Fresh Knights disgrace paints ugly picture as club great Alex McKinnon snubbed
After being walloped by the Storm on the weekend, news emerged on Monday that coach Adam O'Brien will be moved on at the end of the year unless the team played finals footy in 2025 – a prospect that is highly unlikely.
And then came the dagger blow for the Newcastle faithful, that superstar fullback Kalyn Ponga had grown fed up at the club and was sussing out options elsewhere.
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The report on Monday suggested the No. 1 may leave the club as soon as at the end of 2025, despite still having two years to go in his contract.
But the absolute shambles the club is currently in couldn't have been more perfectly captured than by one moment on Saturday that flew under the radar.
Former Knights enforcer Alex McKinnon decided to go to support his side against the Storm on the weekend.
However, he wasn't given a special seat or even free entry, even though he became a quadriplegic from a tackle gone wrong while playing for the red and blue in 2014.
Instead, he coughed up for a general admission ticket and sat on the hill as the Knights lost 32-14.
But despite all he gave for the club and the suffering he endured, it wasn't paying his way or the lacklustre performance on Saturday that upset him, it was the insensitivity in the organisation of what unfolded on the field before kick-off.
According to Code Sports, McKinnon was made aware by a distraught fan that out on the field were ambassadors of Stronger Together – a spinal support organisation that provides support for those affected by spinal cord injuries.
Incredibly not only was McKinnon not asked or informed about this, but it was scheduled against the Storm – the club that the former Knight was playing against on the afternoon of the incident that would change his life forever.
And according to veteran journalist David Riccio, it is moments like that which show just how out of touch the club and its CEO Phil Gardner are.
'It illustrates how out of touch Gardener is with what makes Newcastle great. It's history. It's passion. It's people,' Riccio wrote in an article for Code Sports.
'Of all the home games this season that the Knights could have chosen, they selected a home game against the Melbourne Storm to promote a spinal cord charity.
'The Knights have had eight previous home games and still have three more to go.'
Members of the Newcastle staff reportedly contacted McKinnon to personally apologise for what they described as 'an oversight'.
The Knights will return to McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday afternoon to face the rampaging Warriors.
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