Wangi Wangi junior Max Bradbury has started training with Cronulla as Knights football director Peter Parr admitted the club needs to move away from trade deals.
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Bradbury's Sharks deal is expected to be confirmed today after he joined his new teammates on a pre-season training camp on the South Coast on Wednesday.
Neither the Knights nor Sharks mentioned the 20-year-old prop on Tuesday when they announced ex-Cronulla fullback Lachlan Miller was joining Newcastle.
With Bradbury's contract still being processed on Wednesday, Parr told the Newcastle Herald he was unable to discuss the young prop's move but he spoke broadly about the Knights' recent recruitment deals.
"If we lose Max, since my time at the club it's the third signing we've made that has involved giving up a player to gain a player," he said.
"That's a cycle we'd like to break. We want to reach a point where we are retaining rather than recruiting, and the recruiting that we are doing are players that have been identified and available - rather than trying to sign players that are contracted to other clubs.
"Of course that's going to happen from time to time, but we would like to be in a position to be identifying players that are coming off contract, rather than currently under contract."
The Miller-Bradbury swap comes after the Knights let David Klemmer leave a year early to sign Tigers halfback Jackson Hastings, likewise hooker Chris Randall for Titans winger Greg Marzhew.
Bradbury is understood to have opted for the move to Cronulla after the Sharks identified multiple Knights players they were interested in, including emerging centre Krystian Mapapalangi.
Bradbury's exit has allowed Newcastle to land Miller, the fullback they sought out to solidify Kalyn Ponga's move to five-eighth.
"If Kalyn was going to go to the halves, we felt we needed to increase our depth at fullback," Parr said.
"The best thing for the club was to ensure that we had someone who could play fullback, along with the other players we've got, but to give the coaching staff as many options as they can," Parr said of signing Miller.
"And to give the move of Kalyn to five-eighth the best possible opportunity."
Bradbury, a front-row forward, is a highly fancied prospect by some judges and represented NSW in the under-19s State of Origin last year.
He trained with Newcastle's NRL squad over summer, but is yet to debut and was not in the club's top-30 roster.
While 28-year-old Miller is inexperienced as a full-time NRL fullback, he looks a potential excitement machine.
The Coffs Harbour product made seven appearances for Cronulla last year, including an impressive debut, and featured prominently for Newtown in the NSW Cup.
He also has the experience of having spent more than four years in Australia's rugby sevens program, including playing at the Tokyo Olympics, before returning to rugby league.
For now, he plugs the main hole Newcastle needed to fill before the 2023 season and their looming first trial on Friday week against Cronulla at Central Coast Stadium.
But the Knights are lucky to have landed the outside-back given one of Cronulla's other fullbacks, Kade Dykes, went down with a season-ending knee injury this week.
Had 21-year-old Dykes suffered the injury before Miller was released, the Sharks would have been highly unlikely to let the flyer go.
The Knights are also hoping to add another middle-forward to their top-30 roster but Parr said Bradbury's departure would not expedite that pursuit.
Middle forwards David Klemmer (Wests Tigers), Sauaso Sue (Hull Kingston Rovers), Pasami Saulo (Canberra) and Jirah Momoisea all left the club last year while only Jack Hetherington (Canterbury) and Adam Elliott (Canberra) came on board.
"We've always said, if possible, we'd like to get a middle forward in the squad," Parr said.
"That was regardless of whether Max remains with us or not.
"Max has not played an NRL game yet, so if he was to go to the Sharks I don't think that changes anything.
"I don't think the coaching staff had pencilled in Max to play many NRL games this year - of course that could also change, but he is still in the development stage of his career.
"We're comfortable, we've got some high-quality middle forwards but if we can get some depth there we will."
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