Newcastle players have 'turned on the coach' in ugly claims about NRL team's roster overhaul

There is a clean-out underway at the Newcastle Knights as the side works to reshape their roster in a quest to end a 23-year premiership drought. But the shake-up has reportedly led to a 'disgruntled playing group' and as Newcastle's 2024 NRL season hangs in the balance, some of the squad have reportedly turned on coach Adam O’Brien.

Having already undergone the third-highest roster change in the NRL over the past two seasons, the Knights are set to swing the axe once again. Newcastle have bought and sold 18 players across the past two seasons with only the Bulldogs (25) and Tigers (21) having a greater turnover over the past 24 months. But according to veteran News Corp journalist Phill Rothfield, after luring recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan to the club, he has wasted no time in "tapping players on the shoulder and saying go and try your luck somewhere else".

O'Sullivan most recently oversaw the construction of the Dolphins’ inaugural NRL squad - which included signing the likes of Isaiya Katoa, Max Plath and Jack Bostock. And the top of O'Sullivan's Knights to-do list is to assess and rebuild the club’s roster, with his duties extending across the Knights’ junior pathways systems.

But his arrival has understandably unsettled the playing group and Rothfield says it has led to certain Knights players turning on O'Brien. "What this has done is formed a disgruntled playing group and I don’t think they’re putting into the best of their ability,” he told NRL 360 on Monday night. “The players, I’m told, have turned on the coach a little bit in that he hasn’t had more to say in the recruitment area.

“If you go to any organisation, you’re still live in the finals two weeks ago, and you tap half a dozen players (on the shoulder)... And then they blame the coach. I’m not suggesting for one minute that O’Brien's job is under pressure. What I am saying is the dressing room is a little bit off him at the moment.”

Adam O'Brien's job at Knights not under threat

Despite the uncertainty at the club, the Knights are reportedly not considering parting ways with coach O'Brien regardless of where they finish the season. The club rewarded him in February with a new deal following their 10-game winning streak which got them to a semi-final in 2023 but Newcastle currently find themselves in 13th and highly unlikely to play finals football in 2024.

The Knights last won a premiership in 2001 but there have been some noticeable improvements in recent years. And the impending roster changes aren’t necessarily about improving the club next year either, they are more about the future and the need to keep improving the squad so they can try to break their premiership drought.

However, one player who will not be moved on is Kalyn Ponga, despite concerns about their salary cap. The Knights had to break the bank to keep him away from the Dolphins – and their then-recruitment boss O'Sullivan – and since then the superstar fullback has been at the heart of their improvements, with his absence through injury this season hard felt.

Daniel and Jacob Saifiti likely casualties of Newcastle clean-out

But two of the club’s other highest-earning players, Daniel and Jacob Saifiti, who rake in around $800,000 a season have been told can look elsewhere after failing to live up to their pay packets. While hooker Jayden Brailey and enforcer Jack Hetherington are coming to the end of their contracts and are unlikely to earn new deals.

And Fox League’s James Hooper said part of the unsettling at the Knights is due to three of their player leadership group being told to look elsewhere. “They had an eight-player leadership group, which seems like a hell of a lot of players. Today it’s been extended to 10 — they’ve added another couple of players.

“And the other thing is of that leadership group, three of those players have now been tapped on the shoulder. So you can see why there are starting to be some rumblings out of the joint.”

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While the club’s forward pack, including the Saifiti brothers, have underperformed and therefore is a focus of the clean-out, Rothfield believes bringing O'Sullivan in could result in mass casualties across the board. “I don’t know what they’re going to do around the halves,” he told Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast on Monday.

“Jackson Hastings is a talking point, isn’t he? Because every playmaker is in this competition, and when you don’t make the eight and when you have a dusty year you look at your number seven before anything else. There’s going to be some tough decisions made there with limited resources.” Englishmen Will Pryce and Kai Pearce-Paul, Adam Elliot and Dylan Lucas are also all set to come off contract at the end of next year and could find themselves on the outer.