Alex
Ben Kennedy
Even with all that commitment he gives to play, we still can't even give him 400k to play on next year. God I love this club
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Even with all that commitment he gives to play, we still can't even give him 400k to play on next year. God I love this club
bremsstrahlung
Scott Conley
Damn. That’s a bad month for Gags. Feel for him.
I think we could do a lot worse than Gags for $400K. I know there’s not much of a place for sentiment in sport but he strikes me as a good hard working person to have around the club. Just have to look at the players that made an appearance for his 300 games. Strikes me as a good mentor too. Over 200 games with us - I’d be happy to give him a contract for 2026 and a job in 2027.
It was reported by “zero tackle” he has a mutual option.
I’m assuming the clubs option is higher - eg $400K. Presumably his player option is less, but surely wouldn’t be too much lower otherwise there would be no point having it.
At 34, I understand the concern his body is slowing down and players often say how scarily quick this happens. But still thinks he holds his own.
I think we could do a lot worse than Gags for $400K. I know there’s not much of a place for sentiment in sport but he strikes me as a good hard working person to have around the club. Just have to look at the players that made an appearance for his 300 games. Strikes me as a good mentor too. Over 200 games with us - I’d be happy to give him a contract for 2026 and a job in 2027.
It was reported by “zero tackle” he has a mutual option.
I’m assuming the clubs option is higher - eg $400K. Presumably his player option is less, but surely wouldn’t be too much lower otherwise there would be no point having it.
At 34, I understand the concern his body is slowing down and players often say how scarily quick this happens. But still thinks he holds his own.
krustykraz
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
$400k is good value for Gags.
Billy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
It says in the article that his grandmother died during the game.
I don't know how to process that.
Junior_rep
Ben Rogers
OnTilt
Sean Rudder
How is that major coaching news 
i think us resigning Young was a nail in the coffin for Gagai's extension. I thought keeping Gagi around as a mentor was a good move, but Best is pretty handy too despite his age.
This could perhaps be us leaning into a rebuild as well and deciding to go with the Young guys.
i think us resigning Young was a nail in the coffin for Gagai's extension. I thought keeping Gagi around as a mentor was a good move, but Best is pretty handy too despite his age.This could perhaps be us leaning into a rebuild as well and deciding to go with the Young guys.
Grandpa Joe
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Gutted we haven't resigned Gags he certainly represents better value than Elliot and Hetherington.
Is the writing on the wall for Frizzell as well?
We are deadset looking as having as young a roster as the Brown years early days at this rate.......
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Is the writing on the wall for Frizzell as well?
We are deadset looking as having as young a roster as the Brown years early days at this rate.......
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KPGreatness
Todd Bates
As I said in the Dane Gagai discussion forum.
He is truely a club legend and I’ve enjoyed watching his career, but it is time for him to call it a day.
I would like the club to honour him with a big party and last game, we have people that are ready for that spot, Schiller, McCarthy, De Coursey and Hunt. Hopefully they offer him a coaching or mentor role with the club if he wishes.
He is truely a club legend and I’ve enjoyed watching his career, but it is time for him to call it a day.
I would like the club to honour him with a big party and last game, we have people that are ready for that spot, Schiller, McCarthy, De Coursey and Hunt. Hopefully they offer him a coaching or mentor role with the club if he wishes.
Les Misérables
Mark Hughes
There is no replacing Gagai. Hes an generational outside back.
Will be many many years until we have a player as talented and effective as him at right centre. He had his defensive issues in his early career but by his late 20s he was rock solid. What a player. We were blessed.
Will be many many years until we have a player as talented and effective as him at right centre. He had his defensive issues in his early career but by his late 20s he was rock solid. What a player. We were blessed.
Frank McWilliams
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
We should be keeping Gagai for one more season, besides being a class player it would also be good to have his experience while we adjust to having Brown 7 and Sharpe 6 further developing.
Hopefully if he doesn’t sign for a further year that he retires, end his career with Knights.
Hopefully if he doesn’t sign for a further year that he retires, end his career with Knights.
I still get the feeling he’ll re-sign but on a lower amount. I can’t see another club offering Gags close to 400k when he’s another year older and I think the club knows that. We know how good he is but he still seems pretty underrated to the wider NRL community. Unless he wants to go to the UK but he has school aged kids.
There's no point playing Obi ball with the weakest team we've put out since probably 2022...may as well try something different.
Brad tighe
Craig Kimmorley
Surely pos must be planning a serious raid on the player market for 2026. Letting gags go is a massive mistake.
mozza
Game on broheim
So far he’s been very underwhelming. Massive overs for Brown and letting a heap of blokes go when there’s very little quality on the market. He’s essentially handing us another spoon in 26 and looking for some quality in 27 and praying that our kids turn into stars.
Brown's not on "massive overs" in context.
Who is POS letting go that we should be going to the mat for? Even Gags is only worth re-signing at the right price at this stage of his career.
Any spoon(s) we get in the next few years because of a lack of talent/depth in the squad had their seeds sown during the Zammit era of paying blokes anything to get them to come to or stay in Newcastle. $750k for KPP...Tigers are about to sign him for $600...and that's with two seasons of NRL first grade. Now that's paying overs.
