Parramatta 24 Newcastle 23
BRIAN Smith is not about the old, at Newcastle or Parramatta. There's too much hurt in that. So he's about the new. But last night, with one minute and 32 seconds remaining of the first half of golden-point extra-time, the ghosts of the past came to haunt him like never before.
A field goal to Eels fullback Luke Burt sealed a match far more melodramatic than the off-field politics that had given this game - as it will be for seasons to come - its raw edge.
"I'm hurting like hell. We had two points on ice," a fired-up coach Smith said afterwards.
In the end, it went something like this … Knights five-eighth Jarrod Mullen looked like he'd snatched it with six to go in normal time when he landed a field goal. It hit the upright. Referee Tony Archer looked left. Looked right. Awarded the single digit to give the Knights a 23-22 lead.
But anything a young playmaker can do, a rough-headed prop and captain to do better: the Eels' Nathan Cayless - of all people - potted an equaliser with two minutes and 51 seconds remaining. It was his 30th birthday yesterday, by the way.
Mullen tried to spoil it when he returned fire with 44 seconds on the clock - geez, you readers better appreciate how hard it is to rattle off copy like this on tight deadlines - but it shaved one of the uprights like a Mach 4.
In the minutes after half-time, the Eels like looked they had it, leading 20-12 before the Knights snuck right back in with tries to centres Wes Naiqama and Keith Lulia.
In the minutes before kick-off, subtext hung heavy in the cool, here-comes-winter air: Tim Smith returning from shoulder recons and rehab; Eels coach Michael Hagan and the Knights' Brian Smith squaring off against their former sides; former Knights champion Andrew Johns, now a coaching specialist for both sides, calling for Channel Nine on the sideline.
But the emotional undercurrent belonged to the presence of Nathan Hindmarsh, who played on despite the death of his father, Bill, on Wednesday morning to throat cancer.
The thought of being there for Hindmarsh did not ensure a heaving Parramatta Stadium crowd. But it surely did not matter to the player: the entire Hindmarsh clan from Robertson were in the stands. At the Robertson Bowling Club, where Bill was a regular fixture, the place was jumping with the Eels on the big-screen.
"It's packed," Kerry shouted down line from behind the bar. "He was one-of-a-kind. A character. Everyone's in good spirits down here … It will be different on Tuesday, though, when we have the funeral."
They'd hardly sunk their noses into the first middie of black when Eels five-eighth Brett Finch had engineered two tries for centre Jarryd Hayne in the opening eight minutes.
Finch - a former sandboy at Newcastle - is off contract this year. Three UK Super League clubs are circling. It might not be long before ones closer to home do the same.
While Smith might be all about the new at Newcastle, he remembers the old from his years Parramatta.
When his former side bolted to a 10-0 lead, the Knights steered the play so intensely towards Eric Grothe that the Eels wingman had every right to take it as an insult.
Rather, he ran in off his wing and looked on forlornly as Knights centre Lulia beat the cover defence to his patch of turf.
In ensuing sets, Knights five-eighth Jarrod Mullen and halfback Scott Dureau cross-kicked and then, in the 30th minute, Grothe was clutching at vapour again as Lulia's wingman Cooper Vuna crossed to give the visitors a 12-10 lead. Vuna did his best to blow it, coming within centimetres of the dead-ball line before planting it.
Someone needs to tell him that his coach has had too many palpitations at this place. Joey couldn't help but chime in: "Move Grothe to other wing."
On this occasion, Hagan knows one thing better than his former halfback and captain and current coaching specialist: if there is one thing Grothe [itals]can do, it's find the stripe. Just before the break, he dragged in a Joel Reddy pass and muscled across the line, shrugging off Newcastle fullback Kurt Gidley.
As the half wound down, the former sandboy had had enough. When lock Feleti Mateo galloped downfield, Finch loomed inside like a ghost to score beneath the post and provide a 20-12 half-time lead.
PARRAMATTA 24 (J Hayne 2 B Finch E Grothe tries L Burt 3 goals L Burt N Cayless field goals) bt NEWCASTLE 23 (K Lulia 2 W Naiqama C Vuna tries K Gidley 3 goals J Mullen field goal) in golden-point extra time at Parramatta Stadium. Referee: T Archer. Crowd: 15,176.
