{"id":267414,"date":"2025-11-06T21:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267414\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T21:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:53:10","slug":"former-super-league-prop-lands-deal-with-knights-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/267414\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Super League prop lands deal with Knights – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

After losing the likes of Leo Thompson<\/a> and Daniel Saifiti<\/a> in recent years, the Newcastle Knights<\/a> are desperate to boost their forward sticks ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n

While the current market for forwards is somewhat barren, the international free agency is littered with prospects, and it seems the club has pounced.<\/p>\n

Former Leeds Rhinos<\/a> and Catalans Dragons<\/a> forward Mickael Goudemand<\/a> has reportedly landed a trial with the Knights’ reserve-grade squad ahead of the 2026 season, according to Love Rugby League.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old French international will train with Newcastle’s New South Wales Cup side, with a chance to earn a contract and potentially push for an NRL<\/a> debut if successful.<\/p>\n

Goudemand, a Challenge Cup winner and two-time Super League<\/a> Grand Finalist with the Catalans Dragons<\/a>, departed Leeds at the end of the 2024 season after one year at Headingley.<\/p>\n

He returned briefly to France<\/a> with Albi before moving Down Under in June to join Junee Diesels in the Group 9 Rugby League<\/a> competition.<\/p>\n

The 15-time France<\/a> international boasts more than 200 senior appearances, including over 100 in Super League<\/a>, and is now eyeing his first crack at Australian rugby league.<\/p>\n

Goudemand will be hoping to impress enough to feature in France’s squad for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a>, to be held across Australia<\/a> and Papua New Guinea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His last Test appearance came in October 2024 during a win over Wales in Perpignan.<\/p>\n

If his Knights trial does not lead to a contract, reports indicate Goudemand has already secured a deal with the Macquarie Scorpions for 2026, who compete in the Newcastle Rugby League<\/a> competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After losing the likes of Leo Thompson and Daniel Saifiti in recent years, the Newcastle Knights are desperate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-267414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}