Back-up fullback Tex Hoy is in danger of being squeezed out at the Knights and the futures of Phoenix Crossland and Jack Johns are also clouded with the club's roster positions for next season almost full. On the eve of Newcastle's second straight finals appearance under coach Adam O'Brien, the club has already signed 25 of it's top 30 squad for 2022 despite losing Connor Watson and Josh King to rival NRL clubs and Gehamat Shibasaki to Japanese rugby. Blake Green is also off the books after retiring mid-season. The imminent re-signing of outside back Enari Tuala and the promotion of current development player Chris Randall to the main squad will bring the number signed to 27. That includes new signings, Rabbitohs centre Dane Gagai and Dragons halfback Adam Clune and leaves just three spots up for grabs. It is common knowledge the club is in the market for a backrower who will effectively take up spot number 28 and on top of that, they were also hopeful of landing another outside back or potentially re-signing winger Edrick Lee if he manages to overcome the foot injury that has sidelined him for the entire season. If that is the case, that may potentially leave just one position available for Crossland, Hoy or Johns, who like Randall, is on a lowly-paying development contract this season. Crossland and Johns will both play against the Broncos in the final round today with Hoy not having featured for the past 11 weeks. We understand three of the Knights' four development contracts for next season have already been allocated. The Knights have been short-listing assistant coaches with Anthony Seibold to finish up at the club at the end of this season to join Eddie Jones' English rugby coaching staff. Seibold's one-year contract with the Knights is due to expire at the end of October and there has been speculation for quite some time it would not be extended. The club has privately been looking at potential replacements over the past few months to assist head coach Adam O'Brien next season. Brought in this season as a consultant to O'Brien and the coaching staff, the controversial Seibold had taken a more hands-on role over the past nine weeks with the side's defence, which has improved markedly in that time. Several Knights officials were breathing a little easier this week after centre Gehamat Shibasaki's move to Japanese rugby was finalised. The out-of-favour Shibasaki, whose great great grandfather is Japanese, was under contract for next season but the Knights were very keen to see him take up an offer elsewhere to alleviate salary cap pressures for 2022. We understand his contract was worth around $300,000 and that some of that money may have already been spent elsewhere. Shibasaki has signed with the Green Rockets, whose director of rugby is former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika. Both Cheika and Shibasaki are managed by Isaac Moses' company, Cove Agency. The Knights have snuck under the guard of Penrith to snare their highly-rated high performance boss Hayden Knowles. Knowles has a wealth of experience having worked at Parramatta, the Sydney Roosters and the Gold Coast Titans prior to his current job with the Panthers and is also the current performance boss of the NSW Blues. Confirming the appointment, Knights coach Adam O'Brien told us: "We needed to add some experience to us. We are going to have a centre of excellence and invest even more in our pathways and the more experience we can get through the joint, the better we are going to be." Knowles was at the Eels when Michael Hagan was coach and he couldn't speak more highly of him. "He's highly intelligent, well connected and one of the most enthusiastic blokes I have come across," Hagan said. The future of current high performance head Balin Cupples is unclear but he is still under contract for next season. Young English recruits Dom Young and Bailey Hodgson were the centre of plenty of light-hearted jibes from Knights teammates during the week when they had to be rescued by life-guards during a beach swim. We're told the pair got caught in a rip and were forced to get a lift back to shore and out of trouble on a jet-ski, much to the amusement of other team members. Both were said to have been rattled by the experience but could see the funny side of it later when the team held an impromptu 'Bondi Rescue' session complete with music and a video of the incident. Retired playmaker Blake Green's appointment as Knights' NRL Women's coach this season will be short-lived with Green moving into a specialist halves coaching role across all grades at the club in 2022. Green was to have been the club's inaugural women's coach this season and put a huge amount of work into getting the squad together, only for the competition to be called off without a ball kicked due to COVID. It will now be held early next year. Green's new position will offer specialist playmaker coaching for all the club's teams from NRL down to the Under 17's and the women's teams.
