{"id":947009,"date":"2026-10-31T01:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T01:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947009\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T01:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T01:06:11","slug":"knights-emerge-as-favourites-to-land-former-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947009\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights emerge as favourites to land former half"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/newcastle-knights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle Knights<\/a> half <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/adam-clune\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Clune<\/a> is looking likely to be headed back to the Hunter after his current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> deal dries up.<\/p>\n<p>Clune is off-contract at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/british-teams\/huddersfield-giants\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Huddersfield Giants<\/a> at the end of 2026, with Love Rugby League reporting the 31-year-old playmaker won&#8217;t be offered a new contract, with the Knights shaping as the likely destination for his services.<\/p>\n<p>Clune made his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> debut in 2020 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/st-george-illawarra-dragons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>, playing two seasons in Wollongong for 25 matches before shifting to Newcastle for a further two years and 22 appearances.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-116138\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-1388901688.jpg.webp\" alt=\"NRL Rd 4 - Sharks v Knights\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  \/>SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA &#8211; APRIL 01: Adam Clune of the Knights looks on during the round four NRL match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Newcastle Knights at PointsBet Stadium on April 01, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>He then picked up a multi-year deal to head to the Northern Hemisphere in 2024 with the Giants, playing 24 games in his debut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> season before being struck down with injuries in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>It limited him to six games last year, and only 11 in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jakob-arthur\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Arthur<\/a> heading to the Giants in 2027 and expected to take on a major playmaking role, it is looking unlikely Clune will be extended at the club, with the Knights firming as favourites to get his signature.<\/p>\n<p>Showcasing a composed kicking game and sharp at running the ball, Clune has all the accorded attributes to excel in the swift pace of the modern-day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Clune will act as strong halves depth for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/dylan-brown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Brown<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/fletcher-sharpe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fletcher Sharpe<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/sandon-smith\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sandon Smith<\/a>, with the latter two having a fantastic season and guiding the novocastrains to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> Grand Final appearance in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights will welcome <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/marata-niukore\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marata Niukore<\/a> to the club in 2027, but lose a handful of talent including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/dane-gagai\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dane Gagai<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/tyson-frizell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyson Frizell<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/tyson-gamble\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyson Gamble<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/wilson-de-courcey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wilson De Courcey<\/a>, while Bradman Best&#8217;s long-term future at the club is still uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Newcastle Knights half Adam Clune is looking likely to be headed back to the Hunter after his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-947009","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\/947009","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=947009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}