Paul Harragon will stand aside as Newcastle Knights chairman within a matter of weeks but believes the club is well placed to reinvent itself in "the Newcastle way".
Newcastle's inaugural premiership captain and one of five Hall of Fame inductees, Harragon has been the club's chairman since he was offered the position by former owner Nathan Tinkler in 2011.
Since Mr Tinkler's tumultuous exit in June, Harragon has continued serving on an interim advisory board but will not be seeking appointment as one of the seven directors the NRL hopes to install by the end of the season.
When the NRL assumed control of the Knights on June 14, Harragon was undecided if he would remain involved beyond a transition period, saying at the time "it depends how I feel and depends if I'm included".
Yesterday he: said: "I've had another stint at the club and it was great but that's long enough. It's time for a break. I made that decision a long time ago.
"Being involved in the transition is important to me, but as soon as the new board is up and running, my involvement will finish, 100 per cent."
Harragon's departure will leave Knights chief executive Matt Gidley as the lone significant link to the Tinkler era.
Mr Tinkler and his right-hand man, Hunter Sports Group chief executive Troy Palmer, were the first to go, followed soon after by commercial director Richard Fisk, coach Wayne Bennett and now Harragon.
Harragon said the two-year contracts offered to Gidley and Rick Stone, who will replace Bennett, were significant because both embodied the Novocastrian culture.
"The first two appointments from the interim advisory board have been to select the CEO, Matt Gidley, and then the first-grade coach, Rick Stone," he said.
"I think they're two great appointments. They both fit right into the Newcastle way."
Harragon said for "the past 10 years" the Knights had let slip the traditional values that underpinned the club's glory years.
"The biggest thing we've got to do is realise again, that as a town and a club, we have our own unique way of how we view success and how we achieve success," he said.
"We've got to believe in ourselves and start doing things the Newcastle way, like we used to. We've had so many internationals out of this place and we know rugby league.
"What we've learned over the past 10 years, the biggest lesson is that we have to get back to doing it the Newcastle way."
Harragon said he was referring to "a lot of things" but in particular "our spirit, how we act on the training field, how people carry themselves in the community, and having that family feel we used to have in the old days. All that stuff, that's the Newcastle way. Our way".
If winding back the clock appears a focal point, Harragon said the Knights would also benefit from a modern administration.
"The best model, the best practice, the best board structures, all those types of governance things, we will lead the way in the game, in respects to that," he said.
"And everyone knows at a corporate level, if all those things are done properly and we find the right people, all you can achieve is success.
"It's the best situation we've been in in our history, in respects to that."
A vocal supporter of Mr Tinkler for the past three years, Harragon declined to comment on the struggling tycoon's tenure as Knights owner, saying: "I don't think there's a win-win in commenting on the past."
Asked if former NSWRL and ARL chief executive John Quayle, who is also on the advisory board, would be a good candidate to replace him as chairman, Harragon said that was not his decision but added: "If the club was lucky enough to have John in any capacity, it would be amazing."
