After the departure of legendary coach Wayne Bennett and the customary lurch he leaves every club in, the Knights have experienced some extremely dark days in the past few seasons, typified by three wooden spoons in a row they gained from 2015-2017.
However, off the back of a bumper two-year recruitment drive and some harsh lessons for their young squad, things are starting to look up in the Hunter, with the Knights hitting a purple patch of five wins in a row. While the squad they have at their disposal is impressive, they have let go of a fair share of talent in the past few seasons that Nathan Brown would no doubt love to have at his disposal currently.
Here are the top 10 players the Knights have let go, not re-signed or released in the last decade.
6. Joseph Tapine
Having joined Newcastle at the beginning of the 2013 season from his native New Zealand, Tapine impressed many with his notable performances for both the Knights NYC side and the Junior Kiwis.
Tapine graduated to the Knights first-grade squad at the beginning of 2014 and would go onto feature for the Knights on 20 occasions over the next two seasons, impressing spectators with his raw power, aggression, and astute line running, being deployed primarily as an edge back-rower.
Having shown plenty of potential and with the Hunter based club keen to retain the young tyro, the Knights hierarchy was incensed when the young Kiwi signed with the Canberra Raiders on a bumper three-year contract beginning in 2017. An ugly saga for both the club and player ensued, with the Knights banishing Tapine from the first-grade squad to play the remainder of the season in the NSW Cup, a grade Tapine was already far too good for at the tender age of 21.
While the Knights offer wasn’t in the same ball-park financially as Canberra’s they hoped he would remain loyal to the club that stood by him after being mistakenly charged with assault in 2015.
The Knights would eventually release Tapine from the remainder of his contract to join the Raiders a year early, and in the seasons since Tapine has established himself as one of the game’s premier aggressors. With his impressive outings for the Raiders resulting in him becoming a regular name on the Kiwis team sheet since the 2017 World Cup.
While the Knights are by no means lacking in the forward department, they will no doubt rue the day they let Joe Tapine walk out the door.
How doesn’t kirt Gidley get a mention?
Not much there is a great loss I would have thought except maybe Tariq Sims. He’s been good at Saints but not quite like at NQ before the broken legs – at that time I thought was almost Tallis/Ben Kennedy-like. Nothing against Sims, but horrific injuries like his take their toll. Boyd wasn’t that great at Newcastle – I thought Saints got the best years out of him and he hasn’t been as good back at Brisbane as he was at Kogarah/WIN. I don’t count Buderus as a loss – he’d just reached the end of a great career at Newie (brilliant work Saints – he trialled with us and we knocked him back, just like we passed on Thurston – nice one Peter Doust).