Knights coach Nathan Brown wants fans to back club’s youth policy

KNIGHTS coach Nathan Brown blooded five rookies in Round 1 and despite losing to wooden spoon favourites Gold Coast, he is sticking by all of them.

Knight's new coach Nathan Brown calls the shots at training. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

NEWCASTLE coach Nathan Brown has called on fans to support the club’s youth policy, warning there is no quick fix and declaring “this is where the club is at”.

Brown blooded five rookies in his side’s opening round loss to wooden spoon favourites Gold Coast and is sticking by all of them for Saturday’s clash against South Sydney.

“There is no need for us to go chopping and changing teams,” he said.

“There are no quick fix methods. Not unless someone wants to throw a couple of million dollars in our bank account.”

Brown says his young squad needs time to develop but claimed they would not fear taking on the Bunnies.

“I know there is going to be people out there who are going to whinge and complain about us, saying you’ve got all these rookies in there,” he said.

“This is where we are at and this is where the club’s at and this is the path we are going to go down.

“It’s not going to happen overnight.

Knight's new coach Nathan Brown calls the shots at training. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

“They need to support the young kids and over the journey, the young kids we keep picking over the period of time, some will unfold and be very good first graders and one or two may not.

“But until they get to play successive games and get to watch their game and work on their game, we won’t know. But I’m comfortable with all the young kids playing.

The Knights have lost winger Chanel Mata’utia for up to seven weeks with a grade three medial tear in his knee and decided against challenging a grade one dangerous tackle charge levelled at interchange prop Pauli Pauli that will see him miss the Souths game.

“We had a look at the incident. It was one of those ones that was probably 50/50,” Brown said.

“We deemed it best to take the early plea and move on. It’s a short week so we’d rather focus on what we have to do for South Sydney.”

Pauli Pauli will miss the Souths clash through suspension. Picture: Adam Head

The Knights haven’t beaten Souths since 2011 and have copped some hidings at their hands in recent seasons.

But Brown says his side won’t go into the game with any fear of playing them.

“The key for us is to improve and to get our effort levels to last for longer this week and for the younger kids to understand what the process of winning a game is all about,” he said.

“As long as they keep getting better from week to week, that is the key for us.

“They will be hard to beat as all the teams are but I don’t think we should have any fear.”

Originally published as Knights coach Nathan Brown wants fans to back club’s youth policy