The decade-long relationship that helped the Knights sign Frizell

Newcastle recruitment guru Alex McKinnon had his sights set on Tyson Frizell the moment he stepped into the job.

Tyson Frizell will play one of his final games for the Dragons against future club Newcastle. Picture: Getty Images

Alex McKinnon and Tyson Frizell first crossed paths on the fertile fields of Illawarra more than a decade ago. McKinnon played for Thirroul. Frizell was a year older and a Corrimal junior.

They weren’t exactly bosom buddies, but they knew each other and would talk whenever they crossed paths over the ensuing years.

No conversation, however, was as telling as the one they had at The Chophouse restaurant on the second floor of Wests Leagues Club in New Lambton in February this year.

McKinnon had started work as head of recruitment for the Newcastle Knights three months earlier. One of his first orders of business when he was appointed to the role was to table an offer to Frizell.

Frizell had been sitting on the deal when he joined McKinnon, Knights coach Adam O’Brien and the club’s chief executive, Phil Gardner, to discuss the merits of moving to Newcastle.

McKinnon knew what Frizell brought to the table. Having graduated from the Illawarra juniors to first grade, the pair had crossed paths in the NRL and the impression lingered.

McKinnon roamed the left side of the field as a backrower. Frizell was one of the most destructive right-sided secondrowers in the game.

Alex McKinnon was the man who coaxed Tyson Frizell to Newcastle. Picture: Adam Taylor

“Every time I played against him I knew he was coming for me,” McKinnon told Weekend Read. “He is someone you want in your team. You watch how consistent he has been this year — he has probably had his best year with a team that is not going to make the (top) eight. He is so consistent, which reiterates he is the type of player we want here.”

The Knights were an easy sell. Frizell was looking for a change of scenery and he was excited by the prospect of playing alongside Kalyn Ponga, Mitchell Pearce and David Klemmer.

Frizell had also spent time with O’Brien when the pair were part of the Country Origin set-up. Still, some things were weighing on his mind. He and wife Sam were preparing for the birth of their second child and a move to Newcastle would mean packing up and moving away from family.

Yet Frizell liked what he heard over lunch. He was sold and, not long after, he agreed to a three-year deal to join the Knights from next season. On Sunday afternoon, he will make his penultimate appearance for the Dragons. It will be at McDonald Jones Stadium against Newcastle. They will play for the Alex McKinnon Cup in recognition of McKinnon’s service for both sides.

McKinnon will clearly take great interest. He has championed the signing of Frizell from the day he walked into the head recruiting job at the Knights. “He was my first signing. I think it is not a bad signing to be the first one.”

The science behind Tamou

Wests Tigers have copped plenty of flak for their recruitment in recent years. Behind the scenes, changes have taken place to ensure the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated in the future.

The Tigers have taken a more analytical view of recruitment and it helps explain why they chased Penrith captain James Tamou, whose signing was officially confirmed on Friday morning.

Wests have been deadly inside the red zone — the opposition 20m area. So good, they rank among the best in the NRL.

Their issue hasn’t been scoring when they get close to the opposition line. Their challenge has been finding their way down the field so they can put themselves in a position to launch their attack.

James Tamou is in his 30s but remains a highly effective player. Picture: Phil Hillyard

The Tigers rank 13th in total metres and 13th post-contact ­metres this season. They needed to find more metres and Tamou has been targeted to do just that.

The Panthers skipper, who will turn 32 later this year, has been one of the most efficient forwards in the competition in 2020.

Nine frontrowers have run for more metres, but Tamou has led the way when it comes to metres per minute. No one gets close.

Not Payne Haas. Not David Klemmer. Not Josh Papalii. The quality of Tamou’s work when he is on the field has been top notch.

He has helped Penrith march down the field, belying his age and the toll on his body as he prepares to enter a 13th season in first grade.

There are other intangibles that Tamou brings as well. Leadership is the obvious one, the grizzled veteran expected to provide an example to Wests Tigers’ young pack of forwards on what it takes to be a professional.

That came into the Tigers’ thinking as well. Under the system they have now adopted, the club identifies targets using a matrix developed by the club’s recruitment analyst, Scott Woodward.

The statistics Wests Tigers used to target Penrith’s James Tamou

The player is then given a percentage mark where weighting is given to areas such as personality, medical record and skill. The ­Tigers will rarely consider a player unless he registers 80 per cent or more. Tamou clearly fits the bill.

“James brings a wealth of experience to our forward pack and is a player who has experienced success at every level of the game,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.

“He has shown throughout his career to be a player who constantly improves not only himself but those around him, and I have no doubt he will play a key role in the development of our forward pack moving forward.”

If you want Staggs and Paulo, we want Keary

Queensland Rugby League chair Bruce Hatcher has taken a cheeky swipe at NSW as the Blues prepare to include Tongan international Kotoni Staggs and Samoan forward Junior Paulo in their 27-man squad for the upcoming State of Origin series.

Staggs, born in Wellington in country NSW, and Paulo, originally from Auckland, are eligible to play for the Blues and the island nations of their heritage because Samoa and Tonga are considered tier-two nations. It means they are able to switch their allegiance within a calendar year and become eligible to play in the Origin series.

Queensland is desperare for Luke Keary. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Hatcher, however, has raised concerns over whether the pair should be able to make the switch. And if they are, he wants to reignite the push for Sydney Roosters star Luke Keary to play for the Maroons.

Keary was born in Queensland and grew up supporting the ­Maroons. He idolised Wally Lewis and was once a member of the Emerging Maroons.

Heavyweight Queenslanders went into bat for Keary when his eligibility became a battleground a few years ago and now Hatcher has raised the thorny issue again.

“If you want to bring in these soppy rules, that you can bend and twist, we will reapply to have Keary as a Queenslander,” Hatcher said. “He wanted to play (for Queensland) but technically couldn’t.”

Kieran Foran has played his last game for the Bulldogs and could be Manly-bound

Foran and the Eagles

The cards appear to be falling for Kieran Foran as he eyes off a ­potential return to Manly. The Sea Eagles will clear much-needed salary cap space when Addin Fonua-Blake leaves the club at the end of the season, but a more promising move for Foran may be Manly’s decision to part ways with hooker Danny Levi.

It is understood Manly coach Des Hasler is pondering a shift for Cade Cust to hooker next season, which would create a vacancy in the Sea Eagles squad in the halves.

Foran looms as an attractive option given he would be available at a reasonable rate and has an ­affinity with the club. Some of the club’s senior players are known to want Foran back at the club as well. They still appreciate what he can do. Stay tuned.

Bulldogs get murkier

The murkiness at Canterbury shows few signs of abating. The latest suggestion is that one of the people pushing for an extraordinary general meeting to remove the football club board has close ties to a supporter who received a decade-long ban from the NRL.

Weekend Read has heard a voicemail message from said person attempting to rally support for a meeting at Revesby Workers Club to gather signatures for a document to force through an EGM.

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