http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...s/news-story/9e3755dec3b2e4e39fb7ef5ba764efeb
KNIGHTS coach Nathan Brown has revealed he will go to extreme lengths to keep other clubs away from Newcastles top young talent.
In a revealing and wide-ranging interview for On the Couch with Sterlo on Wednesday night, Brown bared his soul about the biggest challenges hes taken on by taking arguably the NRLs hardest job in 2016.
One of the major issues he has is the salary cap mess hes inherited and after identifying why Newcastle were in such a poor position, he said he would use subterfuge to stop the NRLs most powerful clubs from cherrypicking Knights young guns.
To catch the full interview, tune in to On the Couch with Sterlo on the encore screening at 9.30pm (AEDT)!
Were trying to get as many of our young kids signed up as we can and then obviously, playing first grade, wed like them signed up longer term, Brown told On the Couch with Sterlo.
As it stands at the moment, we cant afford to introduce Player X into first grade if hes coming off contract because if Canterbury or the Roosters or Brisbane really, really want him they can just blow us out of the water.
The key for us is trying to identify the right ones, keep them in our system and then before they play first grade make sure, you know, weve got them on contract for two or three years and they like where were heading, so when their contracts coming nearer they want to stay and be a part of where were going.
... Youve got no chance of keeping them all, the games so much more competitive than it was 25 years ago and theres a lot more scouts out there now than there was 25 years ago.
Identifying them and keeping them from when theyre say 15 or 16 is a challenge on its own.
Already in 2016, Brown has given four young players Jaelen Feeney, Pat Matautia, and twins Jacob and Daniel Saifiti their debuts as well as selecting three youngsters Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Nathan Ross and Danny Levi with less than 10 NRL games under their belt.
Brown admits that strategy will cause short-term pain but expects all of those players to be better for it, with the coach already seeing signs that at least four of them will be long-term NRL players.
Ive got no doubt some of the kids who are playing first grade already are guaranteed good long-term players for the club, theres no doubt about that, Brown said.
I wouldnt say all six or all seven (of the rookies) who are playing are but I would say theres four of them that are definite long-term first graders and theres two or three that, if they make the right choices for where they want to get to, theyre definitely players who could make a career in Newcastle, or through cap reasons you might lose them to elsewhere.
The one thing we dont want is that were getting to the stage where were putting young kids in first grade and they arent going to be first graders, so when we get to that stage thats when were going to have a bit of a problem.
But at the moment weve lost our first two games and we got a bit of a tickle up from Souths the other day, the scoreboard was a bit embarrassing, but you know all the kids we put out there, if they work hard enough on their games and they want to do it, they can all carve some sort of career out, which is important.
While Brown has spoken several times about his wish to rebuild the Knights around local youth, he admitted at some stage the club would have to go to market to recruit some experienced players.
However, he cautioned that the salary cap mess is so deep the Knights are likely two years away from making any big moves.
At the moment were not (close to being able to sign anyone), Brown said.
Our salary caps in a horrible shape at the minute but weve brought Darren Mooney in whos played a big part in (putting together) Cronullas current squad so were working through that and obviously there are going to be players who have started off who wont survive the test of time.
Retirement will come for some and contracts will end and some longer term players will move on over the next sort of 18 months, two years.
In the meantime weve got to work out what good young players we have and what we need.
Youre never going to have a side thats full of Newcastle blokes, but what we need to bring in from the outside, at the moment its too early to determine.
Weve got to keep the young kids going, weve still got a few more we want to bring in, and then weve got to work out what type of player we actually need; what position is it to start with and what do we need.
Obviously were definitely going to need one or two players over the journey who are experienced but what position are they and who are they, its very, very early to say at the moment I couldnt give you a call on that.
Brown admitted that a key to Newcastles successful teams in the past was making the right choices when bringing in recruits from outside the clubs development system.
He identified Ben Kennedy as the most successful but stressed the importance of identifying the strengths of the current squad rather than panic buying to appease the fans.
The one thing Newcastle did do well over (their successful periods) was sign well from outside.
As you said about Ben Kennedy he was probably the most successful outside signings theyve ever made.
Once we get the young kids up to speed and we know actually, well this kids definitely going to be a good NRL player, well then we can have a look and go to the powers that be and see if we can make things work.
At that stage, when that comes, well Im sure if we can manage our roster right for the next two years then Im sure we can start looking at those things down the track.
