Star clips club as Knights ‘disharmony’ revealed

Newcastle prop Daniel Saifiti took a thinly veiled swipe at the club and declared he won’t be leaving unless the situation suits him and his family.
And Nine journalist Michael Chammas reports there are a number of “disgruntled” players who are unhappy about being shopped to rivals as the Knights attempt to clear salary cap space.
“There is a lot of talk at the moment, a lot of rumblings out of Newcastle… about disharmony within the ranks there, and discontent at the Knights at the moment,” Chammas told Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday.
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“We’ve got some players who are already disgruntled about being tapped on the shoulder… there are a lot of senior players there who have stuck by that club who have (now) been tapped on the shoulder.
“The problem when you do that is if you can’t move them on, you’re going to have disgruntled players staying at the club.”
Daniel Saifiti of the Knights. Jason McCawley via Getty Images
Saifiti is one player who the Knights are keen to offload.
The Origin front-rower is earning about $800,000 a season over the next two years and it is money the club wants to spend elsewhere.
He met with the Dolphins recently and the Redcliffe outfit is in the process of putting an offer together.
But on Monday, Saifiti said he won’t be moving his family interstate solely for the benefit of Newcastle.
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“If the club thinks I am taking a pay cut to go somewhere else, it’s not happening,” Saifiti told AAP.
“I had a meeting up there and it went well. I saw it was announced (in the media) I was signed, but that’s not true.
“I think someone from the club got an agenda so they could pay less money, but it is what it is. At the moment I am still signed at Newcastle for two years.
“At the end of the day the ball is in my court and I can do what I want.”
Saifiti made his debut for the Knights in the middle of their triple wooden spoon slump in 2015-17.
While the club has found a little more success in recent years the team looks likely to miss finals in 2024, which would be a sixth time in nine seasons for Saifiti.
And while he has been loyal to the Hunter club, he has no interest in leaving to join another non-finals team.
“If I do leave to go somewhere, even though I have been given permission to go, I don’t have to go. I have to be impressed to leave,” he said.
“I’m not going to go somewhere where I have to rebuild all over again. It just wouldn’t make sense.
“I have done that my whole career. I have been through wooden spoons. So for me to leave, I want to go to a good club.”
A News Corp report on Monday also linked rising middle forward Leo Thompson to a club switch.
* When this article was first published it incorrectly claimed that the Knights had chosen not to put the Daniel Saifiti interview on its website. The Saifiti interview referenced in this article was not conducted at a club media opportunity and was not filmed.