Knights pre-season: What Newcastle have to work on ahead of season 2017

Newcastle won just one match and will likely go down in history as the worst team of the NRL era.

They were the first team since the Gold Coast Seagulls in 1993 to win a single match in a season and literally can only improve in 2017 because things could not possibly get any worse.

Ahead of what could be the beginning of a new era for the Novocastrians, we look at some of the things they need to address in the off-season in the next instalment of our Summer School series.

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5) What to do with Mullen?

Mullen turns 30 next April and will be entering his 13th season of NRL football but his place with the Knights seems perilously uncertain. He had strong moments in 2016 but struggled for fitness and to be the experienced hand that the Knights needed — a career first start at hooker in the Round 26 showed just how much the veteran had slipped.

He’s under contract until the end of 2018 and the club has a difficult decision to make with their former captain given the emergence of young halves Jack Cogger and Brock Lamb, both of whom coach Nathan Brown rates highly, and the big-money recruitment of Trent Hodkinson last year.

4) Who plays fullback?

Jake Mamo was reportedly signed, sealed and delivered for a move to Super League club Huddersfield before breaking his ankle on a recent holiday. He’s expected to miss much of the pre season but the fact that the club was prepared to let him walk means he is not in their long-term plans to play fullback.

The options otherwise are somewhat thin — a reboot of the Jaelen Feeney experiment seems unlikely so Newcastle must either promote Under 20s fullback Nick Meaney or use a makeshift option like Nathan Ross, new man Ken Sio or Dane Gagai. Speaking of Gagai ….

3) How can they get the best out of Gagai?

In yet another measure of just how tough things got for the Knights last season, Dane Gagai scored more tries for Queensland than he did for Newcastle.

After spending long swathes of the season at fullback, a position he can struggle with, he moved back to centre for the final few weeks and looked much better despite seeing precious little clean ball.

Gagai seems likely to start the season at centre and one of Brown’s big concerns should be figuring out how to get him more involved in attack. For all of Gagai’s ability, he hasn’t turned into a prolific tryscorer at NRL level just yet (he’s never hit double digits in a season before and his highest single-season total is just seven) but he remains one of the Knights best attacking weapons.

Building a combination between Gagai and the creative players in the team, particularly the halves, should be one of the Knights highest priorities.

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2) How do you rebuild a broken team?

The Knights are in uncharted waters. They were the first team in NRL history to win just one match in a season and are therefore the first team to try and rebound from a one-win season (that kind of analysis is why we get paid the big bucks).

Seriously though, confidence among the playing group must be low. Whenever the Knights get their next win it’ll be celebrated like a grand final and rightly so, but given that they’re coming from somewhere 20 miles south of rock bottom it seems unlikely they’ll be able to string wins together week by week.

1) Will anyone else come?

The Knights have three new men coming in next season, Manly forwards Jamie Buhrer and Josh Starling, Hull KR winger Ken Sio and Cowboys hooker Rory Kostjaysn. Buhrer is a good get for a forward pack that is starting to come together while Kostjaysn is a steady hand who can provide some stability at dummy half.

It remains to be seen if Sio plays wing or fullback, but he’s extremely capable in both positions and is a good get. Scottish international Joe Wardle will join the club for 2018 from Hull FC and will likely angle for an early release, but who else can the Knights attract between now and next March?

With most players secured for next season it might take some early release magic for the Novocastrians to bolster their battling squad.

Predicted team for Round 1, 2017:

1. Nathan Ross 2. Ken Sio 3. Dane Gagai 4. Peter Mata’utia 5. Brendan Elliot 6. Jarrod Mullen 7. Trent Hodkinson 8. Daniel Saifiti 9. Rory Kostjaysn 10. Korbin Sims 11. Jamie Buhrer 12. Sione Mata’utia 13. Mitch Barnett 14. Sam Mataora 15. Jacob Saifiti 16. Josh Starling 17. Danny Levi

Ross and Sio are the two main candidates to play fullback and despite Sio’s good form with the Robins we’d love to see Ross get first crack. He was the Knights best player last season and consistently stood out on the wing despite some heavy defeats and the idea of him getting more ball around the middle of the field is intriguing.

The real strength of this team is its backrow. Buhrer is a good mentor for some of the younger forwards and Mata’utia’s move to the forwards was one of the few bright spots of a difficult year. The recruitment of Mitch Barnett last season from Canberra was inspired. Barnett, the 2015 NSW Cup player of the year, has tremendous skill and toughness for such a big man. His footwork will make him a real weapon in the middle of the field and if he can have a big pre-season and cut his error rate he could be one to watch in 2017.