pretty special player.
`You can virtually guarantee in any game he's going to create a try out of something. We missed the work-rate of Wayne Richards and the yards on play two and three from Adam MacDougall. To be denied one of our best go-forward players in Doogs (MacDougall) was a big blow.'

Mal factor convinces Mac to stay;; Herald. Nov 18, 1997. 
THEY say money speaks all languages, but for Adam MacDougall the chance to play another season under Newcastle Knights mentor Malcolm Reilly was just too good to pass up yesterday. MacDougall, 22, finally signed with the Australian Rugby League premier for a further three years after speculation he would do so last week. Reilly's contract with the Knights is up at the end of the next season when he he expected to head back to his home land, England. However, MacDougall said he turned his back on several tempting million-dollar contracts because he wanted to play under the former English rugby league legend and now premiership-winning coach. `Winning the competition was a major factor but so was Malcolm,' MacDougall said yesterday. `I've got a lot of respect for Malcolm as a coach and as a person. Also the fact that I believe that Malcolm and the team as a whole can help me to achieve my goal for next year, which is to play rep football.'
Reilly was a little taken aback by MacDougall's glowing praise. `That's very flattering of Adam and I appreciate that because he is a good player,' the Knights' coach said. `He had a bad year as far as injury concerns go and a few people lost their patience with him. I've been around the sport a lot of years now and I appreciate what he was going through, the anxiety of wanting to play and be there, but he was unable to participate. But he came good at the right time and the games he did play he's always been one the best on the park.'
MacDougall, who rejoined the Knights at the start of the 1997 season after a stint with Sydney City, only managed a handful of first-grade games after being constantly hampered by a nagging ankle injury. However, the powerful winger or centre is ready to put those injuries behind him and aim for representative honours next season. MacDougall said he had been approached by several clubs in Sydney, where he originally hails from, as well as a number of other cities.
He revealed he also was extremely interested in an offer to play with the Super League-aligned Canberra Raiders under former champion centre Mal Meninga.

Reilly buries all his Hunter hatchets; League; Herald. Nov 8, 1998.
OUTGOING Newcastle coach Mal Reilly has appealed to Knights supporters not to carry out threats to oust chairman Michael Hill. And Reilly has buried the hatchet with former Hunter Mariners figureheads Robert Finch and Graham Murray - even recommending Finch for the Knights' chief representative post. A militant group of Newcastle supporters have threatened to "express their views at the ballot box" over Hill's refusal to reinstate drug offender Wayne Richards. "Michael Hill is a good chairman," said Reilly, who was feted during the week as Huddersfield's new coach. "His heart and soul is in the club. He's taken a stance, which he's had to do. "Wayne is a quality player, so I've got mixed views. But I believe Michael Hill is the man for the job. He gave me a great deal of help while I was there so I've got nothing but praise for him."
Reilly caused a storm in Australia before his departure for Britain with a book in which he was highly critical of Knights chief executive Ian Bonnette. There are unconfirmed reports that if Bonnette was not to stay on, his replacement would be Finch, the Canberra football manger. He and Reilly had a bitter falling-out when Finch left the Knights for Hunter, taking several players with him. "Robert would do a good job - I wouldn't have any qualms about Robert," Reilly said. "Robert and I fell out because of Super League, which was inevitable. "I fell out with some very close friends. You know, Michael Hagan . . . I hope our long-term relationships are never affected."  In a strange twist of fate, Reilly is now a neighbour of Murray - coach of Leeds - in a small village near Castleford in Yorkshire.

