NEWCASTLE MUST KEEP THEIR KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR
The way the media went after the Knights for an alleged boys trip to Bali during their bye round you’d think they’d committed the crime of the century.
The reality?
ONE PLAYER, Bradman Best, went over there to catch up with a mate and help a local family build a house in their village.
In any case, the Knights returned from the bye and beat the Titans convincingly with Kalyn Ponga producing his best performance of the year.
But while the club was falsely accused of having a culture problem last week, there will be genuine uproar from the fans if they don’t correctly handle their current retention situation.
I’m not sure how, but there’s word saying Newcastle are facing salary cap pressure and that the club could lose Tyson Frizell, Daniel Saifiti and Bradman Best.
I worked in recruitment for Newcastle and left at the end of 2021, while the club parted ways with recruitment manager Clint Zammit in March this year.
Zammit’s departure came in the wake of veteran administrator Peter Parr joining the Knights as their director of football last November.
It’s a real gripe of mine that whenever a new coach or general manager or head of recruitment arrives at a club they always say there are salary cap issues.
It’s just an insurance policy they give themselves as something to point to in case the shit hits the fan on their watch.
Every single club in the NRL operates under constant salary cap pressure, to come out and say your club is the outlier is just taking an unnecessary pot shot at those who preceded you.
The club offered Dom Young a huge contract at the start of the year but now they’re under cap pressure? That doesn’t really make sense.
Frizell has been Newcastle’s best player this year but he’s off contract at the end of the season, meaning he could sign with a rival club today.
The club has really struggled for leadership over the past 10 years and they finally have a man to follow in Frizell.
The veteran backrower has emerged alongside Saifiti and Dane Gagai as real leaders in the team it’s critical to keep those players around.
The Knights simply cannot afford to lose a player like Tyson Frizell. Not only do they lack depth there but there’s a shortage league wide.
I’d also hate to see them lose local juniors like Saifiti and Best to instead spend money on imports.
To hear the club needs to make big changes due to cap pressure is alarming to hear considering where it was 10 years ago and how much work was done to avoid this scenario.
If the club isn’t under salary cap pressure, these headlines can create lots of uncertainty in the playing group and potentially derail their season which looks promising.
www.foxsports.com.au
