Knights poised to sign marquee player

Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown has revealed that club is well positioned to try to lure a big name player, with ample spending money.

Despite already signing Tim Glasby, Edrick Lee and Jessie Ramien for next season, Brown asserts that Knights are not yet done recruiting and will be aggressive in targeting more star power.

And the Newcastle coach said it could come as soon as in the next six weeks.

“We want to try to come up with one or two top-line signings like we did with Mitchell (Pearce), and Kalyn (Ponga) as well,” Brown told The Daily Telegraph.

“I’d be surprised if we didn’t come up with another couple of signings around that next six or so weeks.

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“You hope for a bit of luck don’t you? We’re in a strong position if the right player comes up. The fact we got in early with Jesse and Tim Glasby and Edrick, that’s been positive for us.

“But we certainly need to add a couple more in certain areas that we would really like to strengthen if the right people come along.”

With the futures of elderly statesmen Chris Heighington and Jamie Buhrer unknown, on top of Jacob Lillyman's retirement, Brown added that the club was keen to add forward depth and injury insurance.

“Next year we’ve got Jesse Ramien coming and we’ve got Edrick Lee coming,” Brown said.

“We feel we need another back, so we’ve got stability there.

“We’ve got Tim Glasby coming, we certainly need another couple of forwards to add to him.

“We need, like anyone, we need some luck with injury. If you add a couple more players in the right areas and have a really good pre-season, you’d like to think at this stage next year that people are going to be saying plenty of good things about you.

“We would have been significantly higher on the ladder if Mitchell didn’t get hurt. But we still would have had problems with our squad, which we need to strengthen anyway.”

Brown said he was pleased with the team's direction, but wants to see the same group of players build chemistry together.

“As a whole, we’re really happy with the way the future looks now. It’s the first time next year we’ll come in with a nine, seven, six and one that have played together and are go into another year together and develop these combinations,” Brown said.

“My first couple of years here that’s changed, now we’ve got players in key positions who I believe he can help the club move forward and take the club to be a club who can do really well at the back end of the year.”