Mal rules, OK; 100 Years in the Hunter The Last 25 Years 1976-2000; Herald. Dec 28, 1999. 
SINCE entering the rugby league competition in 1988 the Newcastle Knights have had four coaches: Allan McMahon, David Waite, Malcolm Reilly and Warren Ryan. Allan McMahon, the first coach, was, at the time of his appointment, the reserve coach with Canberra Raiders. He moved to Newcastle in 1987 to help prepare the Knights for the 1988 Winfield Cup season. In all, McMahon coached the Knights for 81 games with 33 wins, 42 losses and six draws. The first season the Knights finished 14th. It finished seventh in its second season; and was beaten by Balmain in a play-off match for fifth position in the third season.
The second coach was David Waite. In 1992, Waite's first full season as coach, the Knights qualified for the play-offs for the first time and beat Wests 21-2 in the first semi-final before losing to Manly. Waite's record with the club shows that he coached the first grade team for 76 matches, winning 34, losing 40 and drawing two. The third coach was Malcolm Reilly who resigned as coach of the England rugby league team to take over the Knights. Reilly's reign began with nine straight wins and Newcastle finished the season (1995) in fifth position. The pinnacle of Mal Reilly's term as coach came in 1997 with the grand final win over Manly. Reilly was replaced with Warren Ryan who so far has had one reasonably successful season.

Reilly a serious contender for coaching job; Jun 10, 2000. 
MALCOLM Reilly, Newcastle's only premiership-winning coach, is still in the running as a possible replacement for retiring Knights mentor Warren Ryan.
Reilly's Newcastle-based manager Mike Tyler addressed a Knights board meeting at chairman Michael Hill's Charlestown office last night. Knights chief executive officer Ian Bonnette confirmed this week other leading candidates Michael Hagan and Terry Lamb had been interviewed on Tuesday night. Hagan, a former Knights captain and assistant coach to Ryan this season, is the favourite for the position. Lamb is coaching the Bulldogs first-division side this season.
The Knights received 12 applications for the coaching position after Ryan announced in April he would be retiring at the end of the season. Bonnette said the selection of the coach would be made by the full board of the club, not a sub-committee. It is not known if a decision was made last night. Hill did not return calls from The Herald. Reilly coached Newcastle from 1995 to 1998, winning the Optus Cup in 1997 in the divided competition during the Super League war.
The former Great Britain representative forward and coach returned to England for family reasons and coached a season with Huddersfield before they merged with Sheffield. `I would be awfully disappointed if it was just a charade listening to my case to bring Malcolm back to the Knights,' Tyler said.
`He is genuinely interested in returning to Newcastle. He will be back in October anyway for his son Glenn's wedding and he still owns a house here, which Warren Ryan is renting. I was in England a month ago and noticed his attitude had changed. He told me if the Knights were serious and there was a genuine offer to coach the club again he was available. I then confirmed in writing to club directors Malcolm's interest. I believe the players want him back, the public want him back and he wants to return to Newcastle because he has an affection for the club and the city and he is the ideal person to bring back together the players, club and the town after the circumstances lately.'  Support for Reilly also flooded into the Knights office yesterday in the form of more than 5000 signatures on a petition presented to the board.

Mal pines for best of British; Mal calls for the best of Britain; Herald. Oct 12, 2000.
FORMER Knights and Great Britain Test coach Malcolm Reilly hopes his countrymen can keep their pride intact at the World Cup this month. Reilly, who returns home on Saturday after a brief trip back to Newcastle, does not expect England, Ireland, Wales or Scotland to challenge Australia. But he said a combined Great Britain side might have gone close. Great Britain's most successful Test coach of the past 20 years, Reilly guided the Lions to 2-1 Ashes Test series losses to Australia in 1988, 1990 and 1992. He also oversaw three wins and a draw in four series against New Zealand. The four countries will go it alone in the 16-nation tournament. England are in Group 1 alongside Australia and are drawn to play them in the Cup opener at Twickenham on October 28. Wales are in Pool 2, and Scotland and Ireland are in Pool 4. `I would have personally picked a Great Britain side, the best 17 on the park to start off with, then picked the home nations from what was left,' Reilly said. Reilly arrived back in Newcastle last week for his son Glen's wedding and to catch up with some of the friends he made during his four years at the Knights. There was speculation that he was in line to replace Warren Ryan, the man who replaced him at the end of 1998, for next season, but the crafty Yorkshireman is comfortably semi-retired. He still owns a house in Bar Beach, which Ryan rented for the past two years, and will keep it so he always has a place to stay for `regular trips' back to Newcastle. Reilly has a part-time job coaching Great Britain's academy (under-18) squad, and a tour of Australia has been mooted for next July. He wished new Knights coach Michael Hagan all the best for next year. Reilly has been out of full-time coaching since the end of 1999. He was sacked one year into a three-year contract with Super League club Huddersfield, who have since formed a joint venture with Sheffield. Reilly began legal action in December against Huddersfield for lost earnings from the final two years, and the case is continuing. He will continue with his academy squad when he returns to British soil. Reilly works with about 36 boys, many of whom have enormous potential. He would like to see more effort put into the game at grassroots level in Great Britain to try to close the gap on Australia.