Blaming POS for the mess he inherited while he's in the process of sorting it doesn't make sense to me.
Who is POS letting go that we should be going to the mat for? Even Gags is only worth re-signing at the right price at this stage of his career.
Any spoon(s) we get in the next few years because of a lack of talent/depth in the squad had their seeds sown during the Zammit era of paying blokes anything to get them to come to or stay in Newcastle. $750k for KPP...Tigers are about to sign him for $600...and that's with two seasons of NRL first grade. Now that's paying overs.
Blaming POS for the mess he inherited while he's in the process of sorting it doesn't make sense to me.
Good Times
Keith Beauchamp
I don't mind what he's done so far TBH. We've missed on plenty of targets, but he's been sensible with offers (jury is out on Brown though). Overpaying to get players here hasn't worked well for us in the past. Problem is though, we currently aren't attractive enough a destination for many players unless we do pay overs. I'm guessing he's waiting for AOB to be replaced and our juniors to shine so that we can then be more competitive recruiting.
Billy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I keep thinking we will have 2 squads training next preseason - the top 30 under O'Brien and a train and trial squad put together by POS training under Dobson and Blair.
POS is bringing in too many guys for them all to get a top squad preseason, and I still don't know why he brought Blair over, if not to work with all his trialists.
POS is bringing in too many guys for them all to get a top squad preseason, and I still don't know why he brought Blair over, if not to work with all his trialists.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Brown's deal will be benign by 2028, I'm pretty confident of that. Good halves have been our biggest issue in putting a roster together and we don't have a kid in the system who's closer than like 4 years away from being ready to play NRL, and who knows if the kid(s) in question will still even be here.
Other than that, POS is clearly making decisions with long term success in mind rather than panic buys to keep a toehold on mediocrity in 2026.
Besides the inability to develop and/or sign quality halves, if you look at what's on the roster now, and you look at the Origin teams, our other big issue is clearly holding onto talent in the forwards.
Cody Hopwood has the most potential to be elite of any other middle at the club. Locking him down to 2028 heads off the possibility of him being the next Joe Tapine. It's rough now when he's not ready for first grade, but it'll be rougher if in 5 years he's clearly a great first grader but he plays somewhere else.
Manulelua's potential is obvious. He may leapfrog McEwen in the pecking order and we all really like McEwen. And it's forced ESL, another prospect we like, to train almost exclusively as a middle. Give me this situation over overpaying for KPP or Frizell. Develop your edge forwards! Never buy them!
I think it's smart to give Croker and Jones the 2-3 year deals rather than the constant thing where we neg them for a year and then offer a 1 year extension at the last minute. We know what they are and they're cheap. The gap between them and an Adam Elliott is so much smaller than the one between Elliott/Hetho and a properly elite forward, as much as I rate Adzy. You SHOULD be securing your bargain local juniors with 2-3 year deals, not overpaying for 3 years for average players like Hetherington.
Sucks that we missed Latu and Pahulu (and by the sounds of it we all but had Latu over the line, very frustrating), but at least they're actually really good, shrewd recruitment targets. Both with the potential to be special. Give me that over paying more for mid guys who've already hit a mid ceiling.
I know we're all panicking about what the pack looks like next year but I'm glad the man making decisions isn't. Something will fall in our lap. It does every year, we're just never in position to pay for it.
Other than that, POS is clearly making decisions with long term success in mind rather than panic buys to keep a toehold on mediocrity in 2026.
Besides the inability to develop and/or sign quality halves, if you look at what's on the roster now, and you look at the Origin teams, our other big issue is clearly holding onto talent in the forwards.
Cody Hopwood has the most potential to be elite of any other middle at the club. Locking him down to 2028 heads off the possibility of him being the next Joe Tapine. It's rough now when he's not ready for first grade, but it'll be rougher if in 5 years he's clearly a great first grader but he plays somewhere else.
Manulelua's potential is obvious. He may leapfrog McEwen in the pecking order and we all really like McEwen. And it's forced ESL, another prospect we like, to train almost exclusively as a middle. Give me this situation over overpaying for KPP or Frizell. Develop your edge forwards! Never buy them!
I think it's smart to give Croker and Jones the 2-3 year deals rather than the constant thing where we neg them for a year and then offer a 1 year extension at the last minute. We know what they are and they're cheap. The gap between them and an Adam Elliott is so much smaller than the one between Elliott/Hetho and a properly elite forward, as much as I rate Adzy. You SHOULD be securing your bargain local juniors with 2-3 year deals, not overpaying for 3 years for average players like Hetherington.
Sucks that we missed Latu and Pahulu (and by the sounds of it we all but had Latu over the line, very frustrating), but at least they're actually really good, shrewd recruitment targets. Both with the potential to be special. Give me that over paying more for mid guys who've already hit a mid ceiling.
I know we're all panicking about what the pack looks like next year but I'm glad the man making decisions isn't. Something will fall in our lap. It does every year, we're just never in position to pay for it.