The Broncos have taken a giant step towards rebounding from their horror 2026 season after landing recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan in a huge blow for the Knights.

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O’Sullivan had been widely lauded as the mastermind behind Newcastle’s rapid rise to grand finalists this year, with Alex McKinnon calling him an “incredible signing” for the club in a foxsports.com.au column last week.

However, O’Sullivan’s recent success with Newcastle caught the attention of rival teams with the Broncos and Eels both showing serious interest in his signature.

While the Knights were desperate to keep him, the Broncos have won the bidding war according to Code Sports after offering O’Sullivan a $2.5 million deal — the richest contract ever for a NRL recruitment boss.

It is understood to be a five-year deal worth $500,000 each season. The publication reported he was said to be on around $350,000 annually at the Knights.

It will see O’Sullivan reunite with Reece Walsh, who he convinced to leave the Broncos and join the Warriors in 2021.

O’Sullivan has extensive history in successful NRL roster-building, having overseen the transformation of 2026 finalists the Dolphins, Warriors and Roosters.

It completes a busy week for the Newcastle recruitment boss, who told Code Sports that he was weighing up his options after Brisbane made an approach.

New Broncos recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan.Source: Supplied

“We’ve just made the grand final so I wanted to give it a few days to think about it,” O’Sullivan told the publication.

“It’s flattering to have interest from a club like the Broncos. They are a massive club and I’m very honoured to be offered to be a part of the Broncos, but I’ll see what works out for myself and my family and go from there.

“I’ve got a couple of options.”

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McKinnon, who works as pathways recruitment analyst at the Knights, gave a glimpse into O’Sullivan’s recruiting genius in his foxsports.com.au column last week.

“There are two types of people that do recruitment. There are team builders and there are people who just sign talent. I feel like Sully’s a real team builder,” McKinnon wrote.

“He recognised that we weren’t getting a lot of linebreaks out of dummy-half. So he goes and signs Harrison Graham. Then he is able to get that rotation going with Phoenix Crossland moving back to lock and then as a year went on, Graham started to be really creative around the middle of the ruck.

“He was able to identify Francis Manuleleua as a young emerging back row and pulled him out of Penrith, having also had experience with him at the Warriors as a player. Manuleleua has since emerged as a rising star in the game.”

O’Sullivan also went out and signed Dylan Brown onto a monster contract and brought in the unheralded Sandon Smith, who became a crucial piece of Newcastle’s premiership push after Brown went down injured.