Former Knights player Matty Johns has broken down with emotion after Newcastle’s upset win against the Panthers, barely able to get out his words as he described the feeling.

Newcastle is into its first NRL grand final in 25 years, holding on to beat Penrith 22-14 with 12 men on Sunday after Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary suffered an ankle fracture in a hip-drop tackle.

It wasn’t an easy journey, but Newcastle fans showed up to their preliminary final in full force, dominating the crowd and inspiring their team to a victory set to live on as Novocastrian legend.

The blue-and-red army faced a tough journey before the main battle, navigating significant train delays, caused by a broken down freight train, and major gridlock on the motorway.

Yet nothing could stop the Knights’ faithful.

Speaking on Fox Sports later, Johns, who was part of the team’s 1997 premiership, could not hold back the tears. An overcome Johns had to pause to gather himself.

“It’s actually … to be honest I don’t know what to say … so embarrassing, mate, I just feel, so happy for the all the fans,” he said, before quipping: “I’ve got to stop having too much oestrogen in my diet.

“It was unbelievable, an incredible effort in that second half, and I just feel so happy for all the fans. They had to put up a lot of shit for a lot of years to get back to where they are now.

“Even getting to the game, nothing was straightforward. There was a breakdown on the rail line, then the cars were backed up on the M1.

“When you run onto a field like that and you look up and you see all those Newcastle fans, you just don’t leave the field defeated.

“If not for the fans, they don’t win today.”

Accor Stadium in western Sydney turned into a Knights’ fortress despite being more than 150 kilometres from their true Hunter home.

The official crowd count came to 57,102, but the electric energy cultivated by the supporters inside the stadium gave it the atmosphere of a full-house.

Penrith’s Nathan Cleary suffered an injury. Photo: AAP

On an afternoon of high drama, Newcastle hooker Phoenix Crossland was sent off for the tackle that left Cleary with a compound fracture and dislocation of the ankle late in the first half.

Cleary will require surgery on both feet. His father, the team’s coach Ivan Cleary, revealed the superstar halfback had been playing on a broken right foot before suffering a compound fracture of his left ankle.

Penrith had hoped to get Cleary through Sunday’s game unscathed after keeping him and his injured right foot on the bench for the opening 25 minutes.

But 10 minutes later the superstar halfback was exiting the field on the back of a medicab sucking on a green whistle, after a hip-drop tackle from Newcastle hooker Phoenix Crossland.

Crossland was sent off, with Cleary’s ankle also dislocated and his mother Bec among those in the stands in tears.

“He watched the game in the ambulance, but it made him feel worse probably,” Ivan Cleary said.

“I went and saw him at halftime and saw the whole crew and my family were in there. That was a bit hard, it was a bit emotional. But the show goes on.”

Newcastle Coach Justin Holbrook was full of gratitude for those who made the trek and who may well be the reason he is heading into his first grand final as a head coach.

“Thinking about how many fans came down and the trains stopped and the buses and the traffic and it took them four hours to get there,” Holbrook said.

“I wanted to thank them so I ran around the field and it was so special, we want to make our community proud, our Hunter region.”

Even when Phoenix Crossland was sent off and the Knights played a man down for the entire second half, the crowd provided the boost the team desperately needed to see out the win, and a second half shut-out.

“We went down to 12 but then all of a sudden, 30-odd thousand make you feel like you’ve got 14 on there.”

Now all of Newcastle will likely hop on the bandwagon as the club heads to its biggest game in a quarter of a century.

Halfback Sandon Smith’s two runaway tries helped steer his side to victory in his first season as a Knight.

“When I first came to the club, I heard a lot about the town and how the football sort of reflects the town,” the former Sydney rooster said post-game.

“It’s so true and it’s so special.”

The last year has been an emotional roller-coaster for Newcastle fans.

In 2025 they were gutted to be recipients of the wooden spoon, and now just 12 months later, they’re getting ready for a grand final.

And despite once again facing a far greater distance to game day than their opponents, the Novocastrians are expected to outnumber the tricolour crowd on Sunday.

-with AAP