Crunch game: Knights lose Gamble amid league-worst woes
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The shadow cast by Dylan Brown’s impending arrival at Newcastle threatens to grow all the more imposing in Christchurch, where the misfiring Knights will seek to snap a four-game losing streak.
Newcastle have named Fletcher Sharpe and Jack Cogger in the halves for their Anzac Day clash with an in-form Warriors.
Tyson Gamble, who copped stinging criticism from former Knights prop Willie Mason after his return from back surgery, is an enforced omission because of a broken nose.
Gamble was originally named at No.7 then ruled out on Thursday night, with the club hoping he will be ready to return next week after undergoing surgery.
Cogger returns from a finger injury and is back at halfback, where he started in Newcastle’s first four games of the year.
The clock is ticking in multiple senses as the 14th-placed team try to find form ahead of the State of Origin window, having failed to win a game since a positive 2-0 start.
Brown is joining the Knights from the 2026 season, having signed a 10-year deal worth approximately $14 million.
The recruitment of the gifted playmaker, who Newcastle clearly hope will be the talismanic force that carries them to a premiership, put coach Adam O’Brien in somewhat of an awkward position.
O’Brien refused to address the elephant in the room prior to the club’s first home game of the season, saying “there will come a time to talk about Dylan, but right now I’m focused on tomorrow night with the halves I have”.
O’Brien apologised soon after for his approach to that press conference, but questions about the club’s current playmaker problems have grown louder.
The Knights have scored a league-worst average of 10 points per game this season, while they’re also on the bottom of the ladder for completion rates (71.5 per cent) and errors (averaging 13).
Gamble only returned from back surgery in last week’s loss to Cronulla but Mason, who memorably had a public spat with the playmaker in 2023, was still scathing.
“He doesn’t belong in first grade,” Mason said on his Levels Network podcast.
“He is not a seven. He is a 14. He can’t run that (side).
“You can’t have Gamble and Sharpe as your halves.”
The Warriors are fresh from a confidence-boosting win over Brisbane, having prevailed 20-18 in golden point thanks to halfback Luke Metcalf’s 50-metre penalty goal.
AAP
