Journalist Paul Crawley has cast doubts over Blake Green’s suitability for the Knights coaching job and also voiced his “concerns” that one Isaac Moses client will likely replace another one at Newcastle.
Reports emerged on Tuesday the Knights are very close to parting ways with coach Adam O’Brien, after the club’s struggles in 2025 which see them currently sitting in second last spot on the ladder with just six victories this season and in contention for the wooden spoon.
O’Brien has guided the Knights to just one finals victory since he started coaching the club back in 2020.
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Reporter Dean Ritchie indicated it was likely that Green, the current Knights assistant coach, would be handed the top job.
“It seems quite clear that Blake Green will be the man, another Isaac Moses client,” Ritchie said on NRL 360 on Tuesday night.
The fact that Moses is the manager for both O’Brien and Green seemed to raise the alarm bells for Crawley.
“So the process is expected to take us back where we thought it would end three or four weeks ago,” Crawley said.
“That’s what concerns me about what’s happening at the Knights at the moment.
“Isaac Moses has gone in there with one client today, and we will emerge with another client taking over the job.
“Blake Green, by all reports, has a great relationship with the players at Newcastle and he is obviously very well liked.
“But the experience is the question.
“I just hope the Knights do go through the process before they land on their man.”
Ritchie indicated that O’Brien had lost the playing group at the Knights.
“There is a suggestion too that Adam O’Brien has lost the dressing room,” Ritchie added.
“It’s probably not the time nor the place to go pointing fingers, a bloke has just lost his job.
“But certainly the speculation is there.
“I think he was cooked. Emotionally and mentally and it had finally got to him.
“Clearly thinks that the pressure has got to him.”
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Ritchie provided more details on O’Brien’s departure from the Knights.
“It’s a mutual agreement,” Ritchie said.
“It was a football committee meeting with a few board members present.
“It has to be ratified at a full board meeting on Thursday.
“The payout will be between $300,000 to $500,000.
“So Adam O’Brien’s tenure looks like it’s done, provided the full board sign off on it which clearly they will.”
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