NRL news: Newcastle Knights sign former fighters Danny Green and Jamie Te Huna as consultants
The Knights have given two former champion fighters a special role at the club next season.
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Jamie Te Huna is the guy who teaches what people reckon can’t be taught.
Like, say, fighting for 15 minutes with a broken arm. Or a dislocated shoulder. Broken foot?
Yeah, Te Huna has thrown down in the UFC with one of those, too. Coincidentally, on the same night he also broke his hand on the head of American Joey Beltran.
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Then for 15 minutes, not simply fighting with both breaks – but winning.
Just as this western Sydney striker also beat Croatian Igor Pokrajac, and in his UFC debut no less, after also fighting on for three rounds with that broken forearm.
None of which Te Huna likes talking about publicly. But among other athletes?
Loves it.
“Because,” he says, “I’m a big believer in iron sharpening iron.”
Which is why Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien has, in recent days, hired the OG of Australian mixed martial arts as a consultant for 2022.
Same deal, Australian boxing champion Danny Green.
With the pair suddenly emerging among the most intriguing recruits of the NRL summer.
Apart from being two of the toughest hombres to ever fight for Australia, Te Huna and Green also now form part of an innovative consultancy team that will undertake a unique new role at the Knights for the upcoming season.
The duo have been headhunted by incoming Knights Head of Performance Hayden Knowles, who has previously worked inside both fighter’s camps.
Asked about the signings this week, Knowles said: “Obviously it’s not about making fighters of the players, because you can’t even throw a punch in the NRL anymore.
“But, for us at Newcastle, this is about surrounding our guys with world-class athletes who, right throughout their careers, have continually displayed discipline, integrity, and commitment.
“I’ve watched Jamie Te Huna fight, and win, in the UFC with broken bones.
“And we want the players to understand that fighter mentality. That champion’s mentality.
“We’ve hired these guys because, both physically and mentally, we know it’s going to make our players better.”
Retiring from the UFC in 2016, where he fought 10 times, Te Huna has since worked as an NRL wrestling coach and was approached about other NRL gigs before agreeing to join the Knights staff.
Apart from working with the Knights squad on wrestling and tackling technique, the retired light heavyweight will also help players with game-day preparation and mindset.
Green, who is based in Perth, has also agreed to make trips across from Western Australia once travel restrictions between the two States are eased.
Long considered one of the nation’s most popular fighters, and a longtime rival to Anthony ‘Choc’ Mundine, Green won the WBA light heavyweight title, IBO cruiserweight title and WBC interim super middleweight title.
His most famous victory, however, was a 2009 first round KO over American legend Roy Jones Jnr, where he opened as a rank outsider with bookmakers.
Te Huna, who also works as a youth officer, said he can’t wait to get involved with the Knights squad when they return for pre-season training.
He said he was also keen to reunite with Green, who he also employed as a mentor during his own UFC career.
“I’m really looking forward to working with the players at Newcastle,” he said.
“I know personally, I was fortunate enough to have Greeny involved with me when fighting – just helping with my mindset, teaching me how to avoid overtraining, how to keep calm before big fights, stuff like that.
“He taught me some of the greatest lessons of my professional journey and I can’t wait to also share some of the stuff I’ve learned with the players up there at the Knights.”
The secret weapons behind Panthers’ success
— Nick Walshaw
First rule of Fight Club?
Yeah, it still exists.
Which is why Alex Prates, a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, and likely the greatest NRL asset you have never heard of, has gone all year without saying anything about his role on the Penrith coaching staff.
Just as he doesn’t really want to talk much now. “Because Ivan Cleary, he’s the man who drives everything,” Prates says. “I’ve just added a few little pieces.”
But what is rugby league success if not the little pieces, right?
Especially when it comes to winning NRL premierships.
Which is why you should know that for the past year, Prates has not only had Cleary’s ear as Panthers head wrestling coach, but also worked the players through an arduous pre-season, and then opening four months, with his own team of fighters, including UFC superstar Robert Whittaker.
None of which many people know.
Just as few recognised Prates amid South Sydney’s 2014 premiership celebrations, when this most respected of Australian martial arts trainers, as Rabbitohs wrestling coach, also helped the foundation club to its first title in 43 years.
Yes, that’s right, Prates now boasts two NRL premierships.
Just as the former Brazilian cattle farmer, and a fella first introduced to rugby league by Ricky Stuart when coaching at Cronulla in 2010, has also worked closely with the likes of Paul Gallen, Sam Burgess, Payne Haas and Damien Cook.
Always however, that man in the shadows.
Yet if you want to know how Penrith won this year’s NRL title – or more specifically, went and defended their way to it – then we have to make mention not only Prates, but his entire team from Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Smeaton Grange.
A mob of warriors led by Whittaker, and also includes undefeated middleweight Isi Fitikefu and UFC newbie, Jacob ‘Mamba’ Malkoun.
From the opening day of pre-season last year, this quartet worked extensively with Panthers players on tackle technique – teaching them to move more effectively, and safely while also building strength and cardio.
Same deal, through the season’s opening rounds.
Even after the club moved to Queensland in July, Prates continued to speak weekly with Panthers defence coach Cameron Ciraldo as the pair continually tweaked what would become the competition’s most impregnable defence.
“But if you want to know why Penrith defend better than everyone else, it’s Cameron,” Prates insists of the Panthers assistant.
“And please, I have to ask you put that in the story somewhere.
