Stand by for one of the best Australian sports stories ever … and not a fairytale in sight

My ambition? To write one of the few sports columns this week that doesn’t use the word “fairytale” – oops, there I go – about the possibility of the Knights winning the grand final having been wooden-spooners this time last year.

Truly, though, if they can win, as I wrote on Monday, it really will be one of the best stories of Australian sport. EVER.

Look, If the Roosters win, the people of the Eastern Suburbs will be mostly very pleased. Some will be thrilled. If the Knights win, the entire Hunter region will lose its nut and be delirious for months to come.

The thing about the Knights tribe is that they are impossible not to like and admire. They’ve stayed with the team through thick and thin. They’ve turned up. They’ve roared themselves hoarse. And they’re a cut above when it comes to sportsmanship.

Already, one of the most moving things in sport this year came when – as detailed by Tom Decent – Penrith’s Nathan Cleary was stretchered from the field last Sunday after Phoenix Crossland’s tackle went wrong and broke his ankle.

“In a true act of sportsmanship, Knights fans rose as one to their feet to clap the champion halfback from the field.”

Who does that? They did that.

CARN the Knights!

NRL’s Arrow tribute misses target

Which brings us to the news that a tribute to Jai Arrow will be the core feature of the pre-game show at the grand final. Allow me to say this carefully, after quiet consultation with many denizens of the wider league community who have confirmed that I am not alone in my view on this sensitive topic:

Yeah … nah.

The way that the South Sydney club, Arrow himself, and the whole league community have handled the tragedy of his motor neurone disease diagnosis has been nothing short of magnificent.

The gestures of support – especially with footballers across the country, from all codes, miming firing an arrow after scoring – have been heartfelt, spontaneous and organic.

Arrow was given dispensation to make his 99th and 100th appearances for Souths, walking out for the final time in a Rabbitohs jersey at the last game of the season against the Roosters at Allianz Stadium. Arrow and his family received a standing ovation as they entered the field to the strains of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

The last episode was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments, where people wept and were reminded of just how wonderful the sports community – for that’s the word – can be at its best, and the tribe comes together to honour and show shoulder-to-shoulder solidarity with one of its own cherished sons.

But to attempt to make that a twice-in-a-lifetime moment, with Arrow doing another lap at Homebush on Sunday as Amy Shark sings the same song? It feels like something an NRL crisis meeting came up with after the late collapse of negotiations with Tones and I.

The meeting needed someone to stand up and say, “Guys, I know your hearts are in the right place. But seriously, Nah. That would feel too contrived, and possibly even exploitative.

“We can’t use someone’s medical condition and the emotion their situation will inevitably generate in place of what used to be the entertainment slot. Souths have already done it, and it was brilliant and deeply moving because it was so pure and genuine.

“This would risk taking that purity, and trying to use it as a stopgap to cover for our own stuff-up in not having an act, while the AFL got Kylie. It would be at least a bit off. Honouring Jai is a great idea. Having a pre-match show is a must. But making them one and the same thing is … awkward.”

Nathan’s extraordinary courage

And now, sadly, the Wallabies have their own saga in the same field.

Back in 2013, for a school project, Katarina Welborn – the daughter of former Wallaby John Welborn – interviewed rising rugby star Nathan Charles as he nudged towards his first Wallabies selection, about having been born with cystic fibrosis.

“The most confronting question I have ever been asked is the one about life expectancy,” he replied. “Thirty-seven is just a number. I have never let myself be defined by it. When I think about the future, I don’t think about the life expectancy. I cannot see myself declining in health any time soon.

“I have so many hopes and dreams for the future, and I don’t let that number interfere with that. Professionally, my hope for the future is to play for the Wallabies and do my country, friends and family proud. At the moment, I want to keep doing what I love, and that is rugby.”

Nathan did all that and more, and – despite that diagnosis and having to consume an array of pills every day of his life – had a hugely successful rugby career, which was an inspiration to fellow sufferers.

He’d played as a hooker for all of Knox, CAS, Australian Schoolboys, Canterbury Bulldogs SG Ball, Sydney University, Western Force, Gloucester, Wasps, Bath, Clermont-Auvergne, Melbourne Rebels and the Wallabies. Due to be married next year, all seemed set for a great post-rugby life.

Alas, this week, the news broke. Nathan, also, has been diagnosed with MND. He’s 37.

“My first question,” he told Justin Harrison on Stan, “was, ‘How long have I got?’ I really only know what you see and hear [about MND]. I know that every person with MND has a different journey and path, and it affects everyone differently. I know there’s no cure, and your physicality and body deteriorate, cutting your life short.

“I am already greatly impacted by it. I get around with mobility aids and struggle with many daily tasks. Putting on shoes and socks is a challenge.”

As noted by Iain Payten in this masthead, the average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to three years.

In the face of it, Nathan’s courage is extraordinary.

“My initial mindset was, ‘I’m now doing things for the last time’. Instead, I really want to flip the script and say, ‘I want to start doing things for the first time’.”

