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WAYNE Bennett has only himself to blame for the mess that is the Newcastle Knights.
Their fall from pre-season premiership favouritism to the competition's biggest disappointments can only be put down to poor recruitment.
All the fanfare about the seven-time premiership coach arriving in the Hunter camouflaged serious issues over their new signings.
They went for quantity more than quality in Adam Cuthbertson, Danny Buderus, Timana Tahu, Willie Mason, Darius Boyd and Kade Snowden.
Boyd and Snowden, who are soaking up $800,000 of the salary cap, have been the biggest flops because of the size of their pay packets.
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Snowden has gone from being an Origin-class front-rower at the Sharks to just another forward.
His only decent game was against his old club in round two. In fairness to Bennett, the club's billionaire owner Nathan Tinkler personally signed him before Bennett had agreed to the coaching job.
Boyd might have scored two tries in the Origin game but all he did was stroll down the left touchline, unmarked, when Akuila Uate left the passage open.
His form in Newcastle has been terrible and he had another shocker against the Titans in the loss on Saturday night.
The other signings haven't produced either.
I don't want to be critical of Buderus because he's a club legend and he's earning only $100,000 for his final season. But, seriously, how was he ever in contention for the NSW side? He has suffered a lot of injuries and his battered old body is no longer up to the week-in, week-out demands of the NRL.
Tahu, Cuthbertson and Mason came relatively cheap too. I said at the time Mason was past it when Bennett signed him. It was a nice marketing ploy and got people through the turnstiles, but there are only so many times you can watch Willie play when your team is getting regularly rolled.
Tahu hasn't been any better. His best days were way behind him even when he was in the centres at Parramatta and Penrith.
And Cuthbertson? He was signed from St George Illawarra, having joined the Dragons the year AFTER they won the premiership, and is just a player.
In the dressing room after the Titans loss, Bennett blamed the players and said it's getting harder every week to pick a team.
But who signed them all?
And how is it going to improve next season with only Beau Scott, another player who has reached his peak, coming from St George Illawarra.
He's the only player they can afford because the salary cap is stretched to the limit, even for 2013.
"My greatest difficulty right now is I've got to pick the team," Bennett said. "If everyone is doing their job, they pick themselves.
"But whoever seems to get an opportunity, no one is grabbing it.
"There are not enough of them saying to me, 'I've got to be in the team. I deserve to be there on my performances'."
It's hard to believe how the Knights have fallen so dramatically since last season. Rick Stone was on a quarter of Bennett's salary but still got them into the top eight with no Snowden, no Boyd and no Buderus.
The Kurt Gidley injury has been costly.
But there are a number of players, including Uate and Jarrod Mullen, who performed better for the cut-price coach.
No one expected a premiership in Bennett's first year, even if the bookies had them favourites. But the fans certainly expected a better performance than Saturday night's rubbish.