Waite-Reilly role reversal really ironic in light of Knight times; Feb 28, 2001. pg. 46 
THE irony of David Waite's appointment over Malcolm Reilly as Great Britain's coach hasn't escaped many, especially the vast army of supporters in Newcastle, where Waite preceded the Englishman as coach of the Knights. Reilly frankly admitted in his book that with Newcastle he'd been in the right place at the right time and had learned a great deal. In fact, he said if only he had known when he coached Great Britain what he knew at the end of his time with the Knights things might have been different. If he meant that the Poms would have beaten Australia, he's entitled to his opinion. But whether he realised it, he was paying Waite quite a compliment. Things like technical detail, smart strategy and, probably more obvious than all, the sheer hard yakka of physical training had somehow managed to elude English club football. Reilly, the tough, skilful lock with a killer instinct to match his English predecessors in the lock-forward trade, Derek Turner and Vince Karalius, was, from all reports, a coaching softie. His inheritance at Newcastle though, when he replaced Waite, was a well-schooled, very smart group of players with a seasoned, iron- hard pack led by the ultimate competitor, Paul "The Chief" Harragon. A number of questions will always remain unanswered. Would Waite have achieved the same results had he been allowed to remain in charge? 
Could Reilly have done the developmental groundwork himself, then won with the team?
Or, for that matter, would the Knights have beaten the Broncos of 1997 irrespective of who coached them?
Waite proved he had special qualities when he repaired a broken St George club and took them to the 1996 grand final against Manly. The Saints were in disarray with chief executive Geoff Carr sacked for enraging the Kogarah mob. He had tried to merge with the Roosters. On top of that, coach Brian Smith had "walked" at the end of season '95 muttering that the club had "the smell of Newtown about it".  Well, unlike Newtown, St George didn't disappear. They merged with, or took over, Illawarra. Take your pick. But after a turbulent start to the season, in the first year of the amalgamation, the Dragons were in the grand final up against Melbourne Storm. Coach Waite, with his assistant Andrew Farrar, had somehow managed to coax, cajole and soothe two half-teams to the main event.
In England, Reilly's coaching had taken a turn for the worse at Huddersfield with some humiliating losses. Leeds, coached by Graham Murray, who had been a virtual outcast when he coached the Hunter Mariners in Newcastle, beat Huddersfield by more than 80 points. Mighty Mal, the erstwhile Newcastle hero, had become villain on his home soil. The irony of this wouldn't have been lost on the astute but good-natured Murray. Sacked from club coaching after a merger, Reilly has now quit his job as national under-18 coach in protest over Waite's appointment. Apparently Mal couldn't see the funny side of the role reversal -- him doing spadework for Waite. Common sense suggests that Waite wasn't appointed by the officials entirely off their own bat. A decision like that could be political suicide.
The English players realised, when Waite was a World Cup adviser, that he had more to offer than the locals. Thus the seeds of his appointment were sown.
There is of course, a potentially comical sidelight to it all. If the Poms are duly flogged by the Kangaroos, they'll be able to attribute the entire blame on Australians.

