The man himself remembers watching it from a jail cell.  

“About 10,000 people are sitting at home thinking about those days and wondering what that bloke’s up to, and he’s sitting in a cell [over an apprehended violence order],” O’Davis said.

​It’s part of the road the 223-game Knights legend has walked in recent years including legal, personal and financial difficulties.

The former NRL custodian runs not-for-profit boot camp Change for Change and has been looking for work. He was declared bankrupt from July and recently finalised his second divorce. 

Now, a piece of his rugby league history is on the chopping block.

O’Davis is selling the boots he wore in the second half of the 1997 decider, the club’s most famous victory and a match that earned him the Clive Churchill Medal. 

“I suppose it is [a kick in the guts] but I’ve got my playing jerseys,” he said. “You sweat in a jersey. They’ll all go to my son.”

The former Australian and Queensland State of Origin representative said he listed memorabilia including the boots he wore to accept the 1997 Clive Churchill Medal for a single, simple reason above all: “To give my kids a great Christmas”. 

“The most important thing is obviously my family,” the father of three said. 

O’Davis is also selling several other jerseys, and says it is not the first time he has parted with mementos linked to his rugby league career.

“When the bankruptcy first started happening this time last Christmas, I put some jerseys up for sale,” O’Davis said.

“I remember the guys coming around to buy them and just apologising to me that I had to sell them.”

Despite accruing numerous accolades, O’Davis said parting with his gear for cash was never an easy thing. 

He would prefer to give half the proceeds to a good cause but said “half the reason I’m in the situation I am is because I’ve given so much to charity.”

Some items remain off-limits, including jerseys he wore on the field. 

“I’m a Queenslander, I’ve got the Wally Lewis Medal too. I’ll probably never give that away,” he said.

The advertisement for the 1997 boots says O’Davis would “love to see someone appreciate a part of rugby league history and remember arguably the greatest GF of all”.

The man said he was hopeful someone with special memories of the Knights’ first title would take them off his hands. ​

He recalled seeing children argue over who would be Robbie O’Davis in backyard games, and tales of people pulling cars over to hug strangers when Darren Albert’s last-gasp try clinched the Knights’ first title.

“There are stories only the players know [about what 1997 meant to people],” he said. “I’d like to see it go to someone like that.”

O’Davis wore the pair of boots encased in glass during the second 40 minutes of the Knights’ first grand final. 

He switched boots at the half-time break, trading to steel sprigs in a bid for extra traction. 

His footwear from the first 40 minutes went to former Knights chairman Michael Tyler.

He scored two tries in the classic match, after which the boots were taken from him.

“They got taken off me as I left the field and I remember getting cranky,” he said.

“At the presentation night they gave them to me in a [showcase] box.”

While the glory days of 1997 may ring in the ears of Knights fans after a torrid 2016 campaign, some of O’Davis’ favourite memories about his gear are more recent.

“When I pulled [the boots] out and cleaned the cabinet the other day, my 10-year-old [Diesel] grabbed them,” O’Davis said. 

“He’d never seen steel sprigs, and I told him it wasn’t about how good you were, it was about how much noise you could make with them.” 

Minutes later, two of his three children were clacking around the house in old footy gear, including the 1997 match jersey. 

“The fact I’ve got it on camera, means that’s one memory I get to keep even if the boots go,” he said.