If there was ever any conjecture about the Newcastle Knights having the most passionate fans in the NRL, surely that's passed. Case closed.
Since the Knights shocked the rugby league world and beat the New Zealand Warriors at Eden Park 10 days ago, the city and the Hunter region have been consumed with red and blue fever.
The symptoms have rapidly increased by the day.
The centre of the outbreak was McDonald Jones Stadium on Wednesday, as an estimated 12,000 fans turned out to cheer the squad at their open training session.
Thousands of children enjoying a school holiday outing populated the crowd, wearing Knights jerseys as they waved flags and homemade signs.
The queue in the stadium car park for merchandise snaked hundreds of metres.
Coach Justin Holbrook addressed the fans, thanking everyone for their support.
"I know it's so hard to get tickets, but we know you'll be watching proudly from wherever it is up here," Holbrook said.
"All I can do is thank you so much. We're going to do you so proud on Sunday and bring the win home."
Holbrook then turned the microphone to captain Kalyn Ponga, who received such a loud rock-star reaction from fans it was impossible from several metres away to hear what he said.
Valentine mother Tayla McFarlane was at the stadium with her children Florence, 7, and Romeo, 4, who held a sign saying, "Better than Lego, and I love Lego," in honour of club legend Matthew Johns' famous post-1997 grand final quote.
"It's so good to be out here with everybody," Ms McFarlane said. "We were at the game on Sunday [against the Panthers], and it was the best night of my life. It was so good."
Ms McFarlane was 7 when the Knights won the 2001 grand final, but she recalls her father getting on the roof of their Gateshead house and painting "Go Knights."
"It stayed up there for, like, 10 years," she said.
"I said to him this year, 'Dad, if we did get in [the grand final], I'll paint my roof'. We've got the paint ready to go."
A common theme among the supporters, who were children during the 1997 and 2001 grand finals, was wanting to replicate that experience for their kids in 2026.
Lauren Boyles' love affair with the Knights was ignited when she was 10 by the thrilling 1997 victory over Manly, and the Raymond Terrace mother brought her children Xavier, 12, Lily, 8, and Morgan, 3, to McDonald Jones Stadium to soak up the excitement.
"I was very young then, so I can embrace it a lot more now and enjoy the joy of the kids," Ms Boyles said.
English flyer Dominic Young is the firm favourite in the Boyles household. The family also had the opportunity to get signatures and photos with injured star Dylan Brown.
Just like they were in 1997 and 2001, the Knights are again outsiders against the Roosters, but Ms Boyles has no doubt the premiership is coming back up the M1.
"They have the crowd and fans behind them, and it's just the grit and determination they've shown over the last couple of weeks to get us through," she said.
"They were with 12 men against the Panthers, so you can't go wrong with that."
Going off the 12,000 fans who packed into McDonald Jones Stadium for the open training session, Turton Road will be rocking at its 30,000 capacity on Sunday for the grand final live site.
Cameron Park's Jason McKenzie and Lacey Simon were at the open training session with their grandchildren to give them the same experience they treasured from 1997.
The family plans to be back on Sunday.
"These boys are going to be taking it on," Mr McKenzie said. "The stadium down there is going to be packed with all Knights fans, and here back home it's going to be packed.
"Since we found out the stadium was going to be opening up, we've been planning to be here."