Mal stays neutral in battle of Britain; Herald. Jan 29, 2002.
NEWCASTLE coach Michael Hagan has recruited a small battalion of `spies' in Britain ahead of the World Club Championship but former Knights premiership-winning boss Malcolm Reilly says he is not one of them. The ex-Great Britain mentor and Test hero will catch up with the Novocastrians this week for a few beers but insists he will not be involved in the Knights' crusade. London coach Tony Rea, ex-St Helens forward David Fairleigh and Hull assistant coach Tony Anderson have all been asked for their opinions on how the NRL premiers can become World Club Champions by beating Bradford at McAlpine Stadium on Saturday morning (AEDT).  But Reilly, unlike that trio not an Australian and now assistant coach at Leeds, says he is staying away from the issue. 
`No, no,' he replied when asked if he had been providing any tips on the Bulls. `I'm meeting up with Butts (Knights director and ex-player Tony Butterfield), I'm looking forward to that. I'm meeting up with some of the players,' he said. `But that's it.' 
As one of Great Britain's most celebrated players, Reilly will suffer a bad case of divided loyalties on Friday. He is patriotic enough to have publicly criticised the appointment of Australian David Waite as Great Britain boss but pro-Knights enough to have imported crates of Tooheys from the city. Reilly has kept in touch with officials and players since departing the club. He says the keys for Newcastle will be to get over their travel as quickly as possible and take the right attitude into the game. Australia's first-Test loss to Britain on November 11 provides evidence of the hazards of jet lag, he says. `Bradford are a very physical side and I think, traditionally, when the Australian teams have come over their preparations have been short,' Reilly said. `Wigan have won it a couple of times, Widnes has won it, Saints have. It depends how they (Newcastle) are taking it. `They've got a lot of football in their side but the travel will be a problem for them, I'd say, as it was for the Test team when they came over. They've got a lot of football in theirside, but the travel will be a problem. 

Reilly is dark horse for coach at Tigers - 26 July 2002 
Former Great Britain coach Malcolm Reilly last night entered calculations as the Wests Tigers board met late into last night to decide on a coach. 
Having already been turned down by St Helens' Ian Millward and Brisbane's Craig Bellamy, the joint venture has shut up shop over who will replace Terry Lamb next year. "The board meeting is still in progress, there's hours to go," chairman John Chalk said late last night. "We haven't really discussed the coaching situation in any detail yet."
But sources close to the club last night told the Herald that Reilly, the Leeds assistant coach, would be touted at last night's meeting as a possible recruitment target. 
Reilly has also been publicly backed by Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay as the man to replace David Waite as Great Britain boss. "Discipline is what the club needs and he won a comp only five years ago," the source said. It's understood financial concerns and some organisational stipulations stand in the way of ex-North Queensland boss Tim Sheens getting the job. Wests Tigers officials are insisting Balmain and Western Suburbs continue as NSW first-division sides while many of the prospective coaches want them to amalgamate. Asked if that issue was non-negotiable, Chalk said: "I don't know, it's not even on the agenda." 
After leaving Newcastle in 1998, Reilly took over at Huddersfield but was let go after failing to make an impact with the Yorkshire club. He was then the Britain under-21s coach and is now the Leeds assistant coach. Like Sheens, he would welcome an opportunity to repair his reputation after his most recent appointment did not go according to plan. Current Wests Tigers assistant Paul Langmack yesterday hinted in an interview with AAP that he would re-enter the race for the job if asked. But the club is yet to make that phone call and the list of candidates currently stands at: Sheens, Reilly, Gary Freeman, Shane Flanagan, Bob Lindner and John Cartwright. Another possible addition is Hull's Shaun McRae, the longest-serving coach in the British Super League. 

