"Who doesn't love a donut" were the immortal words of Knights star Kalyn Ponga, as he handed out free boxes of Donut King's best to eager fans at Bar Beach.
Knights jersey on, gold Ponga trading card in hand, 9-year-old Fletcher Lesberg was taken out of class at Charlestown East early to meet his sporting hero.
"I do love donuts but I'm more excited to meet Kalyn," Fletcher said.
Fletcher's mother, Belinda Bow, said her son was "in shock" upon seeing Ponga.
"I only told him Kalyn was going to be here on the drive in and he didn't believe me," Ms Bow said.
"For kids, it's really important that they can see their role models in the community and not just the front page of the tabloids running amok."
Thursday's event was to launch a six-week partnership between Donut King and PlayStation. Ponga said it was a "great opportunity" to get out into the community and meet fans like Fletcher.
"This is something that we want to do more as a club. We haven't been able to do much over the past couple of years so we are excited to get out and do more of this sort of thing."
The 24-year-old fullback, who has just signed on with Newcastle for another five years, said the club has "a task ahead" as they take on the Melbourne Storm this weekend.
"For us, it's less about them and more about us. We want to do our fans proud and just put in a performance that we are happy with."
Fletcher's expert tip for Sunday's clash is that Knights should win "as long as Kalyn doesn't go off the field".
