This was published 8 years ago
Retiring Newcastle Knights pair create headache for club, insurer
By Robert Dillon
It was a development that Newcastle Knights officials would have noted with interest, and perhaps even a degree of alarm.
According to a report in Friday's Daily Telegraph, insurance company QBE has rejected a claim from Parramatta to pay out Anthony Watmough's contract after his injury-enforced retirement.
Kade Snowden played just 28 minutes this year.Credit: Getty Images
The Eels have been seeking a reported $1.2 million on the basis that Watmough suffered a knee injury at training that ended his career.
But QBE has countered by conducting extensive medical due diligence and stating: "Your inability to play in the NRL or any other professional league is the result of symptomatic, pre-existing degenerative changes to your left knee … in the circumstances, we have determined that you are not eligible for the benefits claimed under the policy."
Farewell: James McManus said goodbye to fans at Hunter Stadium in Round 23.Credit: Jonathan Carroll
How exactly does Parramatta's problem relate to the Knights?
Well, Newcastle have two players – James McManus and Kade Snowden – facing almost identical dilemmas.
Snowden announced on Friday he was hanging up the boots, having been unable to play since round one because of back and neck injuries.
McManus announced his retirement earlier this month, almost a year after suffering a head knock playing against South Sydney that left him with scarring on the brain and a range of worrying side-effects.
As was the case with Watmough, the NRL has ruled both McManus and Snowden have suffered career-ending injuries, and hence their wages are exempt from the salary cap.
That means Newcastle can use that money to boost their roster with replacement players.
McManus and Snowden will be paid in full. But by whom is the question.
If the insurance company rejects claims for payouts for McManus's 2016 contract, and for Snowden this year and next, the Knights could find themselves out of pocket around $1 million.
And if the Watmough case is a precedent, Snowden, in particular, is likely to come under scrutiny, given that he has experienced problems with bulging discs in his back dating back to 2011, when he was playing for Cronulla.
As he told me in 2013: "It was hitting the sciatic nerve in my leg, so I was in a fair bit of pain.
"I was on my stomach for a week at one stage. Couldn't move. I'd done everything I could, getting needles and that, but none of it worked and I just had to rest it."
He admitted that retirement at the age of 24 was "going through my head at one stage."
Instead he soldiered on and played more than 80 more games in the NRL, although from time to time he was troubled by relapses.
Likewise, in the case of McManus, Knights chief executive Matt Gidley admitted in an interview last year that "Jimmy has had a number [of head knocks] in his career and he's copped several concussions over the years".
The insurers might try to argue that McManus's career was not ended by one devastating tackle, but rather the cumulative effects of recurring head knocks.
In the worst-case scenario, the Knights could conceivably be stuck with the bill for three seasons of football that produced just 28 minutes of game time – Snowden's contribution in round one this season against the Gold Coast.
Hopefully for the club's sake, that is not how this pans out.
It's not as if they have money to burn.
But in a way it would cap off an unprecedented five years in which the Knights must have blown more money on unproductive players than any club in the NRL.
Just consider the following list of names: Cory Paterson, Beau Henry, Mark Taufua, Antonio Kaufusi, Isaac De Gois, Constantine Mika, Junior Sa'u, Wes Naiqama, Darius Boyd, Chris Houston, Tyrone Roberts and Adam Clydsdale.
All players Newcastle have released since 2011 while still under contract, presumably after significant parting payouts. In the case of some, such as Henry and Naiqama, the Knights had to subsidise their wages for two years after parting company.
It was a situation highlighted by Newcastle coach Nathan Brown after the loss to Gold Coast last weekend, when he noted: "The fifth highest-paid player by the Knights today was Tyrone Roberts.
"So that sums up the situation we're in at the minute, and that's why we are sitting where we are sitting."
When you throw in the termination settlement Rick Stone received when he was sacked, and the inducements Newcastle will have to offer the likes of Akuila Uate and Jack Stockwell to move on at the end of this season, it is anyone's guess how much cash the Knights have flushed down the S-bend.
Presumably it is well into seven figures – a trend that must stop if the club hopes to re-emerge as a competitive force.
Brown said the Knights have "actually got a plan in place" for next season, without elaborating on the finer details.
Newcastle's salary cap, of course, is a problem that Brown inherited.
It is a mess that obviously cannot be cleaned up overnight.
How long that process takes will determine if and when the Knights can start climbing out of the competition cellar.