Serial pest delivers on cafe pledge
ANDREW Johns was minding his own business having lunch at a joint called Goldbergs in Newcastle during the off-season when serial pest Peter Hoare turned up. Gatecrashing one of Johns's meals wasn't his primary concern. Hoare was at the Darby Street eatery to tell the Knights captain he wanted to kick off at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
And so just before the opening whistle between the Knights and Eels, Hoare somehow got onto the ground, riding a trike with two cats in a basket. He grabbed the ball off the kicking tee and kicked it at Johns.
Less than impressed, Johns hurled the ball at him, missing. Security guards converged on Hoare - most notorious for pulling down the net during Australia's ill-fated World Cup football qualifier against Iran in Melbourne and running onto the track at the Australian Grand Prix, and took him away.
"Actually he told me in the off-season he was going to kick off," Johns said. "I thought nothing more of it. I'm going to pinch his trike." Told the trike had been impounded, Johns said: "I know what should be impounded, and it's not the trike."
If Hoare was an annoyance, Brian Carney was a revelation. The bumper crowd in Newcastle rose to their feet every time the Knights' new winger touched the ball. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new cult hero.
He scored a try on his NRL debut, did the hard yakka out of dummy-half when the Knights forwards needed a breather and earned glowing praise from coach Michael Hagan and Johns.
"It was every bit as tough as I thought it would be," Carney said.
"The crowds over in England have a reputation, and rightly so, for being very vocal. I'll say tonight, that was every bit as vocal. A full house in Newcastle, that's sensational.
"I'd heard a lot about it before the game. A couple of old women grabbed me yesterday and said they'd be roaring and shouting. I think I could hear them. It was every bit as good as I thought it would be."
Asked if he might be catch up with the more mature ladies later, Carney said: "Chance would be a fine thing."
Eels coach Brian Smith said his side was stymied by poor ball control.
"We started poorly and didn't get much better," he said. "Some of our defensive sets were as good and strong as I've seen from a Parramatta team. But you can't keep asking that many questions of your defence by loading up so much pressure with poor handling."
