Long-suffering Newcastle fans won’t want to hear it but Greg Inglis has revealed he was overlooked by the Knights before launching his stunning NRL career with Melbourne.
As a teenager, Inglis had already been snapped up on a $500 contract by the Storm.
But Inglis conceded he still had his fingers crossed that he would be offered a Newcastle deal to be closer to his family at home town of Kempsey.
“I signed with Melbourne when I was 14, got my manager at 15, then 16 came (in 2003) and I was like ‘actually I don’t want to go to Melbourne,” Inglis told The Take with Willie Mason podcast.
“I wanted to be close to my family. Family was very important to me – like anyone’s family.
“Newcastle was only three hours down the road from my home town.
“”I kept saying (to his manager) ‘how about Newcastle?’ My manager at the time … kept enquiring but he said they can’t do anything.
“By the end of that year, no one had approached me about staying at Newcastle.”
Inglis still seems perplexed that he was snubbed by the Knights despite being right under their noses, playing for Newcastle club Western Suburbs Rosellas and attending Hunter Sports High School.
“I played for them (Rosellas) for the whole year with Lukey Walsh and Jarrod Mullen and they were signed to Newcastle at the time,” Inglis said.
“They were playing seven and six at the time and I was playing No.1.
“I was like, ‘let’s just go with this and I’ll just try and get with Newcastle’ and nothing came back.”
The Knights – and NSW – have no doubt been kicking themselves ever since.
Instead of linking with Newcastle, Inglis stuck with Melbourne and was sent by the Storm to Brisbane’s Wavell State High where he embraced the Queensland way.
When it came to choosing his State of Origin allegiance, Inglis chose the Maroons despite his Kempsey roots.
History shows Inglis enjoyed a stellar career at the Storm and Queensland.
After earning superstar status in a dominant Melbourne stint from 2005-2010, he helped inspire South Sydney’s drought-breaking premiership victory in 2014.
Inglis was also a key to Queensland’s stunning run of 11 Origin series wins in 12 years, including eight straight.
And Newcastle? It’s fair to say they are still ruing the one that got away.
The Knights last tasted finals action seven years ago, collecting the wooden spoon in 2016 and 2017 – much to former Newcastle forward Mason’s frustration.
“Joey (Knights great Andrew Johns) and myself …argue about who the hell let you go from Newcastle,” Mason said on the podcast.
“You were right there in our catchment and they let you go. Why didn’t the Knights grab you?”