NRL 2022: Michael Dobson poised for key role at Newcastle Knights

A rugby league journeyman is poised to be given the task of fixing Newcastle’s pathways system, which in recent seasons has allowed a host of Test and Origin stars slip through their own backyard.

Newcastle Knights have identified a former five-eighth of the club to make sure that the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Greg Inglis and Boyd Cordner never slip through the club’s fingers again.

Michael Dobson, a rugby league journeyman, who played six games for the Knights is poised to be appointed the club’s head of pathways, charged with doing what the club was originally founded on — recruiting, developing and keeping their best local juniors.

Dobson, who filled in for Jarrod Mullen in the halves during the 2014 season for Newcastle, spent two seasons with Canberra and played 259 games in the English Super League for Catalans, Wigan, Hull K.R and Salford.

Dobson called time on his 285-game career in 2018 after a brief stint with Wynnum-Manly in the Queensland Cup.

The 36-year-old was originally in line to take over the Knights NSW Cup team next year, but he and the club are working on an agreement to instead focus on the club’s burning issue.

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Former Knight Michael Dobson is expected to be appointed the club’s head of pathways. Picture: NRL Photos

No less than 19 Test, State of Origin, individual Dally M award winners, totalling more than 1000 NRL games worth of experience, all of whom were raised or schooled in the Hunter, have been pinched by rival clubs, or let go by Newcastle.

The list includes former Test captain Cordner, who grew up two hours north of Newcastle at Old Bar and 350km away from his eventual home, the Roosters.

Inglis, the Rabbitohs captain, played for Newcastle club Western Suburbs Rosellas and attended Hunter Sports High School.

“I played for them (Rosellas) for the whole year with Lukey Walsh and Jarrod Mullen and they were signed to Newcastle at the time,” Inglis said in 2020.

“They were playing seven and six at the time and I was playing No.1. I was like, ‘let’s just go with this and I’ll just try and get with Newcastle’, and nothing came back.”

Greg Inglis played for Newcastle club Wests Rosellas before being snapped up by the Storm. Picture: NRL Photos

More recently, attacking hooker Tom Starling, was let go by the Knights to join the Raiders, despite being named Newcastle’s best under-18’s player in 2015.

Nick Meaney is now at the Storm after being named the Knights’ best player in the under-20s.

Fletcher Baker, from Muswellbrook, is at the Roosters. Max King from West Maitland is in Melbourne under Craig Bellamy.

Beau Fermor was the Knights Jersey Flegg player of the Year. Now he’s on the Gold Coast.

Zac Hosking played for Charlestown, was scouted by the Broncos and is now headed to premiers Penrith.

Raiders hooker Tom Starling was named Newcastle’s best under-18s player in 2015. Picture: Mark Nolan/Getty Images

Knights director of football Peter Parr is cutting a swathe through the club in a bid to rebuild Newcastle’s greatest strength – it’s rich nursery of talent – after a calamity of poor decisions made by the club’s board and senior management.

“I’ve been taking in a lot of information since I started, but it’s apparent to me that a really key platform to achieve long-term sustainability is making sure we have the correct pathways system,’’ Parr said.

“We’re now in the process of identifying the absolute best person that can implement everything that we want. That will be a great start in taking the club forward.”

Meeting that split Knights players, management

Players within the Newcastle squad feel their relationship with the CEO has been left strained by a speech that put the club’s flagging results directly back on the playing group.

The agitation stems from a meeting of the entire squad held last month where Knights CEO Phil Gardner fronted the playing squad.

Held inside the theatrette of the Newcastle Knights’ sparkling $20-million Centre of Excellence at Broadmeadow, Gardner stood at the front of the room.

Gardner’s arrival was considered unusual by the players, with the CEO an infrequent speaker in front of the entire group.

It was held prior to the recent arrival of respected football director Peter Parr and before the club’s string of recent – and separate – incidents that have involved captain Kalyn Ponga, Bradman Best, Enari Tuala, David Klemmer and high-performance manager Hayden Knowles.

Seemingly sick of the club’s flatlining season, Gardner went about listing what he and his board had provided to the players in order for them to perform.

Newcastle Knights CEO Philip Gardner fronted the playing squad recently. Picture: Supplied

Players within the room claim Gardner pointed towards the freshly painted walls of the red and blue Centre of Excellence.

He told the players he and his board had gifted the players the best training facilities in the NRL. Essentially, they had no excuse for failing to deliver.

It’s claimed Gardner then told the players any proportioning of blame towards Newcastle head coach Adam O’Brien wouldn’t wash.

The CEO said O’Brien was here to stay.

Gardner then rattled off the club’s high-performance leaders and their achievements at the likes of Penrith and the Roosters.

Knowles, head of high performance for NSW State of Origin, and Patrick Lane, the club’s strength and conditioning coach, were among the best in their field, Gardner said.

Lane had spent eight years at the championship-winning Roosters and Knowles, the past three years at premiers Penrith.

The players sat there listening. What Gardner hoped the players heard and what they felt appear two different things.

Knights players feel their relationship with the CEO has been left strained. Picture: Getty Images

Gardner, as CEO, has every right to challenge his staff – and that includes the players. However, if that was his intention for the speech, it did the opposite in the eyes of several players sitting in the room.

What resulted from the CEO’s speech is a level of resentment from the players, seemingly creating a division between the playing group and management.

There are some players who felt the address proved there is a lack of care and family-focused culture from the hierarchy within the football club.

Results, particularly poor ones, sat entirely with the players. Yet victories would be an all-of-club achievement.

This has riled the players the most, though many these days are taking comfort in the fact Parr now runs the club – albeit without the chief executive’s title.

Some of the players saw the speech as coming from a CEO who wanted to distance himself from the club’s poor results in order to protect the image of the club and its flashy new facilities.

One thing is certain, the meeting is still echoing within the dressing room of Newcastle today — and that’s not normal practice within a footy club.

It will take some work — and significant change from the board — for that noise to stop.

Originally published as NRL 2022: Michael Dobson poised for key role at Newcastle Knights