Coach gives Newcastle Knights Best parting gift
DEPARTING Newcastle coach Nathan Brown will give the Knights a glorious parting gift in the form of a debut for the club’s latest rookie sensation.
Central Coast rookie Bradman Best will start for the Knights against the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium on Saturday evening, in one of Brown’s final games as coach.
The 18-year-old has earned rave reviews from the highest places in rugby league.
NSW State of Origin coach Brad Fittler can’t wait to see Best run out for the Knights this weekend, declaring he “could go all the way”.
It will cap a meteoric rise for Best, who Fittler coached in both the NSW Under 16s and 18s against Queensland.
“He’s a great athlete, a great kid and he can sure play,” Fittler said. “He’s an old beach sprint champion and he’s very powerful and strong.
“You could play him fullback, wing or centre. From what I’ve seen, he’s one of those kids who could go all the way.”
Best played Australian schoolboys last year and is rated the hottest young talent in the game.
Under NRL rules, players must be 18 to make their topgrade debut and the Knights have wasted little time in bringing Best into their squad.
He is so highly regarded by the Knights that he is signed until the end of 2022.
Best, a former Umina Beach surf club sprint star, has been earmarked for a big future for some time. The Woy Woy junior has been in the Knights system since he was 13, and was invited to train with the NRL squad last year, when he was just 16. As was revealed in March, you know you’re a rising rugby league talent when you’ve got the Knights’ Origin-winning halfback Mitchell Pearce taking you to and from training. In March Rory Kostjasyn, who is a member of the Knights coaching staff, said in March there was no rush for him to progress through the grades.
“We know he’s an enormous talent and a good kid,” he said.