The Knights may triumph, but who will win Newcastle?

October 1, 2026 — 5:00am

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Whatever else it signifies, if Newcastle wins Sunday’s NRL grand final, much of the satisfaction locals in the Hunter will take from it will come from the defiant middle finger it will unfurl to Sydney.

Perhaps more than any other city in Australia, Newcastle and the wider Hunter Valley operate on a sort of perma-reactionary instinct bred from a chip which is not so much on the shoulder as it is embedded in the DNA. It’s a region which feels constantly neglected, yet hates change. Craves recognition but can’t stand outsiders who stick their noses in. In any debate, first sense-check which position seems most analogous to something Sydney might do. That’s the loser.

Which, beyond the footy, is instructive in the build-up to the next state election in NSW.

When I moved to Newcastle in the early 2010s, the city was going through a seismic change. After Labor’s 2011 election wipeout, the region had turned blue in a way it never had before (or since), with Liberal MPs elected in Newcastle, Charlestown, Swansea and Maitland. With a Liberal MP already in Port Stephens, it marked a total reshaping of what had been Labor’s blue-collar heartland in NSW.

Eager to consolidate........

© The Sydney Morning Herald