Former Blues five-eighth Josh Reynolds said there had to be more to an ongoing situation involving his old teammate David Klemmer, labeling Newcastle’s course of action this week as a “joke”.
The fiery prop was handed a breach notice by the club for failing to come off the field when directed to leave by trainer Hayden Knowles on Sunday’s loss to Canterbury.
He has been dropped for the Knights’ clash against the Tigers on Sunday afternoon, leaving Reynolds in disbelief.
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“I honestly thought it was a gee up,” he said on Big Sports Breakfast.
“It’s honestly the biggest joke I’ve ever, ever heard if they’re even considering sacking him.”
Klemmer joined the Knights from the Bulldogs, where he and Reynolds played together for five seasons, back in 2018 – and was hailed as a transformative signing for their forward pack.
Reynolds said that Klemmer’s aggression and attitude was what made him an effective player.
“First of all, when you sign a player – the CEO will be like ‘I want you to be passionate for this jersey’,” he said.
“He just wants to be out there, he’s a fit front rower. You’ve got a guy who’s shown a bit of emotion because he didn’t want to come off at that time, and you’re saying you’re going to sack him because of that? Honestly, they don’t deserve him.”
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Reynolds said that the incident during Sunday’s game was something that you would see every single week, at any level of the sport.
“It’s the heat of the moment, heat of the battle that his has happened – it’s not even a thing,” he said.
“They probably had a beer after the game.
“There’s got to be more to it, there just has to be.”
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