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The following reads from a section of Newcastle Herald scribe Robert Dillon's history of the Newcastle Knights:
Newcastle's first key signing in 1989 was one of their own, former Central Charlestown prop Mark Sargent. Sargent resisted joining the Knights a year earlier, but after making 19 top-grade appearances in Canterbury's fearsome pack, at the age of 24 he agreed to return home.
Accompanying him was Canterbury teammate Michael Hagan, whose 74th and last game for the Bulldogs proved a real-life fairytale, when he scored a try in their 24-12 grand final triumph over Balmain. At 24, Hagan liked the idea of joining a club where he would be a leader and the fulcrum oftheir attack.
Next to enlist was classy Eastern Suburbs fullback Gary Wurth, whom McMahon knew closely from their time in Canberra. If Sargent was McMahon's armoured tank, and Hagan his on-field lieutenant, the man fans christened "Wotsy" Wurth would prove to be Newcastle's cold-blooded sniper from backfield.
Thus began the legend Wotsy's career with the Newcastle Knights. He joins Toohey's News podcast host Barry Toohey this week to look back on what came next, including his storied friendship with Knights great Marc Glanville.
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Barry Toohey will bring a new episode to all your favourite podcasting apps every week, complementing his premium and exclusive Knights reporting and analysis in the pages of the Newcastle Herald.
Toohey's News will be back with another episode on Thursday.
