Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Josh Callinan

Knights keep 'open mind' for last three NRL spots in top-30 roster

Knights director of football Peter Parr. Picture by Max Mason-Hubers

KNIGHTS director of football Peter Parr says the club will keep an "open mind" about the last three spots on their NRL roster for 2023 and knows there's plenty of time to fill them.

Newcastle have secured back-to-back player trades in quick succession, however, Parr doesn't feel like the recent squad changes will necessarily trigger any more movement for the top-30 list at the moment.

"It's well into next year before we have to fill those spots, so we'll just keep an open mind on it," Parr told the Newcastle Herald.

"We've got a number of players training with us that don't have a full-time contract who are putting their best foot forward.

"So we could fill them from underneath with those guys who are training with us over the summer or we could look to bring people in from the outside if we feel they can value add.

"We've got an open mind on that."

Gold Coast winger Greg Marzhew has now arrived in Newcastle, having switched places at the Titans with Knights hooker Chris Randall.

The move, confirmed earlier this week, follows a much-publicised exchange between Tigers arrival Jackson Hastings and Knights departure David Klemmer.

Newcastle's official squad number remains at 27 with a further four development players.

"We're happy in the last two weeks we've been able to secure Jackson Hastings and Greg Marzhew and keep those spots open at the same time," Parr said.

"As I've said a few times we'll just continue to keep assessing the squad, looking for people that can value add from either underneath or outside to give Adam [O'Brien] and the coaching staff as many options as we can for the year ahead."

In terms of other potential trades in the works, Parr says the Knights "we're not involved in any of those types of discussions at the moment".

Responding to links with Cronulla's Lachlan Miller, a fullback option aiding Kalyn Ponga's potential shift into the halves, Parr didn't shed much light on the situation.

"Lachlan Miller is getting a lot of talk from outside the club rather than inside," Parr said.

"He's contracted to the Sharks so it would be inappropriate for me to talk about someone who is contracted to another club."

Adam Elliott, Jack Hetherington and Tyson Gamble are among the other fresh faces at Newcastle's pre-season training.

Knights players off contract at the end of 2023 include: English World Cup star Dom Young, this year's Danny Buderus Medal winner Tyson Frizell, utility Kurt Mann, second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon and outside backs Hymel Hunt and Enari Tuala.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.