Sandon Smith leads Newcastle out of an Immortal shadow

It's rare that anybody in Newcastle shares an accolade with Andrew Johns, but Sandon Smith has managed it.Fresh off his electric double in the Knights' 22-14 win over Penrith on Sunday, Smith will join Johns as the only men to play halfback for Newcastle in a grand final."It's pretty cool to hear. I don't think I'm anywhere near that [Johns]," Smith said."But it's an honour."Talking about Johns is part of the deal when you play halfback for Newcastle but it's wrong to compare the two because it's wrong to compare anyone to Johns, who stands alone as the club and the city's ultimate legend and hero. Johns was more than just a player to the Knights, even if he's the best player they have ever had or will ever know. The 1997 and 2001 premierships made Johns a Newcastle folk hero and the personification of the Novocastrian dream, larger than life through his greatness and profoundly human at the same time, like if they found a demigod in the front bar of a Cessnock pub.Every Newcastle halfback since his retirement in 2007 exists, to one extent or another, in his enormous shadow which has a gravitational pull from which some players never escaped.Andrew Johns remains Newcastle's greatest ever player. (Getty Images via All Sports: Chris McGrath)You'd have an easier time replacing Christ in Christianity, because at least then there's supposed to be a second coming.The only way to do it is to opt out of that framing altogether, because it's a game that cannot be won and therefore shouldn't be played. Smith doesn't need to be Andrew Johns for Newcastle to make a grand final, the prelim is proof that being himself is enough.His first try was a clever effort backed by his speed but his second, a length of the field intercept in the dying seconds that sealed the club's first grand final berth in a quarter century, was something else entirely.It brought Johns himself to tears and for the post-Johns generation, many of whom are seeing the Knights in a grand final for the first time, it was the greatest moment of their supporting lives."The first one I was just trying to stay in the game and I saw an opportunity. Those don't always come off, but it worked well," Smith said."The second one, I didn't know if I could make it. My little legs were hanging on for dear life. But I was happy to make it, I'm ecstatic."It's hard to put into words. There's so much emotion going on. "I think there was a few tears coming out. I was happy, I was tired, I can't really explain it. "When I came to the club, I heard a lot about the town and how our football affects the town."It's hard to put into words when you're a part of it, but it's so true and it's so special, to be a part of something like this that is bigger than ourselves."One of those supporters was Johns himself, who wept openly and spoke with a voice clouded with emotion on Channel Nine commentary in the aftermath of Smith's last score.It was a gift of a moment, a slice of heaven wrapped in red and blue, the kind that Johns gave his team and his town back in those olden days, but until Smith went all the way the Immortal had never received it himself.That alone would be a high honour, but Smith stood up multiple times on his team's biggest game since the Johns age, creating the break that led to Dominic Young's try early in the second half and forcing a key error from Lindsay Smith late on.It sets up a grand final berth against the Roosters, where Smith played from 2023 to 2025 before he travelled to Newcastle in an effort for more starting NRL after the Bondi club signed Daly Cherry-Evans. He insists there's no bad blood with the Tricolours as he tries to pilot the Knights to a premiership at their expense. "It won't change anything for me. I'll enjoy it, I'll embrace this whole week. I'll stay in the moment. It's just another team and it doesn't change anything for myself or the team," Smith said."If we win a grand final, I don't think it matters who it'd be against."They were transparent with me [around Cherry-Evans]. I've got no remorse, I loved the club and loved my time there, but I'm a Knight now."Like many of his teammates, Smith's been trusted to do more than one job this season.He's at halfback now, in relief of the injured Dylan Brown, but has also spent time at five-eighth and as the bench utility.Sandon Smith joined Newcastle this year from the Roosters. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)But he's played them all well and it's added up to the best season of his young career with Smith thriving under the coaching of Justin Holbrook, who he'd worked with as an assistant at the Roosters."Justo's been such a rock for me over the past few years, [especially] coming to the club with him when I was unsure about what this year would look like for me," Smith said."He constantly reassured me to keep my head down, keep enjoying myself and keep getting better."The NRL season is a long season and your moment will come. He kept saying you need to be ready when that moment comes."All halfbacks wear pressure on their shoulders in grand finals and Smith does so with the added spectre of Johns's legacy.But having already earned one opportunity that has eluded all other Knights halfbacks since Johns, Smith has a chance to win an even greater prize. Newcastle's most glorious times are inextricably tied with Johns but now Smith and his teammates can write a new legend with victory on Sunday.It is one which, for the first time in Knights history, can exist beyond Johns and his titanic legacy.His shadow will always be longest, but now Smith and these Knights have stepped outside it they have the chance to cast one of their own.