Rumoured Targets 3

[Pedge1971]

I think Mattys comments reflect his feelings about the club. It was never about the fans, poor admin.

Get on board members, we are going to gave a bit of fun with this bunch if blokes in the squad!

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Hodko would be ok alongside Lamb both in training and playing in reserves. From an experience point of view.
Lamb still has a lot to learn.
I really hope we keep him. He'll train his guts out and see what happens I reckon.

 

[Knight Vision]

Hodko would be ok alongside Lamb both in training and playing in reserves. From an experience point of view.
Lamb still has a lot to learn.
I really hope we keep him. He'll train his guts out and see what happens I reckon.

I hope Lamb stays he's got a kicking game which would add to the team, Watson might be a great talent but from what I have seen he hasnt a kicking game which is essential for any halves player IMHO

 

[Johns Magic]

Mitchell Pearce called Andrew Johns after signing with the Knights

One of the first people Mitchell Pearce phoned after agreeing to join the Newcastle Knights on a four-year deal worth $4 million was Andrew Johns.

To use some classic Newcastle phraseology, Johns was absolutely stoked.

Pearce can never be to the Knights what Johns was to the Knights, but his stunning decision on Thursday morning to rebuff offers from Cronulla and Manly is the perfect result for the player and the club.

Unlike Jarryd Hayne's decision on the same day to leave the Titans and join Parramatta, Pearce's move to Newcastle hasn't been determined for weeks. Up until Thursday morning, he was still unclear about his future.

The Knights were confident they would get their man but it was still genuinely a race in two: the Knights or Cronulla?


The idea of back-ended contracts at Manly, and not necessarily the dark cloud of the NRL's salary cap investigation looming above the club, saw them fade into the background in recent days, despite Pearce's close relationship with coach Trent Barrett.

As of Thursday morning, Pearce wasn't entirely happy with the offer on the table from Newcastle. Meanwhile, Newcastle was prepared to go higher if necessary. That's how much they wanted him.

In the end, it wasn't money that swayed Pearce – the offer on the table from the Sharks was apparently comparable – but a meeting late last week at the home of Knights coach Nathan Brown helped seal the deal.

When Pearce drove himself up the F3 Freeway that Friday morning, few believed he was any chance of signing with the Knights. When he returned, Pearce could not stop talking about the joint, enlivened about the possibility of being involved with a club on the brink of a revolution.

Also at that meeting was head of football Darren Mooney and Knights chief executive Phil Gardiner, who is also the boss of the Wests Group.

Some have questioned if Brown is the right man to coach the Knights into a new era of success but that perception is hopefully starting to turn. Brown is no fool.

Other coaches and clubs will straight out ask what a player manager wants when they are pursuing a player.

Ignore the punches to the head the club has been receiving over recruitment: Brown and Mooney have been careful and patient, preferring to meet with the player first to outline their vision before talking money with their agent.

After Gardiner talked to Pearce about the newfound financial strength of the Knights in the wake of the Nathan Tinkler apocalypse, Brown detailed how he intended to use Pearce alongside his former Roosters teammate, Conor Watson, and 19-year-old sensation Kayln Ponga.

As this column understands it, Pearce never received that sort of pitch from Cronulla or Manly. That's not a criticism of either club: they had plenty to offer, not least the sniff of a premiership next year.

But the Knights offered something more for Pearce.

It wasn't entirely about escaping the fishbowl of Sydney, as many have claimed. Go ask Johns about the fishbowl of Newcastle: it's smaller but the fish play just as hard. In the end, Johns was relieved when he retired and moved to Sydney.

More importantly, Pearce gets to take charge of the team, as he had with aplomb last year for the Roosters before they gobbled up Cooper Cronk. He is the cornerstone of rebuilding a side that has finished last for the past three seasons.

Because that's what they're doing in Newcastle: they're building something. In time, we will probably come to learn exactly how much damage Tinkler did to this very special club.

Those who remember the ugly days of Super League in the mid-1990s must shake their head about Wests Group being the saviours of the Knights, given the animosity between the two entities at the time.

Under the direction of Gardiner, they have the stability they have been craving for years. A new centre of excellence is weeks away from being announced.

It's taken time to convince players to join them but the arrival next year of Pearce, Watson, Ponga, Aidan Guerra, Tautau Moga and others points them in the right direction. (We're told the speculation about Dylan Napa also heading north is not right.)

But their on-field success starts and ends with Pearce, a maligned and capricious character but one crying out for a new beginning.

Johns, who was Pearce's specialist halves coach at the Roosters, has been one of Pearce's biggest supporters for many years.

