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.
3. Tariq Sims
Following an impressive junior career at the Broncos, as well as an extremely promising but injury-riddled for years at the Cowboys, Origin hopeful Tariq Sims joined the Knights ahead of the 2015 season on a two-year contract.
While Sims, unfortunately, suffered two separate leg breaks during his stay in North Queensland, when he was on the pitch, he displayed his noticeable potential thanks to his hard-running lines and forceful tackling technique. This resulted in consistent appearances for NSW Country and Fiji on the representative stage, so at the time the acquisition of Sims was seen as somewhat of a coup for the Hunter based club.
Over the next two seasons, Sims proved to be an astute buy for the Knights. Re-establishing himself as a player to fear, particularly amongst halfbacks who Sims was often deployed to man mark and terrorise out of the game. In his two seasons at Newcastle, Sims was named in the NSW Origin squad or Game II of the 2015 series, as well as being anointed co-captain of the club, worthy rewards for his consistent form.
Unfortunately for the Knights, midway through his second season, Sims was swayed by the rebuilding project that the Dragons were embarking upon, and as a result signed a three-year deal with St George Illawarra starting in 2017. Following the announcement, the relationship between Sims and the Knights became shaky, eventually leading to Sims being released to join the Dragons mid-season.
Sadly, for Knights fans, since joining the Red V Sims has displayed why there was so much hype around him as a junior. With Tariq cementing himself as the Dragons resident hard man and going onto be selected to make his State of Origin debut in Game II of 2018, he also went onto win the Dragons Player of the Year award off the back of his incredible return to form.
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).