There is no known connection between cystic fibrosis and MND, though questions are being asked more frequently as to whether there is a connection between MND and football with – seemingly – more and more professionals being diagnosed with it.

Whatever Nathan’s own future is, he wants to make the most of it.

“You’re going to have your challenging days, and understanding that allows you to reset and say, ‘Righto mate, today is today, what are you going to with it?’”

Like Arrow, he has shown not an ounce of self-pity. Just courage. Bravo, Nathan, and all strength to you.

A GoFundMe page has been set up in his name to help out with the huge medical costs to come, and we of the Cauliflower Club will be kicking in. Nathan will be coming to our Bledisloe lunch on the day before the Sydney Test where we, too, will show him the love.

Stop the World, I’m getting off

Do you remember Vozinha, the breakout star goalkeeper from the 2026 FIFA World Cup? He was 40 years old and more anonymous than a wrong number when Cape Verde – the Atlantic Ocean’s answer to Woop Woop – shocked everyone in the opening match against Spain, by refusing to buckle.

Vozinha kept some of the world’s best players scoreless as he leapt about in the goalmouth like an acrobat on a trampoline that had been bitten on the bottom by a hornet.

Bursting into tears at the final whistle, he was named player of the match and so captured the world’s imagination that, courtesy of a Brazilian streamer Casimiro Miguel, who urged his audience to give him a follow on Instagram, he went from three-fifths-of-you-know-all followers when the tournament began, to 28 million followers now.

So what’s it like, a few months later, to be this globally famous?

Not good. In an interview with The Observer this week, he said: “I’ve lost my peace and tranquillity; I no longer have any privacy … To be honest, if I were offered the life I have today or the life I had before, I’d choose the one I had before.”

What They Said

Newcastle Knights hooker Phoenix Crossland, after his tackle on Sunday shattered Nathan Cleary’s ankle: “I called him yesterday. It was a tough phone call. I had to apologise and make sure he was doing all right. I reached out to his dad as well. I apologised to him. [Nathan’s] such a gentleman. He told me to stop saying sorry. He understood the situation, he was a class act and he was really good about it.”

Nathan Cleary on social media: “Please don’t be one of these people writing comments like this to Phoenix, it was a complete accident and he doesn’t deserve this unwarranted hate. He reached out to apologise and I have nothing but respect for him. He’s a competitor and our game is made up of split second moments that sometimes lead to unfortunate circumstances. Comments like this are so unfair. Spread love not hate.” Geez, Louise, that is classy from Cleary.

Despite the imploring of Andrew Johns, Silverchair will not be performing at the NRL grand final as they made clear in a statement: “For the first time in ages, the three of us actually agree wholeheartedly about something. GO KNIGHTS.”

Wallabies coach Les Kiss on the end of the victorious Test against the Springboks where, instead of a Test XV, all we had at one stage was a 1st XI: “I think you can plan for many things, we talked about our 6-2 [bench] … but nothing could have prepared us for that.”

Brisbane Lion Josh Dunkley on how they prepared for the Fremantle Dockers’ victory song: “We talked about ‘Wharfie Time’ and making that our energy. When I looked around at centre bounce and Wharfie Time came on, we all looked at each other and we connected and we grew a leg and then got it done, it’s unbelievable.”

Lions coach Chris Fagan to the Dockers, in the on-field speeches: “I know you’ll be feeling tremendously disappointed right now, but if I was being completely honest you guys probably deserved to win the game today. But my boys, they’ve got a stack of heart and they know how to fight their way right to the end, and we’ve been able to do that two weeks in a row, and now we’ve got three premierships in a row to show for it.” On Thursday, Fagan announced his retirement. Again, all class.

In his post-match press conference, Fagan confirmed Wharfie Time had been discussed at a team meeting the day before the grand final: “We hadn’t heard it before so I wanted the players to hear it first of all, and understand what it meant to Fremantle, then just to say to them, ‘well, if they do play it, then maybe we can use it as a sign for us to get cracking’.”

The Pope, a Chicago White Sox fan, asked if he had anything to do with them making the playoffs ‌for the first time since 2021: “No comment.”

Peter V’landys, on the grand final entertainment: “We’re going to turn the lights off, then turn them on with 11 minutes to go and everyone can see what we’ve got. Of course we have [something up our sleeve]. That’s the beauty of it, we’ll probably have the highest ratings in Australian TV 10 minutes before the game because everyone wants to see what we’re going to do.” [See delicate diatribe.]

Golfer Cameron Smith, on whether he will stay sitting in the smoking ruins of what used to be LIV: “[We’re] in a bit of a limbo … we don’t really know. It’s hard to make a decision when you don’t have at least some of the answers to make the right decision, or [any] decision. We need a few more answers.” Cam? Take a tip. It’s over. The whole thing was a lucrative disgrace. You got your money. Salvage what you can of the rest of your career.

Team of the week

Knights and Roosters. Contesting Sunday’s NRL grand final.