Clint Newton a Knight again in 2014?

Why waste our time with a has been. In 2 yrs when Bennett is gone we will be back to square 1 and on a rebuild again because our team is fairly old. Its time to blood some young fellas
 
I don't see the big deal, he'll probably never play first grade and there'll still be the same several young forwards ahead of him. Just like Quinn, Hilder etc, it's experience to hand off to the younger players and availability if worse comes to worse. Overreaction imo.

Most of our squad is young players, tired of hearing how old the players are and how Bennett's going to leave us with nothing. Our backline and halves can stay the same for the next 5-10 years minus Boyd who will leave and we have alot of outstanding young forwards who are learning from some of the best senior players and role models the game has to offer. Plus we still have Tinkler. All is good!
 
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Junior11 said:
I don't see the big deal, he'll probably never play first grade and there'll still be the same several young forwards ahead of him. Just like Quinn, Hilder etc, it's experience to hand off to the younger players and availability if worse comes to worse. Overreaction imo.

Most of our squad is young players, tired of hearing how old the players are and how Bennett's going to leave us with nothing. Our backline and halves can stay the same for the next 5-10 years minus Boyd who will leave and we have alot of outstanding young forwards who are learning from some of the best senior players and role models the game has to offer. Plus we still have Tinkler. All is good!
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Is that why Dylan Smith and Tupou won't be at the club next year? Bringing in Newton for them is what everyone is going on about. Correct me if I'm wrong but the 2 going are far younger then this over the hill hack who spat on the club every chance he got.
 
But there's several young forwards who are ahead of Smith and Tupou so they were always going to struggle anyway, lets not put it all down to Newton, they already struggle to make the NSW Cup side most weeks. Nothing against them, I like them both but it's not like Newton will be keeping them out the side when they're not even in there.
 
Apparently because they weren't signed by the Knights and Knights players got preference in NSW Cup ahead of the rest of the squad members no matter how good they were playing. Wouldn't you rather one of them got upgraded to that contract instead of Newtown coming back and them being moved on?..
 
It doesn't really bother me to be honest, all 3 probably won't ever play first grade for us anyway. Preference would be to keep Smith and Tupou yeah but we have plenty of young forwards already and better forwards plus they'd be the 2 I'd let go of first to make room for more NYC forwards to be promoted. It's not like Newton would keep them out of first grade when as I said they don't even play NSW Cup alot of the time. To me it's just not worth such a cry and bagging of Bennett. If we were losing our more promising players it'd be a different story, no disrespect to Smith and Tupou. Since it's a NSW Cup contract it could be a Stone signing for all we know?
 
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Junior11 said:
It doesn't really bother me to be honest, all 3 probably won't ever play first grade for us anyway. Preference would be to keep Smith and Tupou yeah but we have plenty of young forwards already and better forwards. It's not like Newton would keep them out of first grade when as I said they don't even play NSW Cup most weeks. To me it's just not worth such cry and bagging of Bennett.
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Where are all these young forwards then that haven't played FG this year? Toka is one. But Smith when playing has been better then Frei, I mean you have Quinn already taking up a bench spot as a backrower in NSW Cup. Paterika VaiVai hasn't come along as expected imo. Again Smith outplaying him also. Hilder and Cuthbertson taking up backrow spots in NSW Cup this week. They won't be around much longer either. I feel Smith has been very hard done by. Would be a great pick up for any club. He is one tough man and won't let his new club down. Remember while he was at the Cowboys he did his ACL early in the year but came back with a couple rounds to go and if memory serves me right he did the full surgery not the LARS one.
 
How can you say Smith is outplaying them when most weeks he doesn't make the team over them. And when did I mention young players who haven't played first grade? The fact is we have Tetevano, Frei, Toka, Vaivai and Sims who are starting over them plus we have Snowden who is still young, that's 6 young props already ahead of them and that's just the start. I'm not bagging Smith or Tupou whatsoever, I'm just saying I don't think it's fair to say Newton will be keeping them out of the team when 1. they don't even play the same position and 2. Smith and Tupou are already behind several young players, that's not according to me, it's clear both Stone and Bennett share this opinion. I'm sure Smith will be a great pick up for another club and it's a shame he'll be leaving but to blame it on Newton and bag Bennett because of it is a bit rich imo.
 
