Stella Vincent had to be on the road at 5.30am if she was going to make it back in time to start work at 9am.
She had travelled down from Tamworth, where she works in the local surf shop, to try out for the Newcastle Knights dance squad and would turn around and drive the three hours home again the following day.
Stella has been dancing since she was six and started competing when she was 11. Like many kids who grow up in regional NSW, she has been surrounded by football all her life.
A few of her friends had danced for the Knights squad. She graduated high school last year and was keen to move to Newcastle for a change.
"I have always been a little diva," she said, smiling on Tuesday, "I think mum thought, 'What am I going to do with this attitude - let's put her in dance'. That's where it started, and I fell in love with it. I've been dancing ever since."
Around 35 dancers auditioned on Tuesday night at McDonald Jones Stadium. Some, like Stella, were trying out for the first time. Others have danced with the squad for a few years and are known among the other performers as veterans.
At the end of each year, everyone auditions. The Knights dance squad isn't a full-time commitment - the performers often balance their training and game-day commitments with full-time careers or study - and no position is guaranteed.
The squad's director, Alex Tsambos, who will have led the program for nine years in 2024, said the blank-slate approach was essential to the team's ethos; a lot can change in a year, and emerging talent is always a welcome sight.
"That's what I love about the tryouts," Tsambos said. "The positions are quite elite, and only a small number of the girls show up for our auditions. It gives everyone a fair opportunity ... there's a lot of talent out there who have worked hard (for their chance to make the squad).
"And it keeps the vets on their toes; they work a little harder when they see the new rookies coming up. It pushes them a little bit without them even knowing it."
Tsambos is a classically trained dancer and performed with the Manly Sea Eagles for about nine years before she came to Newcastle to lead the local squad. She has stood where each of her hopefuls stood on the night and said it took particular courage to walk through the door.
"I understand what it is like to be involved in an audition and how nerve-wracking it is," she said, "you get up in front of a panel you've never seen before, walking into a room with girls you've never met. And I think that just getting there, just taking those steps, is enough in itself. The fact that these girls can even do that says a lot about their character, which is brilliant."
In the tryout room, as the panel of judges - including current squad captain Taylor Mansfield - prepared their notes and considered the roster for the night, Stella began stretching as she waited for the auditions to begin.
"Everyone looks really good and professional," she said, "I'm freaking out inside, but I'm trying to keep it calm.
"I've always wanted to do this. It's always been a dream - I've just turned 18, so it's the first year I can go for it. It would mean the world to me."
Ellie Fletcher has danced with the squad for the past two years, and was looking to secure her third season. She knows the process, but the auditions are always high stakes. The 19-year-old, balancing the last year of study in a Bachelor of Secondary Education, said she never expected to become so attached to the squad. Still, she said the friendships she has made have been invaluable.
"I dance with the best group of girls," she said, "It pushes you to be a whole other person. We get along so well, and I couldn't ask for a better group of girls to do it with."
Ellie started dancing when she was four. Like the squad director, she was trained classically but developed hairline fractures in her tibia and was forced to put dance aside. She said her time with the Knights squad had brought her back into herself.
"Taylor, our captain, has brought another side of us," she said, "We might have left dance or lacked a bit of confidence, or thought that it didn't go the way that we wanted, but Alex and Taylor have made us ourselves again."
Instructor Kody Rowbottom, who danced with the squad for three years starting in 2018, helps the squad director step through the audition process. The tryouts begin with a 30-second improvisation challenge where the dancers, having yet to hear the chosen song beforehand, must turn out choreography on the spot before they are put through the paces of high kicks and increasingly complex routines.
Later, they're challenged to put it all on the line and dance across the room to show their skill.
There are around six positions to add to the roster of 20 on the squad, 16 of whom dance on game days on a rotating roster through the season. When they are not in the team colours, they teach, study, and hold down careers.
On Tuesday night, the judges saw dances from across the state, many of whom had been training since they could walk. They were childcare workers, gymnasts, university students, a mother of twins and a military firefighter. Some had just finished school and were looking to go to university. Others were in the middle or had completed their degrees. All were chasing the chance to meet 25,000 fans on game day and feel the roar of a Newcastle home crowd.
