NRL 2020: Warriors’ Blake Green joins Newcastle Knights for rest of season
Newcastle recruit Blake Green is just one club shy of rugby league’s greatest ever jersey collection — but his immediate focus is helping reignite the Knights’ run to the finals.
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Blake Green is just one club shy of rugby league’s greatest ever NRL jersey collection.
Better, it could all be his by 2021.
Unwanted by the New Zealand Warriors beyond this year, 33-year-old shocked the league world on Tuesday when he quit the club with immediate effect to join the Newcastle Knights — his seventh NRL side and ninth top-grade franchise overall.
The surprise mid-season transfer means Green becomes one of only three players to have humped his swag through seven NRL organisations, adding his name to the wonderful trivia question previously owned by Darrien Doherty and Tyran Smith.
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Given the new Knights No.6 is signed only for the rest of the season, another switch in 2021 would see him become the first player in rugby league history to pass through eight NRL clubs.
It would also see the veteran playmaker hit double figures for first-grade franchises, given he also boasts English Super League stints with Hull and Wigan.
Initially making his NRL debut with Parramatta in 2007, the veteran playmaker has since shifted his career through Cronulla, Canterbury-Bankstown, Melbourne, Manly and the Warriors.
OFFICIAL | It’s all across social media but at least now it’s official. Let’s welcome Blake Green to the team ðŸ‘
— Newcastle Knights (@NRLKnights) August 4, 2020
âž¡ï¸ https://t.co/s6EyUTVwb1#GoHardGoKnights #NRL #UKNIGHTED pic.twitter.com/MgJM0IMf50
The addition of Newcastle to that list means Green takes his tally one club past famed rugby league gypsies like Johnny Elias, Phil Blake, Dale Shearer and Brett Kimmorley, who each played for six clubs.
Having been based in the Warriors Central Coast bubble, Green told teammates of his move early Tuesday morning and, within hours, had shifted with his young family just 60 minutes up the highway.
Already, the seasoned playmaker has a strong working relationship with Knights coach Adam O‘Brien, with the pair having spent two years together at Melbourne Storm.
The playmaker has been signed by the Knights to partner Mitchell Pearce in the halves, with Kurt Mann switching into what is increasingly becoming the cursed Knights No.9 jersey.
After moving Danny Levi on this season, the Novocastrians have lost Jayden Brailey (ACL), Andrew McCullough (hamstring) and Connor Watson (achilles).
O’Brien said Green would be a welcome addition to the side given he boasts 257 first grade games.
“I’ve previously worked with Blake, know the family well and he’s only going to compliment us,” the coach said. “Further to that, I know he and Mitchell Pearce will complement each other. They share a lot of similar traits. They are educators and fiercely competitive.”
O’Brien added that his new signing would be a strong mentor for the club’s large batch of emerging talent.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for our younger guys to soak up some knowledge,” he said.
“It’s important to acknowledge that we have some very young and promising players but their development can’t be rushed and it would be unfair to heap unnecessary pressure on a young player at this stage of their career.
“Blake’s arrival allows us to continue their development without putting them at risk.”
KNIGHTS NAB PLAYMAKER IN HUGE FINALS BOOST
By Phil Rothfield and Brent Read
The Newcastle Knights have signed New Zealand Warriors playmaker Blake Green for the remainder of the season in a huge boost to their finals hopes.
The deal was finalised late on Monday night and Green broke the news to Warriors players at a team meeting 9am on Tuesday in Terrigal.
The contract is only until the end of the season.
He will play five-eighth outside Mitchell Pearce at the Knights, allowing Kurt Mann to move to hooker to replace the injured Andrew McCullough.
It is a huge boost to the injury-hit Knights who have lost three of their last four games and have slipped to seventh position on the ladder.
Green was off contract at the end of the season at the Warriors. The 33-year-old playmaker, who has played 172 NRL games, was surprisingly criticised by the club’s owner recently.
League immortal Andrew Johns recently slammed the Warriors’ decision to offload the five-eighth
“It leaves them without a rudder,” Johns said.
“They’ve always been a club with so much potential, they have such a big team, but they’ve always lacked direction since Stacey Jones retired.
“Blake Green has done a marvellous job there, he’s a really great game manager. He’s not one of those players that will win you a game. But he keeps them on track. He’s the rudder in the ship that keeps them going. Without him, I don’t know who organises the team.”
Meanwhile, teenage superstar Joseph Suaalii has been given time and space to make a decision on his future by South Sydney.
Suaalii turned 17 on Saturday and the expectation was that he would make a call on his future, either signing a long-term deal with Souths or pledging his future to rugby union.
In the end, he chose neither as both codes gave him some breathing room to weigh up the biggest decision of his budding career.
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Elsewhere, Melbourne managed to get a deal done for former Cronulla centre Ricky Leutele in time for him to help their premiership push.
Leutele has been playing with the Toronto Wolfpack and was cleared to play for the Storm after the players union agreed to relax a clause that demanded he receive a set amount of money this season.
Leutele will leave Manchester with his family in coming days and go into quarantine on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where the Storm have been based since being forced to relocate from Victoria.
And Gold Coast captain Ryan James is expected to confirm as early as Tuesday that he has taken up a two-year deal from Canberra from next season.
Originally published as NRL 2020: Warriors’ Blake Green joins Newcastle Knights for rest of season