The ink is barely dry on Kalyn Ponga's long-term extension, but Newcastle's front office has wasted no time turning its attention to the next battle, and it's shaping up to be a complicated one.
Three of the Knights' stars, Bradman Best, Dylan Lucas and Jacob Saifiti, are all off-contract at the end of the next season, leaving the club staring down the barrel of a November open market nightmare if deals aren't locked in beforehand.
The Newcastle Herald has learned that early talks with the managers of Best and Saifiti are understood to be underway.
However, it is the Lucas situation that is quietly keeping Knights officials up at night.
Powerful agent Isaac Moses is reportedly stonewalling the club's attempts to open a conversation about the back-rower's future.
The silence is deafening, and it's fuelling genuine fears that Lucas could walk straight onto the open market.
The backstory matters here.
Moses is understood to have been furious with the Knights officials late last year when they bypassed his client Blake Green in favour of Justin Holbrook as Adam O'Brien's replacement, and he appears in no hurry to do Newcastle any favours at the negotiating table.
The stakes are significant, as Lucas, who will make his return against South Sydney on Sunday afternoon, is currently earning north of $700,000 a season.
Whispers have grown that the 25-year-old could command as much as $950,000 on the open market for 2028, with expansion outfits Perth and PNG already lurking with intent.
It's not all doom and gloom for the Knights, however.
Lucas is said to be genuinely content in Newcastle and part of a squad widely viewed as a team on the rise.
Whether sentiment can outlast the lure of a significant pay rise, and an agent with a point to prove, remains the question the Hunter faithful will be anxiously watching unfold.
