While many eyes are currently focused on the new premier Hypercar category of the WEC and IMSA championships, which promises a great show for 2023, the more modest GT3s are also at the dawn of a small revolution. A new regulation will allow them to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2024. Porsche and Ferrari have been able to shine in recent years in several GT categories, the first with the 911 GT3 R and 911 RSR type 991, the second with the 488 GT3 and 488 GTE. The announcement of the next sporting rules follows the recent launch of the 911 GT3 type 992 and 296 GTB on the road. The cards are shuffled; Porsche and Ferrari unveil their respective assets one day apart.
The new Porsche 911 GT3 R pushes further the development of the 992 generation, after the road GT3 and the one-design championship GT3 Cup. The displacement of its atmospheric flat-six has increased from 4 L to 4.2 L, as on the latest RSR to date, but unlike the latter, the newcomer remains faithful to a rear overhang layout. A six-speed sequential dog gearbox is responsible for transmitting 565 hp to the rear wheels, a power increase of 15 hp compared to the previous GT3 R, combined with a wider usable rev range according to the manufacturer. The regulatory balance of performance (BoP) aims to balance the cars on the grid; this additional reserve of power offers greater freedom of adaptation to the teams which can also play on the weight or the aerodynamics when adjusting the car.
Among other improvements, Porsche also announces better downforce without increasing drag thanks to a revised flat bottom and a gooseneck-mounted rear wing. The aluminum and steel alloy body is clad in a carbon body. Porsche has opted for a double wishbone suspension at the front, multi-link at the rear. In addition, the wheelbase has been lengthened by 8 mm and the driver’s seat refocused compared to the previous generation. The latter had won at Spa-Francorchamps, Sebring or Daytona among other prestigious events; customers therefore expect the best from the new model. This is displayed at the base price of €511,000 excluding VAT. And it could give some clues as to the specifications of the next road-going Porsche 911 GT3 RS, announced for August 17, 2022.
Read also: Ferrari 296 GTB test: no V8, hybrid, but what a foot!
The Ferrari 296 GT3 is less close to the road model than its German rival, starting with its engine since it is 100% thermal while the GTB is rechargeable hybrid. Its 3L V6 turbocharged open at 120° develops 600 hp. It is positioned further forward than on the GTB, and associated with a six-speed sequential gearbox installed transversely to which the alternator is attached. The aluminum chassis of the GT3 is specific to it and the wheelbase of the car is slightly longer than that of the GTB. Ferrari announces increased rigidity of 10% compared to the 488 GT3. The coupe is equipped with a double wishbone suspension on all four corners. The new multifunction steering wheel incorporates certain functions used by the Scuderia in F1.
The 296 GTB is Ferrari’s first road-going six-cylinder (the 1960s-1970s Dinos were not Ferrari-badged); the GT3 follows in the footsteps of the V6-powered 246 SP racing car which, more than 60 years ago, was the brand’s first car with a center-rear unit. It will make its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January 2023. Its development could serve that of a radical version of the 296 road in line with the 458 Speciale and 488 Pista.
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The former prime minister John Howard remains an elder statesman among conservatives so when he’s asked on primetime television if he doubts that climate change is happening, his response is revealing.
That moment happened on the ABC on Tuesday evening during an interview with actor David Wenham, who asked: “You’re not refuting the fact that there’s climate change?”
Given the decades of scientific inquiry on the subject, the most obvious answer to this question would have been a firm, declarative “no”.
But instead, Howard offered this.
“Well… well… I think some aspects of the debate have become greatly exaggerated,” he said. “Every time there’s any kind of disaster it’s always put down to climate change. In some cases that’s fair and in other cases it’s not fair.”
Howard didn’t say which disasters he was referring to, but those most fresh in the minds of Australians are the devastating east coast floods and the horrors of the Black Summer bushfires.
Climate scientists prefer to carry out studies to carefully attribute the role of rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to natural disasters. It’s not a simple task.
Studies of those 2019/2020 bushfires have shown climate change did increase the risk of those fires happening, and their severity (which one assessment said had killed or displaced about 3 billion animals).
Prof David Karoly, a leading Australian climate scientist, has said the devastating floods earlier this year were an example of how burning fossil fuels had put the climate system “on steroids” and amplified the rainfall.
Burning fossil fuels and chopping down forests has loaded the atmosphere with 50% more carbon dioxide than before the Industrial Revolution.
Some climate scientists will point out that by changing the composition of the atmosphere so fundamentally, and by adding heat to the ocean, the influence of the climate crisis on all weather is now inescapable.
identity politics
Even without specifics, Howard’s position tells us plenty about his understanding of the science, his regard for the risks from global heating and how he wants to frame the issue.
During the interview, Howard made a philosophical point about the state of political discourse saying there was “too much of an obsession with identity politics and single issues like climate change”.
