08 February 2008 - 9:39PMÂ
Captain Kurt: Knights offer Gidley long-term leadership lure
By ROBERT DILLON
THE Newcastle Knights hope to have Test star Kurt Gidley re-signed before the start of the season after tempting him with a lucrative long-term deal and the likelihood of the club captaincy.
Gidley's agent, Darryl Mather, met with Knights football manager Warren Smiles and chief executive Steve Burraston yesterday to discuss the future of 25-year-old Gidley, who has a contractual option in his favour that effectively makes him a free agent at season's end.
Since Gidley signed his most recent deal with the Knights, in June 2006, he has graduated to NSW Origin and Test honours and can expect a significant upgrade on his next contract.
It is understood he will earn at least $350,000 a year if he re-signs with the Knights, who are keen to tie him up for three or four seasons after this one.
A further sweetener will be the probable honour of succeeding Danny Buderus as club skipper when the champion hooker opts to part company with the club, either at the end of this season or after 2009.
Knights coach Brian Smith said last night that Gidley was "the ideal candidate" for the captaincy in coming seasons.
"He showed last year that he won games for us with his on-field drive, and he was able to play at a high level regardless of how the team was performing," Smith said.
"Those are the sort of inspirational people you want in charge.
"He's the right age for it because he relates well to the younger guys in the club, but he's got a lot of experience for someone his age.
"He's played Origin, he's played for Australia and he loves the club.
"He seems like the ideal candidate to me."
Gidley was waiting to hear from Mather last night but admitted the possibility of captaining the Knights in the future was appealing.
"Obviously it would be a great honour, from my point of view, when you think about the people who have represented the Knights as captain previously," Gidley said.
"That would be a pretty big deal, obviously. But I guess that sort of stuff comes after you re-sign."
Gidley said it was "a bit of an each-way bet" whether to re-sign promptly or bide his time and see if his market value increased.
Clubs such as South Sydney have already expressed interest in the versatile utility, and there is little doubt he would be hot property on the open market.
There is also a possibility Newcastle will have more room to move under their salary cap later in the year if Buderus announces he is heading to England after this season.
Gidley has stated that he would prefer to stay in Newcastle but would not sell himself short, describing his next contract as the "most important" of his career.
"I'm not getting any younger I'll be 26 this year so I'll probably be looking for a deal for three or four years," he said.
Smiles said yesterday's negotiations "moved everything along to another stage" and was hopeful of securing Gidley to a "lengthy" contract in the near future.
"I think Kurt is looking to stay in Newcastle if he can, and we're trying to get a deal sorted so that he's got some certainty and stability in his life," Smiles said.
"From our point of view, he's a valuable player and we'd certainly like to see him stay.
"The ideal situation would be to have it sorted out before the actual season kicks off.
"That's something we would aim for. There's no guarantee that we'll be able to do that, but we'll try to work on it to get it to both parties' satisfaction as soon as we can."