Trey Mooney has signed a three-year deal with the Newcastle Knights that will see him paid around $1.5 million through to 2028, but pen on paper doesn’t quite mean the signing will 100% happen, thanks to a critical clause.
The young gun Raider has asked for – and the Knights agreed to – a coaching clause where Mooney can scrap the whole deal should Newcastle make sweeping changes before the 2026 season’s training camp.
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Whether that’s a good call or not remains to be seen, with many considering Adam O’Brien a must-sack coach, and any barrier to making a call there (not least losing a breakout young forward) is probably not the wisest decision. That said, The Sporting Base understands it was Mooney’s biggest sticking point, and Newcastle needed it to get the deal done.
Should no changes be made, or Mooney decides to join anyway, he’ll be a Knight from next year.
That will mean Canberra letting him leave the final two years of his deal early, which they’d already agreed.
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Mooney, an under-19s NSW Blues representative and a former Australian Schoolboy star, is expected to slot straight into the Knights forward rotations next season, especially considering Leo Thompson is leaving to join the Canterbury Bulldogs.
That promise of a starting role and more game time was the whole reason the Raiders let him leave. “It’s more of a compassionate thing for Trey. He’s here for another two years,” Ricky Stuart told The Canberra Times some weeks ago.
“As a coach, I also have to do the right thing for Trey as a person. He needs to be playing NRL. He hasn’t been able to crack it here this year, but it’s not to say he won’t play. But I don’t want to do the wrong thing by Trey as a young footballer who needs to be playing. The easiest thing for me is to be greedy and keep Trey, and if he plays four or five games next year, great for us.”
But, Stuart explained, “It’s not good for Trey. As a person, I don’t feel comfortable with that.”
