{"id":937164,"date":"2026-10-22T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937164\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:56:14","slug":"nrl-news-2026-newcastle-knights-gun-bradman-best-takes-crack-at-departing-recruitment-boss-peter-osullivan-discusses-contract-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937164\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Newcastle Knights gun Bradman Best takes crack at departing recruitment boss Peter O\u2019Sullivan, discusses contract talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gun Knights<\/a> centre Bradman Best<\/a> had a crack at Newcastle\u2019s departing recruitment boss as he was grilled on his contract situation inside Australia<\/a>\u2019s World Cup<\/a> camp on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Best, who is set to become a free agent on November 1, spoke about the importance of looking after his family as he was peppered with questions about his playing future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bradman Best at Kangaroos training.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

He also took an unprompted jab at Peter O\u2019Sullivan, the veteran recruitment guru who in recent weeks has quit his post at the Knights to take up a lucrative job with the Broncos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s a few of us lads at Newcastle coming off contract,\u201d Best told media ahead of Australia\u2019s clash with Fiji at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the person that was handling the contracts, a few people were upset (with him), but now he\u2019s gone, so hopefully we can get something done there.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to News Corp, the Knights have tabled a four-year contract for Best worth about $4 million.<\/p>\n

Rival clubs are preparing to offer their own big-money deals to the NSW State of Origin ace.<\/p>\n

Best was crucial to Newcastle\u2019s improbable rise to this year\u2019s NRL<\/a> grand final and his value will balloon even more if he stars for the Kangaroos in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old will make his Kangaroos debut against Fiji on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019m a Newcastle junior. I love it there. I\u2019ve been there since a young kid, but I\u2019m a father now and I\u2019ve gotta do what\u2019s best for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019m here in camp worrying about this. I know November\u2019s around the corner. I\u2019ll just put it on hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in no rush, and all the boys \u2013 I think there\u2019s half the Aussie team here off contract, so there\u2019s plenty of talk. All the boys are talking about it … There\u2019s plenty of cash getting around apparently, so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best got engaged to Kayla Fenech, the daughter of boxing legend Jeff Fenech<\/a>, in March.<\/p>\n

Their daughter Kaliyah turns one in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family, making sure we\u2019re settled, we\u2019re happy. I\u2019m a father now, I\u2019ve got a bub, so making sure we\u2019re happy, healthy,\u201d Best said, explaining what was important to him in his contract talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd obviously I wanna win games. Money\u2019s not the be-all and end-all. It goes a long way, but I wanna make sure I\u2019m winning games.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New Broncos recruitment boss Peter O\u2019Sullivan.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI just come off a grand final loss and I want to chase that premiership.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ll take everything into (account).\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor in Best\u2019s contract negotiations is the arrival of his teenaged brother Baxter at the Knights.<\/p>\n

Best admitted in grand final week that it was a dream of his to play with his brother in the NRL.<\/p>\n

The strike centre has also seen off some dark years at Newcastle, including a wooden-spoon season in 2025, but is now in a premiership window in red and blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, walking away would be hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through the struggles for a long time, and to see where we\u2019ve come now and what we were able to achieve (this year), it\u2019s special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the club\u2019s heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gun Knights centre Bradman Best had a crack at Newcastle\u2019s departing recruitment boss as he was grilled on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-937164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937164","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=937164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}