Source: Jane Aubrey, ninemsn
Premiership-winning second rower Clint Newton remains on the open market after he rejected an offer to return to the Newcastle Knights.
Newton told Fairfax Newspapers that given Brian Smith’s treatment of other former Knights players, while he did consider the offer he said: "There is no way I could go back to that club at the moment. I couldn’t bring myself to do it."
"It just wouldn’t be right after everything that has happened and how some of my mates were treated," Newton said.
Newton walked out of his once beloved Newcastle club in May following a nasty fallout with Brian Smith, who Knights management brought into the club to put a broom through a culture and steer the 1997 premiers in a new direction.
It was a tumultuous week for the Knights following a 71-6 record loss to the Brisbane Broncos in which Newton played his 100th game for the club but then walked away saying he’d been informed by Smith he would not be required in 2008.
Source: Andrew Webster, leaguehq.com.au
THEY didn’t want him in May. Now, the Knights are set to meet with Clint Newton about the stunning possibility of bringing the premiership winner back home.
Yesterday, Newton stepped off a plane from Thailand, where he was celebrating with Storm teammates, to learn that Newcastle chief executive Steve Burraston wants to talk to him – possibly as soon as Monday.
The development provides a glimmer of hope that the back-rower will return to his former club just five months after coach Brian Smith told him he wasn’t considered a "valuable asset".
Newton declined to discuss the prospect of returning to the Knights when contacted yesterday and said he wanted to stay at the Storm.
But that is becoming less likely by the day, with the premiers scrambling to find enough money to fit him into their groaning salary cap.
Source: AAP, Sydney Morning Herald
Newcastle has finally found something to smile about with gun youngster Jarrod Mullen extending his stay at the under siege NRL club through to the end of the 2011 season.
Mullen’s long-term commitment should provide a shot in the arm for the Knights following a season on and off the field they would rather forget.
"Obviously, as times have been a bit tough recently, it’s great to have good news like this," Knights senior executive officer Steve Burraston said.
"We’ve got the young bloke with us for the next four years which I can only see as a positive for everyone."
Mullen’s season was brought to a premature end after he was forced to undergo shoulder surgery in late July.
Source: Jeff Wall, leagueunlimited.com
Very few rugby league and anti-drug agency officials are emerging with any credibility from the daily revelations of just how widely and for how long the alcohol and drugs problems facing Andrew Johns have been known.
It seems that just about every official and player either knew or had an idea, but with just one exception, didn’t want to know and therefore did nothing about it.
After four days of headlines the following have been found seriously wanting:
• The Newcastle Knights Rugby League Club.
The explanations from Knights officials have been woefully inadequate. The club has long had the weakest drug testing regime in the NRL. Johns knew that, and he knew that his chances of being caught were minimal.
Source: Steven Williams, Rugby League News
The Newcastle Knights have defeated Wests Tigers 26-24 after staging a remarkable comeback to end the Wests Tigers 2007 campaign at Telstra Stadium tonight.
After trailing 24-12, the last-placed Knights scored two tries in the final five minutes to even the scores.
Then in dramatic circumstances, the visitors received a penalty on the stroke of full time.
Knights full back Kurt Gidley kicked the match winner to end any finals hopes for the ninth-placed Wests Tigers.
Source: ABC Online
The Newcastle Knights’ team doctor has admitted that he was aware of Andrew Johns’s alcohol and drug abuse since 2002.
Johns has admitted to taking drugs throughout his football career whilst battling alcohol problems and depression.
In a media statement released by the Knights, Dr Neil Halpin confessed to managing Johns’s addictions as well as football-related injuries.
Source: abc.net.au
National Rugby League boss David Gallop has admitted to being aware of longstanding rumours about Andrew Johns’ drug use, but has backed the Newcastle Knights’ handling of their troubled former captain.
Johns – who was arrested for ecstasy possession in London last Sunday – has revealed he took drugs throughout his playing career and also had an alcohol problem.
This morning Mr Gallop admitted that rumours about Johns’ reckless lifestyle and behavioural issues had "bubbled to the surface" from time to time.
But he said he was happy with how the Knights had handled Johns and said the player had never tested positive for drugs.
"Over the years they have had a number of issues to deal with with him, and they have probably done a fair bit to try and help him," he told ABC Radio’s AM program.
"He’s under acute pressure in a one-team town like that – he was really centre of the universe up there and that created a whole lot of pressures on him."
Johns says he believes the club and his team-mates were aware of his drug problem, and said long-term depression and alcohol abuse contributed to it.
Source: Brent Read, The Australian
IN a faltering voice, but with the same resolution he showed on the football field, rugby league great Andrew Johns last night owned up to a 12-year battle with drugs, alcohol and depression.
The former Newcastle and Australia captain is now fighting to save his reputation after being caught by British police in possession of the party drug ecstasy.
At times Johns struggled with his emotions as he detailed his fight with drugs and alcohol, and how he "played Russian roulette" with drug testers during his entire celebrated career.
"I have lived with it for 10 years," Johns, 33, told the Nine Network’s NRL Footy Show. "I have taken (drugs) on and off, generally during the off-season but there’s times when during the season I’ve run the gauntlet and played Russian roulette and taken it … I think about some of the great times I have had but they have just been damaged because I took drugs. I am so ashamed of it. I destroyed some of the great times of my life."
Johns said he had been diagnosed with depression seven years ago and had been taking medication since.
Source: Macquarie National News
Kirk Reynoldson has been left out of the Knights team for the round 25 match against Wests Tigers at Telstra Stadium on Friday night.
This means the troubled Knight falls one game short of activating a clause in his contract that would have seen him guaranteed a payment for next season.
A statement released by the club this afternoon said Knights management, Reynoldson and his advisor, Les Ross held a positive meeting on Tuesday at the club’s headquarters.
It was agreed dialog will continue and both parties will work towards a mutually beneficial outcome.
In the meantime, the Tigers will be looking to keep the Allan McMahon Shield in its trophy cabinet with victory over Newcastle at Telstra Stadium on Friday night.
Source: Josh Massoud, The Daily Telegraph
IT appeared harmless enough – a bunch of old mates catching up at the pub for a beer and a feed.
But for embattled Newcastle coach Brian Smith, last night’s gathering of the club’s richest benefactors could turn deadly serious.
Led by golfing great Jack Newton and millionaire media mogul John Singleton, the influential lobby group – known as the White Knights – held a 90-minute crisis meeting at Newcastle wharf’s Brewery Hotel to discuss their future involvement in the club.
Other attendees included former Knights forward leaders Luke Davico and Craig Smith.
Over old-fashioned pub grub and a schooner or three, around 25 members expressed their concerns over Smith’s wholesale player clean-out that has seen a host of local stars released.
For one, Singleton, the group’s patron, is seething after being forced to scrap a beer advertising campaign worth $2 million that featured sacked Knights players.
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