MICHAEL Ennis might be a former Knights player but it is unlikely anyone at the club sends him Christmas cards these days.
Described last week by Newcastle hooker Matt Hilder as a "bit of a grub" - an opinion shared by many of Hilder's teammates - Ennis did nothing to endear himself to the men in blue and red during Saturday night's season-opener at ANZ Stadium.
Early on he shoved Knights halfback Scott Dureau brusquely in the face after a play-the-ball.
He smashed Newcastle skipper Steve Simpson with a big shot then gave him a gobful.
He grappled with winger Cooper Vuna and they snarled in each other's faces.
Then the NSW Origin rake was involved in an incident about which he will surely hear more in coming days.
As Hilder darted forward in the seventh minute, Ennis clipped him with a high shot across the face that had "square-up" stamped all over it.
Hilder stayed down, dazed. The delay allowed video referee Sean Hampstead to review several replays, all of which indicated Hilder had been fouled.
But Hampstead ignored the option of intervening, and when Hilder was fit to regain his feet, whistle-blower Jason Robinson told him to play the ball, rather than awarding Newcastle a penalty.
From his vantage point high in the western stand, Knights coach Rick Stone was fuming.
That Newcastle scored from the next play, after Vuna latched onto a pinpoint Dureau chip kick and crashed over, scarcely improved his mood.
A couple of hours later, at the post-match media conference, Stone pulled no punches when asked whether he had a view of the Ennis incident.
"Yeah I did," Stone replied. "I was very disappointed that we didn't get a penalty at the least.
"I'd like to think the judiciary will have a serious look at that during the week."
Hilder was also straight to the point when asked about the Ennis hit.
"I sort of came to my senses on the ground and didn't really know what I was doing there," he said.
"I looked up to see what happened on the big screen.
"I thought I was going to get a penalty. I think he got me across the jaw or the mouth."
Asked if he felt the referee should have taken action, Hilder replied, "I thought so.
"If you hit someone around the head, it's normally a penalty."
Hilder, however, enjoyed the last laugh after Newcastle scored a 20-16 upset, thanks largely to a none-from-four goalkicking display by Ennis.
"He plays the game hard and might throw a few cheap shots in there," Hilder said. "That's part of the game. I'll just cop it on the chin and meet up with him next game."
Ennis could throw the kitchen sink at Hilder next time around and it would probably bounce off.
Newcastle's quiet achiever alternated between hooker and lock on Saturday night and got through his usual back-breaking workload.
Stone said Hilder had a "massive, massive game" against the big-name Bulldogs pack.
"Matt Hilder, it was like winding back the clock to our semi-final here last year, the way he defended," Stone said. "He's got a ton of courage, that boy.
"Everyone wants to play with him, and you can see why."
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