Expressing skepticism about the causes of climate change, its impacts or the motives behind calls for action, has become a part of the political identity of many conservatives, particularly in the US and Australia.
Howard was trying to pin the “identity politics” label on progressives.
But by continuing to express skepticism on climate change only seconds later shows how a politician who reached their heights well before the term “identity politics” was invented, can still engage in it.
The IPCC’s hidden agenda?
Howard’s public stance on climate change has flip-flopped over the years.
In late 2006 and under political pressure in the run-up to an election, he said he wasn’t a climate science denier and quoted scientific evidence that rising greenhouse gas levels were “significant and damaging”.
But in a London speech to a climate contrarian thinktank in 2013, he said he had always been “agnostic” on the issue which, given the overwhelming evidence gathered over many decades, is a bit like saying you’re agnostic about gravity.
During that 2013 speech, Howard quoted Prof Ottmar Edenhofer, a lead author of a UN climate assessment at the time.
“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy,” Howard quoted Edenhofer as saying. “This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy any more.”
Revealing his “real agenda”, Howard said Edenhofer had gone on to say: “One must say clearly that we de facto redistribute the world’s wealth by climate policy.”
This quote has been used over and over by climate science contrarians for years as evidence that the UN’s climate convention represents a hidden socialist agenda to redistribute wealth.
Just last week, Maurice Newman – a business adviser to another former Liberal prime minister, Tony Abbott – used the exact same quotes to make the exact same point in an article in the Spectator.
“At least the leftist Potsdam Institute’s Prof Ottmar Edenhofer has the courage to say out loud what is becoming more obvious by the day,” Newman wrote, not mentioning that the quotes are 12 years old.
The source is an English translation of an interview Edenhofer gave to Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 2010.
Edenhofer told Temperature Check the quotes were taken “completely out of context” and had been spread by opponents of climate action “again and again”.
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“Fortunately, the full version of the interview is still available on the internet,” he said.
“As usual, context matters: My point was that climate policy is, by its very nature, economic policy. Economic policy includes setting rules in the distribution struggle for scarce resources, and in such a distribution struggle there are always winners and losers. That’s why it is important to always consider climate and development policy jointly.
“That climate protection would be only a pretext and that it would in fact all be about redistribution from rich to poor is complete nonsense.”
He said that pricing greenhouse gas emissions should indeed penalize fossil fuel use, and any redistribution of wealth “is merely a consequence of the necessity to stop using fossil fuels in order to limit global warming and avoid dangerous climate impacts”.
climate of blame
In the Netherlands, farmers and their supporters have been protesting against new rules proposed by the government to radically cut the use of ammonia, nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide.
They’ve been dumping manure on roads and blockading routes, saying the government’s cuts are unrealistic and will see many farms needing to close.
Like several other conservative commentators around the world, Sky News host James Morrow has been keen to lay the blame at the door of climate change policies.
“[Farmers] are being told they are going to have to cut production at a time of global food insecurity to basically follow climate mandates,” Morrow said.
No doubt that cutting nitrogen use would have benefits for the climate, but that’s not what the rules are about. The Dutch government’s efforts to cut nitrogen are aimed at cutting localized pollution threatening habitats next to farming operations.
The head of programs at Dutch environment group Natuur & Milieu, Rob van Tilburg, told Temperature Check: “The reason for the necessary intervention by the Dutch government is the continuing loss of nature that has arisen as a result of exceeding nitrogen standards for years. It’s definitely not the climate.”
He said three-quarters of Dutch nature reserves were affected by nitrogen pollution and the country’s intensive agriculture industry – one that keeps 115 million pigs, cows, chickens and goats in a country with only 17 million people.
The nitrogen standards applied to all countries in Europe, but the country’s highest court had declared three years ago the government’s policies were invalid.
Van Tilburg said: “As a result of this, it’s not allowed any more to issue permits for activities and projects that cause nitrogen emissions. Nitrogen pollution is making the soil acidic and we are losing nitrogen-sensitive plants and animal species rapidly.”
First elected in 2012, the 58-year-old Walorski was also an advocate for children and families and an influential voice for women in the House GOP conference, helping to grow their ranks over time.
She’d been set to take on a leadership role on the Ways and Means Committee if Republicans took back the House in November. She would have overseen the worker and family support subcommittee.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed her death “with a heavy heart.” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) Called the congresswoman, who had been a member of his whip team, “a champion for the people of Indiana.”
“Jackie and her staffers died serving her constituents. They will be missed, and our nation will miss their service,” Scalise said in a statement.
Fellow Indiana Republican, Sen. Todd Young said he was “truly devastated.”
“Jackie loved Hoosiers and devoted her life to fighting for them,” he wrote. “I’ll never forget her spirit from her, her positive attitude from her, and most importantly her friendship from her.
