2023 Recruitment & Retention Thread

Most Sydney journos couldn’t care less what’s going on at the Knights let alone the players on pre-season training deals here. Tells me it’s probably been fed directly to David Riccio from Tupouniua’s agent as an NRL signing and the article very specifically says it's top 30. Second tier seems more logical but I’d lean towards Toohey being not completely up to date based on the reporting.
 
mullenmagic said:
Most Sydney journos couldn’t care less what’s going on at the Knights let alone the players on pre-season training deals here. Tells me it’s probably been fed directly to David Riccio from Tupouniua’s agent as an NRL signing and the article very specifically says it's top 30. Second tier seems more logical but I’d lean towards Toohey being not completely up to date based on the reporting.
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As Gus Gould says, it doesnt matter if they sign top 30 or not once it hits June anyone can debut (with NRL approval), will be happy to keep him in the extended squad this year but not top 30. We have Jones, Frizell, Johns, Fitzgibbon, Lucas, Hetherington and Croker on the books that can play back row and in my opinion we cant afford to have another one locked in unless he's handy up front in prop. But still think he should be kept around as Johns, Jones, Fitzgibbon and Frizell are all off contract at end of year and he could help move on some dead wood.
 
www.zerotackle.com

Knights pressing to lock away Young star

Newcastle are looking to re-sign an emerging winger as rivals circle.
www.zerotackle.com www.zerotackle.com

According to this Young is only on $120k this year. He deserves more than that for next year and beyond. He could potentially earn up to $400k next year at the Knights if he re-signs. If he signs with another team for 2024 he will still only get the 120 next year. So I doubt he will leave for financial reasons, the only reason to leave for him is to go to a better team and get more success.
 
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krustykraz said:
www.zerotackle.com

Knights pressing to lock away Young star

Newcastle are looking to re-sign an emerging winger as rivals circle.
www.zerotackle.com www.zerotackle.com

According to this Young is only on $120k this year. He deserves more than that for next year and beyond. He could potentially earn up to $400k next year at the Knights if he re-signs. If he signs with another team for 2024 he will still only get the 120 next year. So I doubt he will leave for financial reasons, the only reason to leave for him is to go to a better team and get more success.
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I think he’d be excited of the prospect of KPP and Pryce joining in 2024, don’t think he’s going anywhere. He also turned down Melbourne for us - so that’s something…
 
If we sign Young for $400k that'd be an absolute steal. By the end of his next contract he'll be a top 6 marquee back. Likely a centre. There's nothing he cannot do.

He's taller and heavier than Greg Inglis. We should be trying for a 4 year deal. It'll keep the price down and would be difficult for a 21 year old Englishman to refuse that level of security. There'd be absolutely nothing wrong with a $2m 4 year deal imo
 
SportsFan said:
I think he’d be excited of the prospect of KPP and Pryce joining in 2024, don’t think he’s going anywhere. He also turned down Melbourne for us - so that’s something…
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I think from what he’s said the Storm offer was a year or two before ours, he felt he was too young at that stage to move halfway round the world.
 
Article about our frontrow stocks.
Quotes Parr on Taupau "it's news to me" that we are after him.
Parr says Hetherington can play prop or second row "it's up to the coach".
Says Bradbury is training strongly and will get a run in the trials.
No mention of players like Talty, Toleafoa, etc.
says Elliott will play "in the middle" - I assume at lock.
Parr lists our middles as the twins, Thompson, Croker, Hetherington, Elliot - with the only other one mentioned being Bradbury, although he does use the plural "forwards" when talking about our young middle hopefuls, so I assume the others are still in the picture.

www.newcastleherald.com.au

Do the Newcastle Knights need reinforcements after the departure of four front-rowers?

"We've got some good young middle forwards who are training with us and getting ready to step up...
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au
 
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From the outside looking in I’m stressed about what happens if we lose a key forward to injury, but realistically if that happens you can often get a player in a mid-season transfer, happens with middle forwards all the time as it’s the position most stacked with capable first graders, many of whom aren’t getting a run.

Also I would bet on them still throwing the kitchen sink at getting KPP early, so you wanna keep a spot open.

Very pleasing to hear Elliott will be an out-and-out middle for us, we’ve been thinking of him as the Barnett replacement but really you could think of him as replacing Klemmer, in terms of being a pack leader and the kinds of minutes he’ll be playing in the middle. So instead of our three best middles being tall timber props who can’t all play together while we burn most of our lock minutes on makeshift options, we have a true modern lock forward who can play with and in fact compliments our props.

