At the end of last season, Thomas Cant wasn't even sure whether he would be at the Knights in 2023.
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After skippering Newcastle's Jersey Flegg side to a heartbreaking 19-18 grand final loss to Penrith in September, the 20-year-old forward was one of the few players from the under-21 team yet to be re-signed.
Having been in the club's development system since he was "13 or 14", the East Maitland Griffins junior was desperate to stay on.
But just six months later, not only is Cant now training full-time with the NRL squad, he has become the Knights' 342nd first-grade player.
"It's crazy, unbelievable. I can't believe it happened," Cant told the Newcastle Herald after playing 42 minutes in Newcastle's 36-20 loss to the Dolphins on Friday.
"Not in a million years did I think six months later I would be making my NRL debut. I'm so grateful for the opportunity. Running out I nearly shed a tear. I loved it."
Cant, who attracted interest from the Eels and Panthers late last year before opting for a train-and-trial deal with the Knights, was one of three debutants on Newcastle's bench alongside Ryan Rivett and Dylan Lucas.
He was the youngest of the trio, and the only true local.
A player with maturity beyond his years, Cant grew up in East Maitland and still lives with parents Matt and Jodi, who operate a long-running family building business.
Matt played a season with Maitland Pickers in 1995 and watched his son debut for the Newcastle Rugby League club's first-grade side in 2021. It was a proud moment, but Cant's NRL debut takes the cake. His parents were in the stands at McDonald Jones Stadium among a horde of family and friends.
Cant was added to Newcastle's side a day before the game, but coach Adam O'Brien told him early last week he would likely play.
"Ads gave me a call and said: 'Jack Johns is looking no good mate, you're going to make your debut'," he recalled. "I nearly couldn't reply to him I was that much in shock. I went downstairs and told mum and dad straight away. They gave 'Johnsy' until captain's run to prove his fitness and [he] come up to me and said: 'Mate, I'm not going to play - you're going to be making your debut'."
An apprentice carpenter before downing tools to train full-time, Cant looked right at home against the Dolphins.
He made 29 tackles and four runs for 35 metres. On one occasion, he went just a metre shy of the try-line.
"A big step up," Cant said of the difference between the NRL and NSW Cup in which he had been playing.
"I felt like I went out there and held my own, and thought I done a job for the team. I was very nervous.
"I haven't played much footy through the middle, I've just been normally a back-rower my whole career.
"I come on and played lock the whole game. I loved it."
O'Brien credited Cant and some of the other rookies for impressing the senior players in a pre-season army camp in Queensland last year.
Cant described the camp as the "craziest thing I've ever done" and said the experience, which occurred just days after the big-name players returned from their off-season breaks, allowed him and the other rookies to feel part of the team. "You can tell how tight-knit we came out of that," he said.
Contracted for at least this season, Cant - who is also a goal-kicker - remains a chance to face Canberra on Sunday after being named on an extended bench. He is likely to be called upon if one of the forwards returning from injury can't play, like Daniel Saifiti, Tyson Frizell, Jack Johns or Kurt Mann.
