Or is there just a momentum and maybe just a sense of destiny about this Newcastle Knights team?

Yeah, I think there is.

You've been involved with some great premiership teams yourself.

And the reality is it doesn't matter what people are saying on the outside, it's what you're saying on the inside.

And it's about self-belief and it's about being in your own bubble.

And ultimately, belief is the strongest sniffing salt in the world for sports people.

So the reality is that I went through a similar situation in 97 and even 2001.

So what are you telling us about? What does it mean for the Knights to go up and give it to those roosters to pluck them?

That's a cool little stat there for you guys.

And a great story there, guys, is the grand final breakfast.

I remember we went to the grand final breakfast and we played with a lot of Parramatta guys that season in the rep football state of origin for Australia.

And I remember Andrew Johns getting on the team bus and grabbing the microphone and saying, hey, guys, we've got these guys beat.

He said, we're already in their heads.

None of the guys would speak to us at breakfast.

Nathan Highmarsh and, you know, a few of the guys who we played at football, we turned their backs and said they weren't, you know, basically going to be able to speak to us.

What an Australian success story that is.

Did you find that in yourself as a player, that it sort of helped you perform to your best, being able to get that one-on-one battle, whether it be personal or just confrontation with your opposite player? Did you find that helped?

Yeah, it certainly does.

I mean, I remember, you know, early in my career, I'd come into first grade as, you know, an 18-year-old kid.

And I remember sitting on the sideline and, you know, obviously playing against, you know, guys like, you know, the Mal Meningas and the Gared McCrackens of the world.

These guys, for a lot of people who know rugby league, were pretty scary guys.

And, uh, certainly, you know, a good tip that Phil Gould gave me was, you know, just, uh, every time, you know, you tackle someone like that, you get up and tell them, "Great run, mate," you know, "Just keep going.

You're going good today." But, uh, certainly some of the younger guys that you played against when I was coming through probably could have took that advice.

I mean, fair dinkum, what, what a Australian success story that is.