{"id":67863,"date":"2021-05-06T06:13:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T06:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=67863"},"modified":"2021-05-06T10:02:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T10:02:44","slug":"widdop-the-ideal-man-for-two-nrl-crisis-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=67863","title":{"rendered":"Widdop the 'ideal' man for two NRL crisis clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane and Newcastle are two possible destinations should Gareth Widdop<\/a> navigate a return to the NRL, according to Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Englishman has been out of the NRL<\/a> for 18 months but has been constantly linked with a return since his departure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I have no idea," Johns replied, when asked on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth<\/em><\/a> why interest in the former Dragons and Storm star had been so low.<\/p>\n

"Newcastle would be ideal for Gareth. Brisbane, definitely."<\/p>\n

The Knights are still without Mitchell Pearce<\/a>, while an injury to Blake Green has forced another halves re-shuffle this week.<\/p>\n

Kurt Mann and Phoenix Crossland will be the playmakers for Newcastle in what is looming as a must-win clash with the also-struggling Raiders.<\/p>\n

Widdop is currently plying his trade for Warrington in the English Super League.<\/p>\n

"He'd be great," said Brad Fittler, adding that they could use the experience, given that Karmichael Hunt isn't allowed to play for Brisbane for several more weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Freddy<\/p>\n

Widdop had arrived in Australia late last year for a Christmas holiday with his family and had reportedly slashed his asking price to around $300,000 per season<\/a> in a bid to secure a deal back in the NRL.<\/p>\n

However, with few clubs still with room to move in their salary caps for the 2021 season, Widdop was unable to attract a contract, despite interest from the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

The 2017 Dally M five-eighth of the year departed the NRL at the end of 2019, having spent four seasons with the Storm and six with the Dragons.<\/p>\n

He won the 2012 grand final with Melbourne, playing in the halves alongside Cooper Cronk.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brisbane and Newcastle are two possible destinations should Gareth Widdop navigate a return to the NRL, according to Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler. The 32-year-old […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67865,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67863\/revisions\/67865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}