Newcastle Knights legend Adam McDougall says the secret to success lies within the jersey Jeremy Smith of the Knights is swamped by team mates after scoring the last try during the NRL Elimination Final match between the Canterbury Bulldogs and the Newcastle Knights at ANZ Stadium on September 15, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images ADAM MacDougall reckons the secret comes wrapped in your first Knights jersey. "When I was making my debut, Paul Harragon brought it over," MacDougall recalls. Chief handed me my jumper and said 'remember, this isn't yours'. When I looked up, he went on 'someone wore this jersey long before you arrived and someone will be wearing it long after you're gone ... but right now, it's your watch'. This is why the Newcastle Knights are still alive. Why in a year where they started premiership long shots - where they lost inspirational skipper Kurt Gidley through injury, lost six of seven from May and have lost more years from their life than any other NRL squad - they're still pushing for that unlikeliest of NRL premierships. And, yes, Wayne Bennett has plenty to do with that. But so too does a club and town where, come Monday, local manufacturers report higher outputs after a Knights win. "And Wayne understands that," explains fellow Knights great Harragon. Rather than change the uniqueness of this culture, he's embraced it, respected it, then added his own twist. And for proof, look out there in the centres where NRL bad boys Dane Gagai and Joey Leilua are finally discovering those games that, for a while, seemed destined to be consumed by a swirl of alcohol and bad decisions. Look up front at Willie Mason. Or on the bench at the man Bennett himself punted from Brisbane, Nev Costigan. And as for resurrected hooker Danny Buderus ... well, he was raised on that infamous Knights mantra of "be the player everyone else wants to play alongside." "And that ethos, it does help weed out the dickheads," MacDougall continues. This club's had a lot of characters over the years but when it came time to train, to play, they gave it everything. Those young centres, for example, you can see they get this is a club built on guys like Billy Peden and Paul Marquet. You watch how they're doing the tough carries, the double up tackles from marker, all that dirty stuff no one is ever going to give them credit for. Harragon agrees. "We're very protective of the way we go about things," he says. We believe our way, it's the right way. We never want to lose a game because someone wanted it more than us. Indeed, how else would they be able to beat Melbourne today? Those reigning premiers who not only boast the Big Three, but have gone undefeated in all past 10 encounters between the two sides - a run stretching way back to 2005. "But you know Danny Buderus, he will set the tone," MacDougall insists. He epitomises this club. Leads by example. A bloke who reminds those around him that the jumper, it isn't theirs.