When the media and critics have pounced on the halfback after a NSW Origin loss, Johns has often been the one to pick up the phone and assure him it's not all his fault.

Johns savaged him on Channel Nine directly after the loss to Queensland in game two of this year's series. They talked days later and that is the type of brutally honest dialogue Pearce can expect now that he's slipped into the jumper of the Knights' – and arguably the game's – greatest player.

Pearce can never be to the Knights what Johns was but you need to understand the culture of that club to understand it has never been about individuals. It's about its community.

In 2007, Johns was forced into retirement because of a serious neck injury. He was invited to speak a week later before a home match. With tears in his eyes, he told the heaving crowd he would never forget how two years earlier the fans kept turning up, week after week, to watch a side that ended up finishing last.

Then he started a lap of honour before the faithful. They didn't chant Joey's name. They chanted their town's.

NEWCASTLE! NEWCASTLE! NEWCASTLE!

The game needs them.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...signing-with-the-knights-20171130-gzw6so.html

 

[Still Nutty]

What a Great article by Webby!

We have seriously turned a corner at this club and, regardless of where we end up finishing in the NRL next year, we will look back on the Brown era with deep appreciation of how he and those that have come on board have stripped to the ground and rebuilt this club and its culture.

 

[Burwood]

The best thing about Brown’s stint at the club is that he’s been able to put into place what he wanted. I was worried that he would do the unpopular job of cutting the dead wood and then fixing the salary cap, but never be able to try and build the roster that he wanted.

I thought certain elements of the local press and supporter base would have been vocally calling for his head mid last season when a second wooden spoon under his coaching looked a certainty. Credit to them, that never really eventuated.

 

[Frederick]

The best thing about Brown’s stint at the club is that he’s been able to put into place what he wanted. I was worried that he would do the unpopular job of cutting the dead wood and then fixing the salary cap, but never be able to try and build the roster that he wanted.

I thought certain elements of the local press and supporter base would have been vocally calling for his head mid last season when a second wooden spoon under his coaching looked a certainty. Credit to them, that never really eventuated.

Rob Dillon tried to stir some shit up, but no-one listened and Browney called him out publicly about it.

 

[Knight Vision]

The best thing about Brown’s stint at the club is that he’s been able to put into place what he wanted. I was worried that he would do the unpopular job of cutting the dead wood and then fixing the salary cap, but never be able to try and build the roster that he wanted.

I thought certain elements of the local press and supporter base would have been vocally calling for his head mid last season when a second wooden spoon under his coaching looked a certainty. Credit to them, that never really eventuated.

When Bennett claimed before leaving that it would take the club 5 years before we would become competitive again I thought it couldnt possibly be so long. He knew what few of us did at the time- the horrendous state which he was about to leave the club in salary cap wise. Bennett is a myth.

 

[perverse]

Is it plausible that we give him the captaincy? I'm not advocating for it, just wondering if it may happen.

 

[slotmachine]

Definitely. I would have had Buhrer before he came but give him the keys.

 

[League_God]

I'd personally go with Buhrer/Guerra. Let Mitch focus on organising the side

 

[Old dog]

Captain, seriously consider Pearce due mainly to the fact that he is the only senior/experienced player that is guaranteed a starting spot, want your captain playing big minutes every week.
Would think when he is not on field then either Buhrer, Sione or Barnett would take over if they are on field.

 

[Still Nutty]

Is it plausible that we give him the captaincy? I'm not advocating for it, just wondering if it may happen.

Considering he has been given a 4 year contract and with his background and experience I think it makes sense to offer him that role and I think Old Dog's point about 80 minutes and guaranteed to be on the field every week is also a valid supporting reason - if he wants the responsibility and he has the temperament for the job, let him have it

 

[Tom155]

Whack! love it

 

[Caped Crusader]

f**k i love Browny

Hiring him him was the best decision the club ever made

 

[Allstar Knights]

That was savage ... and awesome.

 

[AusKnightRKO]

f**k i love Browny

Hiring him him was the best decision the club ever made

The best they make will be giving him a new 3 year deal.

 

[mozza91]

We’ll finish ahead of the Sharks in 2018. f**k Gallen, he’s a cheat and so is his coach. Rest in shit you cheats.

 

[Joel-22]

We’ll finish ahead of the Sharks in 2018. f**k Gallen, he’s a cheat and so is his coach. Rest in shit you cheats.

a lot of grubs come across like decent people off the field (Ennis, Slater, Smith etc.) but Gal has always come off like a bit of a douche

 

[Yosh]

Yoshy

My post was a direct reply to Woosh's post.

You may have misread or misunderstood what I was replying to?

Ah sorry!