ARL chairman Ken Arthurson resigned in February 1997 in an effort to enable re-unification negotiations held during the season to succeed.

It would not be 'til after the season's end in December that the boards of every ARL club would gather at the SCG in an unprecedented meeting to consider the proposed peace deal following five months of secret negotiations between Ian Frykberg and Neil Whittaker.

Normally a very reliable kicker and one of the most accurate in the competition, Taylor had already missed two previous conversions in the match but if he was to kick this goal it could send North Sydney through to their first grade final since 1943.

With the scores locked at 12–12, Newcastle player Matthew Johns kicked a field goal with 2 minutes to play to make it 13–12.

[2][3] The fairytale came true for thousands of Novocastrians when the Knights won their first ever premiership, staging a comeback from 8–16 to shatter Manly's hopes.

John Hopoate exploited a weakness in Newcastle's right side defence and got between Darren Albert and Mark Hughes to score.

Johns went within inches of scoring for Newcastle in the 24th minute when his blindside break on the last tackle was stopped by a desperate Hopoate.

The movement started 55 metres out – Hopoate making the initial break down the left-hand side with Lyons backing up to enable Craig Innes to crash over for a Manly 10–0 lead.

Then in the 34th minute they scored their first ever Grand Final try after a clever kick from Matthew Johns was taken by Hopoate who was bundled into touch.

Manly then almost put Newcastle away in the 51st minute when Steven Menzies powered through close to the line only to be stopped by Troy Fletcher scrambling well to effect a try- and match-saving tackle for the Knights.

In the 61st minute Adam Muir dropped a pass from Andrew Johns a metre from Manly's line but it was a sign that the Knights were back in the game.

They received a penalty after another Harragon high tackle and elected to kick at goal 32 metres out with a swirling breeze.

A 69th minute last tackle raid ten metres out by Manly also fell short when a field-goal might have sealed the game.

With 19 seconds left, Darren Albert played the ball on the first tackle of the next set of six, with Andrew Johns at dummy-half.

At the play of the ball Johns unexpectedly went down the narrow blind-side, throwing a dummy and engaging several Manly players, before slipping a pass back inside to Albert whose try took the score to 20–16 only seven seconds from full-time.

The win was a huge morale boost to the blue-collar Newcastle district in the same year that the region's biggest employer, the BHP steelworks, had announced its closure.