I've been in this game long enough to know how the rumour mill operates.
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The way social media works these days, it's not too difficult to light a flame, put it out there and watch it develop into a full-blown fire. It's even easier when your team is losing.
I must admit I was thrown off a little on Monday when I took a call telling me a strong rumour had been doing the rounds for several days about a swap deal being spoken about between myself and Brisbane Broncos prop Matt Lodge.
I'd heard absolutely nothing about it. Not a thing. But when you hear that, you immediately think there might be something to it. There is stuff going on behind the scenes with players and clubs and managers all the time these days.
It definitely put me on edge a bit. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love it here in Newcastle. My family loves it here in Newcastle.
Ideally, I want to finish my career here and before it ends, winning a premiership is the ultimate goal. But if for whatever reason, I have to go somewhere else to finish my career, Newcastle will still be home. We'll be coming back here as a family post footy. That's how much we love living in Newy and I can't be stronger on it than that.
So yeah, the thought of being swapped to the Broncos was not only something I wasn't expecting, it was something that didn't appeal to me one little bit.
The first thing I did was phone Adzy [coach Adam O'Brien]. Adzy and I have a great relationship and I knew he would be straight with me. So when he told me he knew absolutely nothing about it and not to worry about it, it put my mind at ease.
Clint Zammit [Knights recruitment boss] told me the same thing and when I rang my manager, he rubbished it too and was filthy about it.
Like I said before, you never really know with this sort of stuff but I'm really comfortable there is no truth to it and all my energy now is focused on Friday's Magic Round clash against the Wests Tigers.
The win over the Canberra Raiders last weekend was a much-needed boost in confidence. It was a strange game. We went in at halftime 16-0 down but there was this air of confidence among the boys that we could still win.
Adzy gave us a rocket for our errors and for some slack contact in defence that put us under pressure with their off-loads, but to a man, we all felt the game was there for us if we got our act together.
I remember sitting on the bench early in the second half with D Saf and Barney [Mitch Barnett] and we were all saying the same thing - 'we're going to win this'. It was a great feeling to hear the fulltime whistle blow and know we had.
It was a big win for us in the context of our season but it won't mean much at all if we don't back it up against the Tigers in Brisbane.
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