Celebrating their 30th year in the competition, the Newcastle Knights were greeted pre-game by 17 of the most-capped legends at the club, and coach Nathan Brown believes it was the boost his side needed to help snap a 19-game losing streak against the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday.
The thrilling 34-26 victory over an injury plagued Titans outfit looked like it was slipping away from the Knights when they trailed by four points with 10 minutes left to play, before tries to outside backs Peter Mata'utia and Nathan Ross sealed the win in front of a loyal 12,869 crowd in Newcastle.
Brown said he was happy to get the result after missing the chance against the Warriors last weekend.
"I'm really happy for everyone, from the fans to the players," Brown said.
"We had a lot of old boys there today, I would like to think it had a good effect.
"It's quite evident that winning hasn't been something that's been around for a while with the young kids.
"We started well, led 12-nil and were well on top like last week.
"To fall behind and then come back and get to the front and then when we did, close the game obviously really well compared to the same situation last week… A fair bit of that's got to do with belief and about actually knowing how to get over the line.
"It feels good for everyone to have a win."
Knights skipper Trent Hodkinson said the team didn't panic despite trailing for a second week in a row.
"We've been in that situation before where we were behind and clawed our way back and got out in front," Hodkinson said.
"There was positive stuff said behind the goal line and everyone wanted to get back there and rip in straight away.
"It was just an opportunity that we had to work our butts off to get back in front.
"I'm proud of the boys effort they did that, it's been a long time coming and lot of hard work.
"It's a huge relief to be honest, and to do it in front of our home fans.
"That's our standard now and we need to go back and work on things that let us down because there were certain things.
"We're not going to be happy to settle with just this win."