Reilly to lead the Robins' bold bid - Dec 10 2003 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner 
FORMER Giants coach Malcolm Reilly insists he is aiming high as he takes charge of National League Hull Kingston Rovers. Reilly, who proved a successful Great Britain coach and led Newcastle Knights to Australian Grand Final glory, was yesterday named as the new team manager at Craven Park as the under-achieving club unveiled a high-profile replacement for the departed Steve Linnane. As part of a bold set of appointments by the Yorkshire outfit, current National League I coach of the year Martin Hall was also brought in to work under Reilly as head coach. Reilly has spent the past two years working as an assistant coach at Super League Leeds Rhinos but is now relishing the task of trying to take Rovers into the top flight. The 55-year-old, who took his first training session last night, said: "It is going to be an interesting one. It is something I am looking forward to. "I have seen very little of the squad but I have seen a couple of videos and there is potential. There is a fair bit there and we are going to have to build on it. "We will do evaluations of the players to see what level we are at and to ultimately improve that level and attain what we are searching for. "If it is not at that level we have got to go looking elsewhere for it. We have all got big expectations." Reilly was tempted to take on the job by former Great Britain international Phil Lowe, a teammate from their playing days at Manly. Lowe, who spent the majority of his playing career at Rovers and is a former club chairman, also formally confirmed his return as football director. Ex-Wigan forward Hall has made a big impression as a coach at Rochdale but was looking for a new challenge after leaving his Spotland post at the end of last season. Hall said: "At the end of the season it was time to move onwards and upwards. The opportunity to coach a side who are joint favourites for promotion to Super League and extend my personal coaching education through the mentorship of Malcolm Reilly is the ideal next step." Club chief executive Nick Halafihi is confident the ambitious appointments will bear fruit. "We would like to think people in the game, and not just in east Hull, will sit up and take notice," he said. "The foundations for a genuine Super League challenge have begun."Reilly released by Hull KR 20 August, 2004Former Great Britain coach Malcolm Reilly has had his contract terminated as team manager of National League club Hull Kingston Rovers.  The 55-year-old joined the Super League hopefuls last December but "does not believe that the role he was performing was working out".  A club statement read: "All parties agreed that Malcolm has taken the club as far as he can.  "Both he and the club have agreed to part company on amicable terms." December 10, 2003   Reilly tempted to revive fortunes of Hull KR By Christopher Irvine 
HULL Kingston Rovers, who were last a force almost 20 years ago, made promotion to the Tetley’s Super League a priority with the appointment as football manager yesterday of Malcolm Reilly, the former Great Britain coach. It was one of a series of bold changes at the National League division one club.  Reilly will work alongside Martin Hall, the former Wigan hooker and new head coach, who left Rochdale Hornets last month, in a deal struck by Phil Lowe, one of the club’s most famous old boys, who returns to Craven Park as director of rugby. “The foundations for a genuine Super League challenge have begun,” Nick Halafihi, the Rovers chief executive, said. The club had originally contacted Reilly for a reference for another candidate. “One thing led to another and here I am. I wanted to get back into the game and am pleased Martin is here, too,” he said.  The England Under-17 team is looking to win the junior international series against the Australian Institute of Sport team in Featherstone tonight after a 28-22 victory over their opponents last week.

THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM GEORGE PIGGINS GREAT BOOK 'NEVER SAY DIE'
Re the famous brawl with English Hardman Malcolm Reilly, then playing for Manly.
George tell is like this, "In the course of a career all players have stories to tell, of days that went very right and days that went very wrong. Most people would put the Reilly fight into the second category. My brawl with Reilly took place at what was then football's 'home' the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground), on an afternoon in 1973 when Souths were playing there keenest rivals, Manly. Malcolm was a very tough player, and a bloody good one. Manly paid a fortune to bring him from England, and he gave them value, despite hobbling on a crook knee for much of the time. Anyone who tries to tell you that Englishmen arn't tough ..... forget it. Reilly pretty much introduced the lethal elbow into football and boy, he did some damage in the seasons he played. Anyhow we were playing Manly at the SCG in a second round game. These matches always had plenty of sting. Manly were our main challengers in that era and the defending champions that year, having won their first title in 1972. But there was no existing feud or anything like that between me and Reilly. What happened, just happened. At a certain moment in the game, I tackled him head on, across in front to the Ladies Stand side of the ground. Reilly had kicked me in the mouth in an earlier tackle, damaging my jaw, and I had put a shot on him then. When they separated us, we had both been cautioned. This second time he came down on me and as he got up he virtually played the ball on top of me, and his boot crashed down onto my jaw, the sprigs raking my mouth, ripping and tearing flesh from around my teeth. When that happend I thought, "You bludger, you did that on purpose" and I whacked him. We grabbed each other and there were a couple of headbutts and punches thrown. Meanwhile the game went on. Laurie Bruyers, a sergeant major style of fer who officiated with his collar stiffly startched, ran past. "Cut it out!" he yelled. "If you keep going, I'II send you off". We had hold of each other at that point and I said to Reilly, "If we carry it on, we'll be off the paddock." Yeah", he said.
I relaxed my hold and next thing he let me have it - a big Liverpool Kiss. Then it was really on. I grabbed him and came up hard with my head in close. I had a bit of strength and I was able to fling him to the ground and lob on top of him. I'm trying to give it to him, and hes' trying to get me off andget back to his feet. In that sort of situation, I am a street fighter. It's win at all costs. Anyhow, it got a lot worse when he shoved a finger in my eye - I don't know whether it was deliberate or not, it could have been accidental. But I saw red. "Oh, you want to gouge, you bastard!" I yelled at him. I went straight for one of his eyes, and I'll swear I had it out in my hand. Ray Branighan, an ex-team mate with Souths who had joined Manly, ran in at exactly that moment and pushed me, and Reilly's right eye popped back in.
Then referee Bruyeres, who had followed the play, was back on the scene and sent both us off. Anyhow a couple of nights later when Reilly and I fronted the judiciary, his eye was badly inflamed. And my jaw was swollen to buggery. At the NSW Leagues Club in Phillip Street before the hearing, hesaid to me, "Who did that to you?" And I said, "You did, you bludger", Anyway Reilly asked me if I was going to have a drink. I said, fine, and he bought me a schooner of lemonade. Then we went upstairs and faced the judiciary and were suspended for three weeks. The charge was head butting.
"What went on wasn't good for the game," said judiciary chairman Dick Dunn. I could only agree with him. "It was good for nobody" I told the media blokes. After that incident I never had any problems with Malcolm. "
AN EXTRACT FROM GEORGE PIGGINS BOOK - NEVER SAY DIE --- FROM PAN MACMILLIAN AUSTRALIA.

Mal Reilly's secret talks with Knights - Battling club eyes old hero; Sunday Telegraph. Jul 3, 2005.
MALCOLM Reilly has held talks with Newcastle about a possible return to the club he guided to its first premiership in 1997.
Speaking from his home in England, Reilly confirmed that he and wife, Sue, want to move to Australia and said he would love to help out the struggling Knights.
Reilly has been earmarked for a football management position when the club finalises a major restructure of operations after a mid- season upheaval that saw Mark Sargent resign as football manager. "It's speculation at this point in time, but I have been speaking to someone [at Newcastle]," Reilly said. "I would be very interested. My son lives out there now, so I'm looking for a change of country actually. It's difficult when you've got a grandson [in Australia] too. Obviously I know the dilemma the Knights are in and I know how passionately the supporters feel about the club. If there's anything I could do to help out, I'd obviously stick my hand up." Knights chairman Mike Tyler was heavily involved in recruiting the former Great Britain Test coach in 1994 and said last night that the Knights would only benefit from having Reilly on board. Tyler, though, was also quick to point out that Reilly was no threat to incumbent coach Michael Hagan, who still has a year to run on his contract. "I've certainly had a lot of people say to me wouldn't it be wonderful to get Malcolm back," Tyler said. "He walked a foot off the ground in this town and he achieved the impossible dream for us, so his stature in Newcastle is legendary. It would be nice to have Malcolm back in the fold, it's just a matter of finding the right position and seeing if our structure would allow us to gethim back." Reilly earned hero status in 1997 when Darren Albert scored a last-ditch try to give Newcastle a stunning grand final victory over Manly at the SFS. It was the club's first premiership and the city of Newcastle was awash with revellers for weeks. The former English Test forward returned to the UK at the end of the 1998 season. He and his wife now run a business that imports and restores antique furniture. Reilly wants to be based in Newcastle near his family and said his only interest in the NRL would be with the Knights. He confirmed he is not interested in coming back as a coach. "I wouldn't think so, no, but I'd give support to anyone,' Reilly said. "I love the club. I had four great years there and I just loved it.
"I'm pretty passionate about the place. Maybe down the track something might develop, I don't know. It's obvious they're going through a major transition period and there are financial problems also, combined with injuries and Origin [withdrawals]. It's very difficult for them and it's very difficult for Michael Hagan. I can appreciate that."

