Brown discusses Klemmer, potential recruiting plans

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown has spoken out on the club's direction during an appearance on Channel Nine's Sunday Footy Show.

With the Knights looking to bolster their side with new recruits, particularly in the middle area, Brown also discussed the possibility of prop David Klemmer signing with the club.

"It's a million miles away, that one," Brown told The Footy Show.

"The truth to it was, I actually asked Opes (Chris Anderson) and Lyn (Anderson) about two weeks ago and Opes laughed at me.

Asked if the Bulldogs would consider releasing Klemmer, Brown replied: "I wouldn't have thought they won't let Klemmer go."

Despite missing out on several big men in recent times, Brown declared that the Knights will find a suitable player when the time is right.

"We'd like to buy a couple of marquee forwards if we could, to go with the younger guys," he said.

"We brought Chris Heighington and Jacob Lillyman in for a year.

"There weren't Origin type players available, so we brought players who are very experienced who have had an impact on our younger players. We bought them in hope of getting some high-profiled forwards when they come off contract.

"At the moment, we're fortunate to get Tim Glasby.

"We threw a few punches at a few others but didn't quite get them. We'll just have to wait until the right ones come along."

The Knights may broaden their search for quality off-contact forwards to England, where Brown previously coached St Helens.

"There's a lot of good forwards in England but it's so hard to get the ones you want out of there who are on contract," he said.

"Canberra just signed John Bateman who is a great competitor. He's a super young player. He's a backrower-centre but we've got Sione (Mata'utia) so it wasn't worth us looking at that market.

"There's some good forwards but if they're on contract, one to try and get them off contract you have to pay a fair amount of money and, two, there's a lot of history in England and there's kids who don't want to go anywhere else. They love it there and that's it."