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Can you read? Firstly and for the second time in an hour the reason why Smith isn't consistently in the side is because Knights contracted players get priority (refer to Paddy's post in the NSW Cup thread and I'd think he would know). Nothing to do with form. Secondly I asked who were these young forwards who were yet to crack FG this year... Only Toka is out performing Smith out of the forwards yet to hit FG imo. Yes there is a good young core group there with the players you named. But there is around the same amount of players hitting 30 or older as well. Its idiotic to move Smith on and get Newton in especially if there is no ambition on playing Newton in FG. Why stop the development of a young player with potential to sign someone you have no use for?..
 
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Yeah that's the reason he's not getting selected okay. If you still think Newton is the reason Smith is leaving then I've clearly wasted alot of time on this thread. Well I can't say that for sure but I find it very unlikely and it's unfair to bag Bennett when he's actually doing a great job with our young players. We have a great balance of young and old and we can't keep everyone. That's all I'm saying!
 
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I think you should go have a read of the NSW Cup thread and you will then see where I'm coming from. Like I said I'd think Paddy would know what he is going on about seeing as though he would be getting his info first hand and not via rumour bs.
 
I'm not denying anything that Paddy said, obviously contracted players will get first picked. I'm saying I think the Knights prefer the bunch of young/other props we already have who are starting over Smith and Tupou (no matter the excuse, they're still starting over them and they're just as young) and will have to find more room for our upcoming NYC forwards too, I think it's more about that and the fact we can't keep every fringe reserve grader when we have plenty ahead of them than the Newton signing (which is still only a rumour!!) But if you don't agree then okay.
 
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Dylan Smith is a better forward than Mitch Frei (who apparently won't be offered an extension either)

I'd even have him ahead Of Mason. Why he doesn't get a go I honestly just think politics and favouritism and the fact they've got NRL contracts and he doesn't.

And he's a better prospect to work with then Clint Newton who's had his time at the club already.

So sorry Junior I disagree... Smith and Toka have provided the go forward that's kept us in 2nd place all year. The only reasons he hasn't been playing is because Tetevano and Sims have been dropping back and Cuthbertson who have first preference.

But to say he's not good enough to play it because he doesn't make that side is wrong. It's just as I said.... Preference.
 
Josh Hill said:
There is no possible justification for the signing of Clint Newton.
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Agree, and if we do sign him I for one will never support that tosser...

He doesn't deserve to wear our jersey regardless of what grade (NSW Cup or NRL) he may or may not play :@
 
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It's obvious both Stone and Bennett prefer a host of other young props ahead of Smith, I'm not saying I agree with it, it's just fact.
 
Smith and Tupou have outplayed contracted players Frei and VaiVai in my opinion, although VaiVai is improving every game.
They are also both about the same age as Rodney Mason and are outplaying 2 runs a game Rodney easily.
Neither of them got the chance to train with the firstgrade squad, so there is every chance they could have a lot of improvement in them.
We don't exactly have a bunch of forwards in NYC demanding spots next year - the only one who seems a real keeper is Tapine, and I learnt yesterday that he has another year of NYC.
Last year we let O"Donnell, Anderson and Cooke go, and Anderson is now a firstgrader and Cooke was not far off it before injury. Even O'Donnell is finally looking good.
I don't know where i'm going with this - oh yeah - they are all better bets than Newton.

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Junior11 said:
It's obvious both Stone and Bennett prefer a host of other young props ahead of Smith, I'm not saying I agree with it, it's just fact.
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It's not a fact - if a contracted player is fit to play he has to get a run over a non contracted player, just because we need to develop them and keep them fit in case we need them for firstgrade.
 
It is fact because Smith isn't contracted and he isn't being offered a contract compared to our several other contracted young props. If that doesn't say Stone and Bennett don't rate them as highly as our other props then nothing will.
 
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