On the back of their own non performances and in danger of picking up the clubs second wooden spoon in the last 3 years, Knights Players seem to think THEY are not the problem!
With all the talk about their unique club culture, their mateship and trying to force managment into signing a player who is a fringe first grader at best, the players have forgotten that they are professionals playing a professional game and right now, they are the worst performed professional players in the game.
The Knights have the worst for and against record in the competition by over 100 points. They sit second last on the NRL ladder with just 8 wins from 22 games and last week they were thrashed by bottom of the table Penrith by a scoreline of 46-12!
Of course what this all comes back to is the Knights non performing players are unhappy with coach Brian Smith because Smith, like the rest of the Rugby League community, knows the current set of players are not good enough and he is getting rid of as many as he can.
Smith and the clubs move to get rid of Kurt Reynoldson has caused a backlash in the playing ranks. Reynoldson, who is nothing special, is upset because the club has dared to tell him to look elsewhere and will not play him again this season in a move that would envolk a clause in his contract giving him a $200,000 contract extension.
Apparently its Reynoldsons god given right to play for Newcastle…
On top of all this with have the Daily Telegraph and News Limited media in general running a bitter campeign against coach Brian Smith. It has become so venemous and pathetic that this morning the Telegraph ran with a story of a 4 year old girl from the NSW south coast who wrote a letter asking the club “Why has he ruined our team”.
The writer, Josh Massoud, should have a good look at himself as should the parents of the little girl for allowing their child to be used like that.
Now there is talk that Danny Buderus is looking to head to Super League and Steve Simpson may go the same way.
Good.
For too long Newcastle has been a bits and peices team. A side throw together and hoping that Andrew Johns would drag them along.
Now that Johns has retired the focused has shifted back to the rest of the squad, and it has taken them less then a season to be shown up as a bunch of gutless whingers who dont belong in first grade.
Any true Knights fans would be thankful that someone has finally come to the club to make a real difference. The Knights needed a MAJOR change and Smith is doing a good job of it.
Get rid of the current squad of losers. They are the real problem, not the coach.
