Revealed: The landmark seven-year deal Knights star knocked back to join Broncos
By Renee Valentine
Updated October 16 2025 - 5:48pm, first published 3:30pm
Star halfback Jesse Southwell turned down a landmark seven-year deal to leave Newcastle and join NRLW premiers Brisbane.
The Knights have revealed the lengths they went to in a bid to keep Southwell in her home town, tabling what is believed to be the longest contract presented to a female athlete in any of Australia's marquee women's competitions.
Instead, the Dally M halfback of the year
signed a two-year deal with the Broncos in a move that has
raised concerns around the integrity of NRLW as it continues to grow.
Incoming Knights director of football Chris James told the
Newcastle Herald the Kotara Bears junior was offered a "highly competitive" long-term contract to stay.
"We're really disappointed about losing Jesse," James said.
"We offered Jesse a seven-year deal to remain at the Knights. We also worked with her agent, where we agreed that she wanted to explore possibly playing some rugby in the off-season. We supported that.
"We tabled a highly competitive offer, and so for her to make the decision to leave was really disappointing, especially considering she's a local junior that has had a lot of success here, won two premierships, a team that has been in the top four every season she's been here."
A seven-year contract in women's sport in Australia is unheard of, mostly due to the nature of its semi-professionalism.
Jillaroos fullback Tamika Upton signed a five-year deal with the Knights, which was set to take her through until the end of the 2027 season, before being released early on compassionate grounds.
The two-time Dally M Medalist and now five-time premiership winner returned to the Broncos this year and helped guide them to grand final glory in a competition that was largely seen as a two-horse race.
The Sydney Roosters were unbeaten minor premiers on 22 points after 11 rounds, and the Broncos were second on 20 points.
The Knights finished a distant third on 14 points, level with fourth-placed North Queensland.
"I'm concerned that the NRL is losing a bit of control of the NRLW competition, and the girls are moving to the top-two clubs chasing individual success," James said.
When the Broncos announced her signing on Monday, Southwell stated her move north was motivated by a chance for glory.
"I want to win," Southwell said.
"That's the biggest thing. I really want to win a premiership."
The comments could only be perceived as a backhand to the Knights, where she played a key role in their back-to-back grand final wins in 2022 and 2023.
"She'd won two premierships here, and we had a lot of faith with her as our halfback that we weren't far away from winning another one, but that's a decision for her to make," James said.
"Our pathways are so strong here. I felt as though we were building a squad that in the next two seasons would've competed really strongly with the Roosters and the Broncos.
"Some of our young players coming through, you look at Sienna Yeo, Evah McEwen, Fane Finau, some of these girls are going to be absolutely elite, and I didn't think we were far off winning one here, but that's up to Jesse. She obviously felt differently."
NRLW began with four teams in 2018. This year, it grew to 12 teams, and 2028 has been floated as the next major expansion as the women's game enters a new collective bargaining agreement and heads towards full-time professionalism.
"If the top-two teams continue to get all the top-end talent, expansion or full-time of the NRLW will be pushed back further, in my opinion, because it will be hard to get corporate support," James said.
"It will be harder to attract followers to the NRLW if it's perceived as a two-team competition ... I feel 2026 is going to be a really crucial year for the NRLW. The NRL are going to have to keep a real close eye on it."
Southwell starred for NSW on return to the State of Origin arena in May and has earned her first Jillaroos call-up after a stand-out NRLW campaign.
How the Knights fill the void left by the 20-year-old's departure remains to be seen.
Southwell told teammates of her club exit after the Knights' 30-6 preliminary loss to the Broncos on September 28. It followed four seasons and 40 appearances in the red and blue .
"It is disappointing that the club were given late notice because we were out of the player market for longer than what we should've been, but we've been quite active since then," James said.
"At the moment, we haven't signed any players to replace her, but we are looking at some key signings that will strengthen the team in different areas.
"We've been quite active and, hopefully, in the next week or two, we'll be in a position where we can announce some signings."
The Knights are investing in developing local talent for long-term sustainability in the women's space.
"Pathways are going to be so important," James said.
"Like in the men's space, with more teams coming in, you need to be producing and developing your own talent and athlete, and that's what we will do here.
"We want to be the leading development club in the NRL and we'll do that by local talent, investing in coaching and making sure that the pathway is really strong to bring that talent through as opposed to recruiting talent in."
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