“Because I’ll tell you now, he’s the man. His training drills, his defensive systems — and how he gets all the players to behave within them — it really is incredible.
“That’s why Penrith defend better than everyone else.”
Whittaker agrees, while also heaping praise on the work ethic of a playing group which includes the likes of Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai and James Fisher-Harris.
“They’re the ones who went and earned it,” Whittaker says of the players. “Not only on grand final night, but right throughout the season.”
Anything else?
“There’s such a tight bond at that club,” the fighter continues. “It really is one united front.
“And the way they’ve allowed us to be part of that, the respect they’ve shown us, it’s such a special thing.”
In fact, the only problem Whittaker endured this year was explaining his new relationship with the old man Jack, who just happens to be a diehard Rabbitohs fan.
“So right through grand final week, it was on,” the UFC middleweight laughs. “Dad kept saying I was adopted, and that if I wanted to watch the grand final it would have be at my brother’s house.”
Which may be a sign of things to come.
Especially given this partnership between Penrith and the Gracie Jiu Jitsu team, it is only set to grow stronger in 2022.
Starting in December, Prates and Whittaker are opening a new Smeaton Grange gym that, seven times larger than their current location, will also employ Jayden Lawrence, a Commonwealth Games wrestler who boasts multiple titles at national and Oceania level.
With Covid restrictions lifting in time for the upcoming pre-season, the fighters are hoping to not only head to Panthers HQ for sessions, but also have the reigning premiers conduct work outs at their own new state-of-the-art facilities.
“This really is going to be Australia’s premier fight gym,” Whittaker enthused. “And I can’t wait to get in there.
“Can’t wait to get the Panthers boys in there too. We’ve really gone the extra mile with this gym and we’re now going to have space to host them which is exciting.”
Incredibly, Prates revealed that after working for close to a decade with coaches like Stuart, Michael Maguire and Anthony Seibold, he was actually readying to move away from the NRL this year before being contacted by the son of that last man to coach a Panthers premiership team, John Lang.
Apart from being related to one of Penrith’s most beloved footy families, leading Sydney exercise physiologist Justin Lang also works closely with the Gracie boys as Team Whittaker’s strength and conditioning coach.
So before making the initial introductions between both parties, Lang also sold Prates on the Panthers culture, coaching staff, all of it — with Ciraldo soon after visiting the gym, watching the fighters train, then signing all four as his Ministers of Defence.
“And right from our first session, I could tell the team was special,” Prates said. “It’s hard to explain, but right through that initial workout, no matter what we demanded of the players, they did it. And with no questions asked, either.
“Whatever we said, they just got stuck in and worked hard. And that’s how it went for every session after that, too.”
At which time, the first rule of Fight Club is again invoked.
“So this really is the players’ story,” Prates says. “It has nothing to do with me.”
How Burgess comparison plagued Arrow
—Michael Carayannis
Jai Arrow was burdened by the Sam Burgess’ comparisons earlier this season.
Arrow was long as South Sydney’s Burgess replacement after Burgess’ forced retirement through injury. So much so that the club was prepared to wait a full season before Arrow would throw on the jumper.
Arrow signed a four year $3.2 million deal with South Sydney in December 2019 before playing out last year with the Titans.
Arrow was paid the ultimate compliment by coach Wayne Bennett who made the Burgess comparisons when he was in pursuit of the representative forward.
“We’ve lost the best forward in the game in Sam and Jai is the ideal type of guy to replace him,” Bennett told News Corp in 2019.
Arrow said he struggled in his first few weeks at the club trying to emulate Burgess.
“There were lot of things out in the media about Souths wanting me to be the next Sam,” Arrow said. “I didn’t want to be the next Sam Burgess. He is one of the greatest middle forwards to play the game. I’m not him.
“I did feel there was a lot of expectation on me to perform but also for the team. We were tipped to be right up there and it was daunting.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of scrutiny if I wasn’t playing the best footy. I knew I was going to be under a lot of pressure.”
Burgess etched his name into grand final folklore by playing with a busted cheek in South Sydney’s 2014 premiership win. Now Arrow has the chance to create his own history.
He recalled how a Bennett phone call enticed him to Sydney. At that stage he was the Titans marquee player – one of the few regular representative stars they had. Bennett handed Arrow his NRL debut at the Broncos in 2016 and the prospect of linking back up with the super coach was too hard to ignore.
“It was a funny one,” Arrow said. “It was the standard Wayne phone call. He said ‘Jai – hello’. I knew it was his number.
“He said ‘I want to get you down to Sydney’. It’s Wayne Bennett – I wasn’t going to argue with the big fella. As soon as he wanted me down there I was pretty much sold.
“There were a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it. It was big moving to Sydney largely by myself. Being a Gold Coast kid I didn’t want to leave. I had to look at the pros and cons of each club.”
There was one thing which stood out on top of Arrow’s wish list – a premiership. He did not play finals football during his three seasons at the Titans.
“Winning the competition is the ultimate dream of mine,” Arrow said. “That’s what I’m striving for. I sat back and I thought to myself ‘where am I going to win a competition’? And I said ‘South Sydney’
“That was the ultimate factor. It hasn’t worked out thus far, we’re so close. I said it openly when I signed that I thought we could do something special. That’s no disrespect to the Titans – I was proud of what they achieved this year.
“But now I get the chance to play in a grand final. I’m so excited. It’s surreal. It’s taken me six years in the NRL to get this opportunity.”
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