From simple beginnings in Kurri Kurri to Newcastle Knights premiership glory, before tackling the fight of his life, Mark Hughes has conquered more than most.
He sat down with Yvonne Sampson in a heartfelt Face-to-Face interview, discussing Beanies for Brain Cancer Round, Newcastle’s iconic 1997 grand final win and the scenes that followed … plus the mateship that’s underpinned everything.
Watch Face-To-Face: Mark Hughes now on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.
RISE OF AN UNLIKELY KNIGHT
Growing up on the outskirts of Newcastle, there was distance between Hughes and where his abilities would take him.
However, his GF win with the Knights wasn’t his first.
“Yeah, I was a Kurri Kurri boy. Grew up 45 minutes from here and played all my junior footy as a Kurri Bulldog,” Hughes said.
“I wasn’t anywhere near the Knights, I was playing reserve grade in 1995 for the Kurri Kurri Bulldogs and then in the (Newcastle first grade) grand final, we won.”
He debuted for the Knights in 1997 and was on the wing for their ARL grand final against Manly after just 10 games, at age 20.
It was a massive game not just for the team but their city. Emotions were high on match eve as the players gathered.
“The night before we all sat in tight and squashed into the room and each player had to talk and say what it meant to them, and there were tears. I remember Marc Glanville crying, it was going to be his last game for the Knights,” Hughes recalled.
“Then ‘Chief’ (captain Paul Harragon) stood up at the end and said, ‘Right, we’re not going to lose this. We’re gonna bring this trophy home’.”
The mood lightened the following morning when a brutal Sunday Telegraph GF profile summed up Hughes: “Shoulders like a brown snake.”
That was all it said, as opposed to “genius” for Andrew Johns. As he wandered over to his teammates, they burst out laughing.
“I couldn’t believe it, it was only the biggest day in your life. There they were, I’ve only played 10 games with them. They’re my heroes, some of them blokes. I was shy and nervous, and they threw the paper over and there it was. I was an underdog story.”
And the underdog was agonisingly close to being the hero in that famous game, won when Andrew Johns created a try for the other Knights winger, Darren Albert. It was locked at 16-all after 79 minutes, then Albert scored for an iconic 22-16 win.
“Joey (Johns) goes at dummy-half, Matty (Johns) wants the ball. He wants the one-point (field goal) and I’m on the short side on my own and I start calling to Joey that it’s on down the short side,” Hughes recalled.
“It’s on here and Joey’s looking at Matty and I’m going, ‘Joey, I’m telling you, come down this way’, and he looks at me. He dummies it, and then he goes inside to Darren Albert. Like, why would you give him the ball? He’s only the fastest player in rugby league!
Hughes added jokingly: “I’m inconsolable in the corner post by myself, I’m devastated, that was my time, that was my moment!
“I tell people he (Albert) did not buy a beer in two years in Newcastle. I did the calcs that would have saved me $180,000 back then. I missed out on it, you know, and Joey became an Immortal on that play which I called.”
The win was one for the ages. It meant the world to Knights fans after a tough decade for the city.
Hughes was left thinking “how’s this happening to me” as police escorted them around during celebrations with a ruckus of sirens, people cheering and mass delirium all over Newy.
“That sent euphoria through Newcastle. Every player was on that field, their life changed from that moment,” Hughes said.
“It’s just magic and I’m just going well, maybe I can make a career out of this.
“We had this close-mate bond between all of us and it really was special, and we enjoyed each others’ success.”
Hughes won another premiership with the Knights in 2001 and also got to represent NSW in State of Origin.
“The night before, I played my 100th game against the Dragons and had had a pretty good game. I remember Mark Gasnier made this massive run and I’ve ran him and just cut him down.
“After the game, Joey said, ‘Mate, I’m telling you, you’re a chance here’. Once again, it’s Joey, so do I take this seriously? He’s like, ‘I’m telling you, I’ve been talking you’re a massive chance tomorrow’.
“Joey was right: 24 hours later I got called up and I was in the team. I was just so proud – five years earlier, I was playing reserve grade.”
It would not have happened without his special brand of determination – nor without the special culture of his Newcastle team.
“They say good teams are built on character and you know, we just had really good character, a lot of local blokes, similar backgrounds and we all brought something different to the table.”
FIGHT OF HIS LIFE TURNED $35M TRIUMPH
Football taught Hughes early that “if you go through the struggle and you worm your way out of that struggle … in the end you do get some great things happen.
“The best thing I got out of rugby league is my friends and mates, and I think when I got sick and when push came to shove, they stepped up even more.”
That shove came hard and fast for Mark and his family, not long after his career, which ended in 2006 with a season in France with Catalans Dragons.
In 2013, disaster struck. Still just 36, Hughes began to suffer debilitating headaches.
“I had three children under 10 and just had headaches for two days, so I was laying in bed and (wife) Kirralee said, ‘No, go and get a scan’.
“That revealed a tumour and then from that moment everything had changed.
“I went to John Hunter Hospital for surgery and then a week later found myself in the doctor’s surgery. And it was, ‘Sorry Mark, you’ve got high grade brain cancer’.
“It’s devastating.”
Hughes quickly became familiar with some grim statistics.
Brain cancer kills more adults under 40 than any other cancer and only two out of every 10 people diagnosed will live more than five years. It also kills more children under 10 than any other disease, yet receives less than five per cent of federal funding for cancer research.
That made Hughes determined to not focus solely on his own plight. The Mark Hughes Foundation was established in 2014.
“It’s really gave me a clear focus that I need to fix this problem, rather than just focusing on myself or my issues. It’s taken some hard work and it’s tough at times,” he said.
“You’re confronting and dealing with some families that are getting torn apart, which breaks our heart.”
During treatment, he had a good idea for bringing mass attention to the cause.
“When I was going through my treatments, I thought beanies and brain cancer – I just thought, ‘This is gonna go together really well’,” he said.
“So we designed a beanie. I designed the first one, I thought this would be easy. You know what colour I designed?
“I don’t know how I come up with it, but red and blue it was, perfect! Sold well in Newcastle. No one else wanted to touch it.
“So, I was sacked. Bit weird getting sacked from your own charity!”
Beanies for Brain Cancer Round in the NRL was a game-changer. Starting in 2017, it has helped to sell more than one million beanies for fund raising that goes to research and patient support.
“It’s so important to us,” Hughes said.
“We’re over $35 million, which is special. It’s amazing. We have our brain cancer nurses for our regional NSW and Newcastle doing an amazing job.
“We have the Mark Hughes Foundation Brain Cancer Centre that’s now been established. We just gotta hang in there.
“We gotta keep raising our funds, keep the keep the research going and some magic will happen.”
There are other fund raising initiatives, too. Hughes has climbed Mt Everest, Mt Kilimanjaro and is now returning to complete Kokoda Trail for a second time.
“In October we’re going to go across Kokoda. It’s going to be hot, muddy, but we’ve got 25 amazing trackers. It’s going to be huge,” he said.
**The NRL’s Beanies for Brain Cancer Round is this weekend, June 26-29. To support the cause and learn more, visit the Mark Hughes Foundation website here. (https://markhughesfoundation.com.au/)
