Newcastle Knight Dane Gagai said Sunday’s win over the St George Illawarra Dragons on Old Boys Day was exactly how the side hoped to finish the season.
“It’s always a special day and it was exactly how we wanted to finish our season, obviously it was our last game and we finished it how we wanted to,” Gagai told Knights TV in the sheds after the game.
“Going out for the Old Boys, I think we put a lot of expectation on ourselves throughout the whole season, and with the RiseForAlex Round and we obviously didn’t perform there, so we knew we had to go out and do our job.
“Everything just ended up clicking together, but you do get a bit stirred up and get a bit excited knowing it’s Old Boys Day and all the guys that played before you are all up there watching.
“You don’t want to let them down and you don’t want to let the Club down.
For the young centre, motivation also came from the desire to send off the team's departing players on a high.
"It was definitely in the back of everybody’s mind, we wanted to send the boys that aren’t going to be here off on a positive note and we did it the best possible way we could," he said.
"We just went out there and played for each other."
In what proved a somewhat a contentious moment for Gagai and teammate Beau Scott, both players seemed to ground a try in the second half at the same time, which was officially awarded to Gagai.
“We had a few words about that one because they had given him the try in the game,” he said (smiling).
“I’d gone straight over the top of the ball the first time, a complete swing and a miss and then I came back for it and ended up getting my hand on the ball.
“If you look close enough you can see him put his hand on top of mine.
I’ll give him credit, he celebrated the try better than I did, so I guess we’ll both take two points for that.”
