2022 GF the Knights were just by far the better team and maybe could've won without her despite winning the Karyn Murphy Medal, but 2023 was as close to a one-person performance as it gets. Knights were outplayed in most aspects and had little right to win but Upton decided otherwise. This past season she once again carried the team and I think there's a very strong argument we wouldn't have even made the finals without her.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but from my view she showed up, was by far the biggest factor in us winning 2 premierships, and never looked like she was giving anything less than everything she had on the field. Sucks that she's gone, think the team might really struggle in the next few years, but I got to watch a Knights team win back-to-back premierships largely because of her which was the objective when we threw bags of money to poach her from Brisbane in the first place.
Yep, she always put in and we definitely don't win 2023 and probably not 2022 without her. She'll always be a Knight as they say.
I said earlier that I suspected her heart wasn't completely at the Knights for the past two seasons, but that had literally nothing to do with her on-field performances. She always put in. She did look frustrated in our semi against the Roosters, but who could blame her.
Still, fans have a right to be annoyed. She signed up for a further 5 years and ditched us after 2. What can you do. Players have the power really, once someone is unhappy, clubs generally don't want to keep them around. See Ben Hunt for how that eventuates. I would have liked us to get something from the last 3 years of her contract (we got plenty from her first 2) but I'm not sure how feasible that is these days.
You can't discount the fact she's gone to the Broncos of all teams too. It was always going to happen but that is definitely accounting for a lot of the bitterness, lol. Nobody wants to see them start winning comps again... which is exactly what's going to happen now.