Reillys on way back for family; Herald. May 27, 2006. 
FORMER Knights coach Malcolm Reilly will have a new grand-daughter waiting to greet him when he returns to Newcastle to live this year.
Reilly and wife Sue have sold their West Yorkshire home in preparation for their move back to Newcastle in July, when the former Great Britain player and coach will take up a marketing and PR position for Knights beer sponsors Bluetongue. Their son Glen and daughter-in-law Kathryn welcomed Marli Rose Reilly (2920 grams and 49 centimetres) into the world at Newcastle Private Hospital on May 18. Marli's older brother Flynn turns three next Tuesday.
Glen said his parents took less than 48 hours to sell their home of 30 years, a 16th Century cottage in the quaint village of Ledsham, near Castleford, and were in the market for a house in the vicinity of Merewether or Bar Beach. "They can't wait to get back across here to see their grandson and their new grand-daughter," Glen said. "They're looking for somewhere to live in the Merewether area so they can be close to us. We emailed them a photo from the hospital and they've been sending us emails and text messages all the time asking about her."
Glen said Kathryn was developing photos at the counter of a department store two weeks ago when she felt the first contractions of labour and gave birth 50 minutes later. "Kathryn rang me at 12.15, I picked her up and we were at the hospital by 12.45, then one push and Marli was out by 12.50," he said. "I was worried that the first thing she was going to see was the glove box of our car, but we made it and everything worked out. Kathryn showered and dressed within the hour and we went upstairs to see her."

Reilly and Butterfield reunite for 2020 vision; Herald. Aug 19, 2006. 
WHEN Malcolm Reilly was coaching the Knights and needed someone to do the hard yards, he called on Tony Butterfield. Back in town selling and spruiking Bluetongue beer, Reilly has again anointed his premiership-winning book-end as his go-to man by signing up with Butterfield's 2020 Sports management company.
"Mal has been inundated with requests for product endorsements and speaking engagements since he came back to town," Butterfield said. Reilly joins fellow grand final-winning coaches Wayne Bennett and Tim Sheens, boxing trainer Johnny Lewis, golfing personality Jack Newton and his sporting offspring Clint and Kristie in the 2020 stable. Anyone interested in securing Reilly's services for a guest speaking or promotional gig can contact Butterfield at 2020 on 0412 683765.
Andrew Johns and Danny Buderus will be guest speakers next Friday at a lunch to help Knights junior Joel Brown, younger brother of first-grader Riley, raise funds for his trip to Britain and France with the Australian Schoolboys this year. Australia's "winningest" jockey, Allan Robinson, who recently reclaimed the national record for most wins in a season, will be master of ceremonies for the function, which kicks off at 12.30pm at Merewether's Burwood Inn.
Tickets are $80 from Knights team manager Garry Callaghan on 0408 278883. As he reveals in the Once-A-Knight feature on this page, Peter Shiels is returning to Newcastle soon to open a gym at Toronto. But where has the lanky former Penrith junior been and what has he been up to for most of this year?
A stand-out winner for most exotic post-football career path, Shiels has spent the past eight months playing Texas Hold-Em Poker in the casinos of Las Vegas.
"Maybe it was an early mid-life crisis, but it was heaps of fun," Shiels said. "I had a ball. Vegas is one of the best cities in the world."