THE NRL and AFL really dropped the ball this year.

After a year full of controversy and scandal, it’s more than fair to admit the expectations of fans were high for Mad Monday.

Really high.

Instead, the annual day of yahooing, bending footballers and anxious football club media managers, largely passed without incident.

There were some cracking photos from the Parramatta Eels’ maritime merrymaking, but that was about it.

Thank god for Matthew Johns.

The Knights premiership star has enough stories to tide fans of Mad Monday mischief over until the lawless chaos of an end-of-season session returns in 12 months’ time.

While trying to protect the identities of some of the victims and characters of Mad Monday frivolity, Johns has divulged some of the best moments from his experiences on Mad Monday in Newcastle.

A lot can happen when a group of footballers gets locked inside Hunter Stadium for an entire day.

STORY ONE

JOHNS revealed the moment one player paid a heavy price for his bloodnut mop and moon tan complexion.

“I remember once, the Knights in the very early days signed a big Queensland bloke from far north Queensland and he had the big red hair and freckles,” Johns said.

“He was almost luminous. Whenever he was in the sun, there was sunburn. So on this particular Mad Monday, it was about 30C and he was apparently being a bit of a pain in the arse, so the boys took him out, took his shirt off — left his strides on, thank god — and pegged him down in the middle of the ground for about three hours, the poor bugger.

“They pegged him out and just left him there. That’s what we used to do at the stadium. They use to say to us, ‘We’ll put the beer on. There it is, but we’re going to lock the stadium.’

“No one gets in and no one gets out. It was like a mad house. Then one of the officials would turn up and say, ‘Righto boys, everyone has to go home.’ We’d all jump in a taxi with our tales between our legs and that’d be it.”

STORY TWO

JOHNS told Triple M’s The Grill Team of the moment a club legend became the victim of an unfortunate case of mistaken identity.

“Shenanigans always take place,” Johns said.

“I remember we had an old fella called Normy Wilkinson. Normy was a legend in Newcastle up there. He played in the Newcastle side that beat one of the Great Britain side’s that came out. Well respected. Normy used to do our stats, but Normy was suffering from cancer. He could no longer drive.

“He used to live just up the road so he used to ride his bike to mad Monday. We were sitting there having a beer with Normy. Anyway, a couple of the players got into a bit of an argument. It was good natured. One of the players picked up the other player’s bike and he took it to the top of the grandstand. And here is this player at the top of the grandstand at Newcastle which is massive.

“He yelled out, ‘Boydy, up here.’ He threw the bike off the top of the grandstand and it just shattered into a thousand pieces. And then someone went, ‘Oh, hang on, that’s Normy’s bike.’”

STORY THREE

IF you ever find yourself on Mad Monday in Newcastle, never try and leave early. It doesn’t end well for you.

“On another occasion we had a player, who was in real estate at the time, he turned up in a shirt and tie and said, ‘Boys, I’ve got to go show a house around,’” Johns said.

“So the boys squirted him with sauce — all that sort of stuff. He really blew up deluxe after that. This player, he was a tightwad, even by my standards, and he was driving around in one of those, remember the old Mighty Boys? They were a tiny little car, like a matchbox car. He was driving around in one of those.

“The boys have got there, they’ve sort of grabbed him and tied him up and said, ‘Mate, you’re not going to go show the house. You’re here with us today.’ Next minute, I looked over and four of our front-rowers have taken the wheels off his Mighty Boy and are running around with them.”