When Wests Group and Knights CEO Phil Gardner claimed earlier this week that no-one working in both organisations would be spared the pain of the coronavirus pandemic, he meant no-one.
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Knights coach Adam O'Brien will next week actively start looking for work to pay the rent. So will his assistant coaches and the rest of his staff, most of whom are supporting families.
Gardner won't be looking for work but he is not immune from the cuts. Asked directly by this column if he was out of work along with more than 1200 fulltime and casual staff working for both Wests and the Knights, he declared: "I'm no different to any of our staff caught up in this. I'm stood down as well.
"I'm in the fortunate position of having entitlements to fall back on, having worked here for more than 30 years and built them up," he said. "But I have family members who work for Wests who have been stood down without pay and our chairman [Owen Kilpatrick] has family members who have also been stood down.
"Everyone is in the same boat. No-one is immune from this. It's incredibly tough times the like of which we have never seen before. Every club in the NRL has been forced to do what we have done with our staff [at the Knights] and stand them down.
"At Wests, we normally turnover $15 million a month and right now, with all our licensed clubs closed because of the government lock down, we are turning over zero. But we haven't abandoned anyone. No-one has been sacked.
"We have no cash flow to pay wages but the main priority now and what we will be aiming to achieve is making sure every one of the people we employ has a job to come back to when this is all over.
"We can't make any guarantees because we don't know what the landscape is going to look like at the end of this. But we see that as vital because who knows what the unemployment rate will be by the end of the year.
"It's not going to be easy finding employment which is why we are so focused on making sure all our jobs will be there."
Gardner defended Wests Group over suggestions they should be dipping into the more than $250 million in assets they currently own.
"It's clearly not prudent financial management in this current environment to be selling assets," Gardner said.
Raider targeted
Tyson Frizell's decision to quit the Dragons at the end of the season to link with the Knights on a three year deal clearly surprised local officials.
So much so, it's understood the Knights privately believed Frizell was staying put at Kogarah and had already moved on to another potential target. According to whispers out of the national capital, Englishman John Bateman had attracted some interest from the Knights.
Bateman is under contract for 2021 but it is common knowledge he is not happy with what he is earning at the Raiders and suggested publicly prior to last year's grandfinal he is keeping his options open about his future.
Bateman is managed by Isaac Moses, who manages coach Adam O'Brien and a number of Knights players including David Klemmer.
Rivalry on hold
Spare a thought for Jayden and Blayke Brailey. Tonight was meant to be the highlight of their season.
The two brothers, who are very tight, had both circled March 28 on their calendars the day the 2020 NRL draw came out late last year to signal the first meeting between their respective clubs, the Knights and Sharks.
It would have been the two hookers first time playing against each other following Jayden's move to the Knights that facilitated his younger brother's elevation to starting hooker at Cronulla this season.
The premiership shutdown has put their confrontation on hold but as it turned out, Jayden would not have played anyway. Instead, he is holed up in hospital after undergoing knee reconstructive surgery on Friday.
Knights legend Danny Buderus had this to say about Brailey on Thursday.
"Just ringing him last night and hearing how emotional he was just shows you the connection he's made with the place and the team. That really just drove home to me how important he is for the future of the club."
No band for Frizell
In normal times, the Knights would have been trumpeting the signing of someone of the calibre of Dragons star Tyson Frizell on Friday.
After all, it's not every day the club signs a current Australian Test star.
In fact, it's only happened three times before in the Knights' history. Darius Boyd, who followed Wayne Bennett to the club in 2012, was the first, just prior to Beau Scott in 2013 and then current prop David Klemmer last year. But these are far from normal times.
The Knights press release confirming Frizell's signing was as low key as it gets. It was almost with shy embarrassment the club made it official.
It read: "In late January, the nib Newcastle Knights made Tyson Frizell a three-year offer starting in season 2021 which he has accepted. Due to the current uncertain circumstances for rugby league, the NRL are not registering any new or updated contracts. The club has and always will act in good faith in relation to contracts. Our offer has never changed and was issued prior to these trying and uncertain times. The club will make no further comment."
That was it. A handful of rather sheepish lines.
In defence of the club, their underwhelming approach is hardly surprising. After all, on the surface, it's not a great look when, right in the middle of the coronavirus crisis as people get put out of work left, right and centre with the future of the NRL up in the air, the Knights agree to folk out a reported $2.1 million for a player for the next three years.
Not surprisingly, while Knights fans were over the moon, there were plenty of critics sticking the boot in down south, claiming the club were guilty of being totally insensitive with the timing of the announcement.
Truth is the Knights had no control over the announcement. They didn't want it out there but could not stop the Dragons leaking his departure to the media.
Quinn send off
On the same day several competitions including the NSW Cup were called off for the year by the NSWRL, they farewelled former Newcastle and CRL CEO Terry Quinn.
Quinny retired on Friday after more than 50 years involvement in the game as a player and administrator.
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