Here is a free tip for any young rugby league player out there with aspirations to play for the Newcastle Knights at some stage in the future - teach yourself or get someone to teach you how to kick goals.
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Who knows how far it might take you if you become a sharp-shooter.
It's almost impossible to fathom but despite the attention to detail and professionalism in the game at the top level now, the Knights will spend a touch under $10 million on players this season and not have a recognised, top-flight goal kicker in their senior ranks.
Hard to believe but that's the case. Just consider these damning stats from last season.
Of the teams that finished in the top eight in 2020, only one had a first-string goal kicker with a success rate below 76 percent. You guessed it - the Knights.
Souths' Adam Reynolds led the way at 85 percent followed by Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith [84], Jarrod Croker [Raiders 82], Mitch Moses [Eels 81], Kyle Flanagan [Roosters 80], Nathan Cleary [Panthers 79] and Shaun Johnson [Sharks 76].
For the Knights, Kalyn Ponga kicked just 46 goals from 70 attempts at a below-par success rate of just over 65 percent.
Mason Lino, in his two years at the Knights, kicked 48 goals from 55 attempts at 87 percent including 15 from 16 in five games last season. But he wasn't good enough to hold down a place in the side.
To make matters worse for the Knights this season with Lino having departed for England, Ponga could miss the opening month of the season as he recovers from his shoulder reconstruction.
That leaves coach Adam O'Brien looking at Ponga's likely fullback replacement Tex Hoy or backrower Mitch Barnett as his only make-shift goal kicking options for possibly the first four rounds.
In Ponga's absence last season, Hoy landed two from five attempts while Barnett kicked three from five when he inherited the job in two games back in 2019 because there was nobody else. Neither fill you with any great confidence.
If there is a positive in all of this, history tells us there is clearly scope for improvement from Ponga because in 2019, he kicked 48 from 58 at 82 percent. Confidence may have been a factor in last season's poor return.
O'Brien recognises it's an area that needs plenty of work and has brought in general skills and kicking guru Mick Byrne, a former VFL premiership winner with Hawthorn who has worked extensively with the All Blacks and Wallabies, to assist with the goal kickers during the pre-season.
Byrne has also been working on long kicking as well as catching and passing.
Given goal kicking can be the difference in close games, here's hoping he can work some magic.
Youth and potential not enough
If youngsters like Tex Hoy and Phoenix Crossland are searching for some added motivation as they approach a potentially make-or-break season with the Knights, they don't have far to look.
Both are off contract with the club at the end of this season and if they haven't already worked it out, the fact they are young and have shown potential is all well and good. But in the cut-throat world that is the NRL, that won't be enough on its own to guarantee them a new deal when the time comes.
They need only look at where two of Newcastle's most promising juniors, Brock Lamb and Jack Cogger, are playing now to realise there is a vast difference between perception and reality.
Lamb and Cogger were both Australian Schoolboys who played for NSW at virtually every junior level possible and as they came through the Knights junior system, were considered to be the club's future in the halves for the next decade.
But after getting a run in the top grade during the early years of former coach Nathan Brown's re-build, they failed to kick on when the crunch came. Those who put them on a pedestal were silenced.
Instead, Lamb was back playing for Maitland last season at 22-years-of-age while there were no takers for 23-year-old Cooger in the NRL this season after he was cut by the Bulldogs. He's since moved to England.
A lack of footy last season thanks to COVID has not helped the development of young players such as Hoy and Crossland, who basically have this season to convince coach Adam O'Brien they are worthy of their places in the top 30 next year.
Here's hoping they manage to rise to the challenge.
Tamworth leadership
The Knights' pre-season camp in Tamworth next week will be important on a number of fronts - not the least being some of the decisions that need to be made around what the club's leadership group will look like.
With Mitchell Pearce falling on his sword as captain and experienced players such as Tim Glasby and Aidan Guerra no longer at the club, there is likely to be a big changing of the guard with coach Adam O'Brien keen to have some younger blood pushing into leadership roles.
While ultimately the decision will rest with the coach, we're told the playing group will also have some input into who will be representing them.
The Knights will base themselves at Farrar Ag high school from Monday for the week with the Warriors also in Tamworth for a pre-season stint before moving to the Central Coast.
Mullo's return
He was one of the most popular players to ever pull on a Knights jersey so there won't be a genuine fan out there who won't be wishing Jarrod Mullen all the best with his return to rugby league with the Sunshine Coast Falcons in the Queensland Cup this season after four years in exile.
'George' Buderus
We are not sure if the stress of COVID and being in the bubble last season in his first year in the job brought it on but the greying locks of club legend Danny Buderus haven't gone unnoticed in the Knights office.
We are even hearing a new nickname, George [as in Clooney], is a chance of sticking.
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