Hetherington is actually the Barnett replacement (I reckon he’s a bench middle who’ll cover an edge in case of injury), which is appropriate as he’s also a lunatic.
 
It's interesting that Max Bradbury is standing out in training and Parr sees him as in the mix for 2023.
In 2019 he played second row in Mathews and was our player of the year and MOTM in the grandfinal.
At that time he was a second rower who was very mobile and had massive impact on a game.
I wrote a few posts at the time where I said he was a Mitch Barnett lookalike and when he was on the field it looked like someone had made a horrible mistake and sent Mitch Barnett out to bash up some 15 year olds, because he left bodies strewn all over the field.
Apparently he injured his leg playing in the local comp after Mathews in 2019 and because of injury and covid he didn't play a game for us in 2020 or 2021.
When he came back in Ball this year he had put on 10 or 15kg and was playing prop, and at the start of the Ball season he was a shadow of his former self. He'd gone from an agile and dynamic second rower to a plodding prop.
He got better and better all the Ball season and all the Flegg season and had a pretty good game for NSW under 19s.
From what Parr says, he is training really well in his first fulltime firstgrade pre-season.
After 2019 i'd have expected him to be debuting in 2023 or thereabouts, but now it's a bit of a surprise that he is in the mix, and he's a very different style of player than he was - still a punishing defender though, he's never lost that.
 
Les Misérables said:
If we sign Young for $400k that'd be an absolute steal. By the end of his next contract he'll be a top 6 marquee back. Likely a centre. There's nothing he cannot do.

He's taller and heavier than Greg Inglis. We should be trying for a 4 year deal. It'll keep the price down and would be difficult for a 21 year old Englishman to refuse that level of security. There'd be absolutely nothing wrong with a $2m 4 year deal imo
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I agree, Dom Young is a class player on the way up. He could be anything at his current trajectory.
Sign him Parr and be done with it!
 
Any news on a fullback?
Last time Ponga played 6 it didn't last long because we didn't have a fullback. Watson wasn't much chop at 1.

Apparently Miller has been training with the Sharks regularly.
 
Good Times said:
We’ve been underachievers for a number of years. I’m not convinced a change in coach would make us any better or worse.

People keep spruiking the idea that a change in coach will get the best out of our players. Where does the players’ responsibility come into it? In my job, my boss will give directions and motivate from a managerial level, but I’m a professional and am paid to find motivation for myself. The idea that around $10M worth of a professional team need a coach to motivate them is beyond me. Players are adults with the opportunity to make a living from a sport they love to play.

If they’re not being taught technique, good strategy and so on needed to win games, then that is a coaching problem. That may be a fault of O’Brien’s - I’m not certain of what they’re being taught vs what is executed on the field. However, if players simply aren’t trying because they’re not inspired or motivated, that’s their personal problem. It’s simply not good enough as a professional to blame someone else because you’re not willing to lift when it’s required.
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Again, the Knights have not managed the elephant in the room for 2 decades: monumentally abysmal defence. The Knights are a disgrace defensively. There has been a long held view that Newcastle is party central for a lot of overpaid, entitled players and coaches for years. These days they refer to it as club “culture”, and the Knights’ is in the sewer.
As a rusted-on Knights supporter, I find it difficult to watch or to listen to the bull dust excuses after each of our many loses.
Are we supporters expected to be satisfied with predictably deplorable performances and promises of a “ long term job fix” again in 2023? Are the Knights fair dinkum about representing Newcastle proudly in the NRL, or are we expected to be satisfied with the whipping boys tag again next season?
Someone at Knights headquarters must be starting to think about these relatively simple questions.
Will 2023 be any different?
 
Billy said:
In the latest Toohey podcast he says the training staff are really happy with Milford. He is training 3 or 4 times every day and getting very fit.
He also says they are only taking 22 players on the 10 day camp to Qld. With the 18 they'll need this week and all the guys due back next week, I can't see them having any room for Milford or any other non available guys.
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Have you watched Milford attempting to tackle? Knights should have gone to Specsavers!
 
Wally said:
He is a Newcastle boy, played his junior league for Valentine and his father Brett (ex-Raider & Cowboy) still resides here in Newy.

I am not sure we need bring in an undisciplined player who at only 26 has missed a lot of footy through suspension and injury. He really doesn’t offer us a point of difference, footwork at the line and ability to offload.
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He is aggressive and has a go. He has put some big shots on top line players.That’s his point of difference.
My only concern is that we don’t have anyone at the Knights who could correct his sometimes suspendable errant high shots.
 
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