That is the logical conclusion that can be drawn from Jayden Brailey's revelation that, when it became obvious last season that he would have to leave the Sharks, Gallen advised him to sign with Newcastle.

"Gal actually tipped me up to come here," Brailey told the Newcastle Herald.

"When it was all going down at Cronulla and I had been asked to look around, I went and had a coffee with Paul and we talked about what would best suit me.

"He pointed to Newcastle, and I was already thinking that way. We both knew that this would be a great place for me to come. The roster was perfect for my style of footy."

In his recently released autobiography, Gallen referred to Newcastle's 2016 wooden-spoon outfit as "the worst first-grade team I ever faced in my entire career".

He also declared in 2017 that Mitchell Pearce "might live to regret" his decision to join the Knights instead of Cronulla, predicting "Newcastle are two or three years away from being a consistent top-eight side".

"As for winning competitions, well, I just can't see that happening for a long, long time," he added.

Despite such forthright comments, when the Knights offered Brailey a three-year contract, Gallen endorsed the promising hooker's decision to accept it.

"Gal's in the media a fair bit and he's entitled to his opinion," Brailey said.

"And in all honesty the Knights have had a tough time of it for the last five years or so, during that building stage.

"But judging by how hard we've been training, we're all raring to go. I think we've got a really good roster and we're ready to have a really big year."

Brailey, who played his first game for Newcastle in last week's trial match against St George Illawarra, certainly has no regrets about his move.

"I love it up here," the 23-year-old said. "I can't rap this place up enough.

"I knew I was going to enjoy it, but it's been everything I expected and more.

"I love the town, and I love the culture [coach] Adam [O'Brien] is building here at the club. All the boys have been extremely welcoming and I'm just super excited to be playing here."

Brailey, who played 69 NRL games for the Sharks, including three finals series, was deployed only for the first quarter against the Dragons and is hoping for more game time in Saturday's hit-out against the Roosters at Gosford.

He is expected to tag-team at dummy-half with versatile Connor Watson but feels he is more than capable of playing 80 minutes on a regular basis.

"It's up to Adam how he wants to play Connor," Brailey said.

"Obviously he's got that utility value, but he's been training a bit as a ball-playing middle, so he could play there but he also played really well at hooker last year, so I guess there's a few options.

"I'm aiming to play 80 minutes most weeks. I'm definitely fit enough, so that's my goal."

Meanwhile, the player Brailey has effectively replaced, Danny Levi, has fired a parting shot at former Knights coach Nathan Brown.

Levi requested a release recently to sign for Manly, after playing 83 games for Newcastle, as well as four Tests for New Zealand.

Levi fell out of favour with Brown last season, prompting Newcastle's decision to sign Brailey.

"It was hard, it was a bit of a roller-coaster. I thought there were things that were unfair," Levi told AAP.

"You hear a lot of stories where coaches just don't like you, no matter what you do. You could be in his bad books and that's it.

"I think I might have been in a situation like that. I'm just happy to be out of it."

Levi insisted he harboured no ill-feeling towards his former teammates and said coach O'Brien had been "respectful" in handling the situation.

"I never have anything towards the club or the team. Some of my best friends are in that team,' he said.

Disappointed as he was about leaving Newcastle, he accepted it would be the best thing for his career. "I thought there were a lot of things that just didn't go my way last year, things I thought were a bit unfair but were out of my control," he said.

"That's in the past now, so I'm really excited for this year and to play really good footy and put my best foot forward."