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), a close colleague of Walorski’s, called her “incredibly caring.”
“She always had a warm smile and a word of advice, and I will miss her friendship,” Hinson wrote.
Another GOP member, Georgia Rep. Drew Ferguson, added that he was “at a loss for words.”
“Jackie was a kind soul with a huge heart. She was a trusted colleague and good friend,” Ferguson wrote. “There was no one who fought harder for her constituents than Jackie. I’m going to miss her terribly.”
SK Hynix has introduced its first 3D NAND device featuring 238 layers, the highest number of layers in the industry. The new 512Gb devices promise to be rather cheap and will enable SK Hynix to build inexpensive solid-state storage. Also, 512Gb 238-layer 3D NAND products will help the memory maker learn how to mass produce flash memory with a high number of layers.
SK Hynix’s first 3D NAND device with 238 layers features a triple level cell (TLC) architecture, a capacity of 512Gb (64GB) as well as a 2400 MT/s interface speed, a 50% increase compared to previous-generation flagship NAND from the South Korean manufacturer. As an added bonus, the new 3D NAND memory device reduces power consumption during reads by 21%, which will be an advantage for mobile PCs as well as smartphones.
The IC features a charge trap flash (CTF) design as well as SK Hynix’s peripheral under cells (PUC) layout that the company formally calls ‘4D’ NAND. The company’s peripheral under cells (PUC) allows to reduce costs of NAND memory by making devices slightly smaller.
Formally, SK Hynix’s 238-layer 3D NAND devices are more technologically advanced than Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND ICs introduced in July. Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND devices feature a 1Gb capacity and therefore provide more storage space per chip and enabling to build 3D NAND packages of up to 2TB. Yet, SK Hynix says that its 1Gb 238-layer 3D NAND products will be introduced already next year.
In fact, 512Gb 238-layer 3D NAND devices may have certain advantages over 1Gb 232-layer 3D NAND ICs when it comes to building fast midrange SSDs (that have all chances to enter our best SSDs list). Eight 512Gb 3D NAND devices allow to build 512GB drives will all eight NAND channels active and therefore provide maximum parallelism and performance possible at a relatively low cost.
SK Hynix plans to start mass production of 238-layer 3D TLC NAND devices (or 4D NAND, if you prefer) in the first half of 2023. The new flash memory ICs will be initially used for client SSDs, later on it will be adopted for smartphones as well as for datacenter-grade drives.
Fremantle has identified Adelaide forward Elliott Himmelberg as a potential trade target, according to SEN SA’s Michelangelo Rucci.
The 24-year-old, who comes out of contract at season’s end, made his first AFL appearance since Round 9 last week.
Himmelberg replaced the injured Riley Thilthorpe for the Crows’ upset win over Carlton, finishing with eight disposals and a goal.
The Crows tall kicked four goals twice against Port Adelaide and Richmond earlier this year before losing his place ahead of Round 10.
Rucci understands the Dockers are doing their due diligence on Himmelberg.
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“Fremantle are putting together their list of how they overcome the issues of what they’ve got in attack, or don’t have in attack,” Rucci told SEN SA’s The Run Home.
“The player that they’re identifying – I stress identifying, they’re doing their due diligence – is Elliott Himmelberg at Adelaide.
“They think he’s the fit for them.
“He’s had five years at Adelaide, 37 games, 38 goals. We know he’s a tall player who can play forward and ruck – they want him as a forward. They desperately need to shore up their attack.
“He is growing with interest at Fremantle.”
Himmelberg was selected by Adelaide with pick 51 in the 2016 National Draft.
MCHENRY COUNTY, Ill. — A man who was in critical condition following a wrong-way fatal crash that killed his wife, four children and two others, died Wednesday.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, Thomas Dobosz, 32, died Wednesday morning at Loyola Medical Center from the injuries he sustained from the crash.
The crash happened around 2 am last Sunday on I-90 near mile marker 33, about 50 miles from Chicago.
Illinois State Police said that Thomas Dobosz and his 31-year-old wife, Lauren Dobosz—both from Rolling Meadows—were driving westbound on I-90 in a full-size Chevrolet van carrying five children when a wrong-way driver collided with them head-on, causing both vehicles to become engulfed in flames.
According to ISP, 22-year-old Jennifer Fernandez was driving the wrong way “for unknown reasons.”
Lauren Dobosz and the five children, ages 5 to 13, were all killed.
Fernandez—who was from Carpentersville—also died, according to authorities.
At the time, Thomas Dobosz was the lone survivor of the crash and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
A neighbor who lives across the street from the couple says they had four children. He believes the fifth child involved in the crash was a friend of their oldest child.
“The kids were very friendly,” David Moreno said. “They were always talkative. We would always run into them at the supermarket.”
The family was heavily involved in the local cheer community with the Oriole Falcons.
Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network was advertising yields of 17 per cent right up to mid-June when it froze withdrawals and then filed for bankruptcy in New York one month later.
Marketing itself much like a bank but without the same regulations, it attracted a global customer base — including Australians — many of whom had their assets locked up as cryptocurrency prices collapsed and the company ran aground.
The plight of these retail investors was spotlighted in recent weeks by software engineer and frequent cryptocurrency critic Molly White, who began to tweet moving excerpts from hundreds of letters sent to the New York bankruptcy court and shared in court exhibits.
“The stereotype of people who are putting money into crypto is… young, technologically savvy men,” Ms White told the ABC.
“And that did not seem to be the demographic in the letters.
“There were also a lot of people who were saying, ‘this is my life savings, my pension, I worked 10, 20, 30 years to save this money.'”
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Ms White also shared letters from people who said they were based in Australia, many of whom described their utter desperation and even thoughts of suicide after they were blocked from accessing funds.
One woman said the impact on her family had been severe. She included an email she sent to Celsius management begging to be allowed to withdraw some of her funds from her. The email included an ultrasound picture of her unborn child from her.
Others wrote of their emotional turmoil:
“I have lost everything. How can I explain this to my son? I feel ashamed at myself.”
“That was our life savings. It was our chance of having a baby, and funding medical expenses. It was our chance of taking care of our parents as they age.”
A father of three in Australia wrote he had “his life savings in a Celsius earn account”, and that he’d also convinced his father to deposit cryptocurrency assets into Celsius as a “safe haven”.
As well as putting a personal face to the cryptocurrency crash, many of the letters cite the online presence of Celsius chief executive Alex Mashinsky as a key reason for investing.
They bring up his regular YouTube AMA or “ask me anything” sessions, in which he projected supreme confidence until the end, and a willingness to call out what he saw as “misinformation” about his company on Twitter.
Ms White was also struck by how many letters specifically cited Mr Mashinsky, and his online persona.
“Those [AMA sessions] clearly worked really well to build trust in him and in the platform,” she said.
“And people basically believed that Alex Mashinsky as a person would not do this to them.”
Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky in November 2021, when bitcoin was riding high.(Getty: Piaras Ó Midheach)
‘We’re at the bottom, and we’re trying to be loud’
Claire* is one of the Australians with assets locked up in Celsius who wrote to the judge.
She returned to Australia in 2020 after more than a decade living in the United States, and was after a career change. A university course in financial technology introduced her to cryptocurrencies, and she took a shine to the industry.
But Claire said she struggled to find a job in the field and when trying to start her own businesses, found that Australian banks wouldn’t lend her due to a lack of local credit history.
A US cousin introduced her to bitcoin mining, and she ended up locking away around $US50,000 worth of bitcoin as collateral for a loan from Celsius.
“I was very attracted to their loan facility, because I couldn’t get a loan here for anything,” she said.
“Cryptocurrency for a person who is in that situation is… more attractive.”
While she is not in as dire a situation as some other Celsius customers, Claire said the goal of writing her letter was to ensure the voices of smaller investors were heard as the company’s debts are considered.
It’s still unclear how the process will play out.
Celsius’s terms and conditions warn that an account with the company is “not a checking or savings account, and it is not covered by insurance against losses” and that “any Eligible Digital Assets … may not be recoverable” after bankruptcy.
“The big guys will get the lawyers and they will be loud,” she said.
“We’re at the bottom, and we’re trying to be loud.”
Risk not over for Australian investors
Celsius had approximately 300,000 active users with balances of more than $US100 ($144) as of July 2022, and a $US1.2 billion shortfall when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York.
The company offered a number of services, including the ability to borrow against cryptocurrency assets transferred to the company, or to earn high reward rates on these deposits.
But while its team presented a glossy picture of huge yields, it seemed impossible to some critics that such numbers could be sustained without making potentially hazardous investment choices with the funds of its international depositors.
Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University, said the Celsius situation was ultimately simple: “This is a company that basically took customer deposits, if you want to call them that, and then invested in very risky products.”
Among other issues, Dr Harvey said, Celsius appears to have invested in cryptocurrency products that were highly illiquid when the company needed money back quickly.
“Any time you’re promised an 18 per centreturn that is sold as risk free, that is just a red flag,” he said.
Celsius’s bankruptcy filing continues a rough period for cryptocurrencies, and other high-profile platforms including Babel Finance, Vauld and Voyager have run into trouble in recent weeks.
Celsius’s own bankruptcy documents admit it made “what, in hindsight, proved to be certain poor asset deployment decisions.”
Mr Mashinsky’s declaration also cites the high-profile “implosion” of cryptocurrency Luna and its TerraUSD stablecoin as accelerating the onset of a “crypto winter” and prompting an uptick in customers trying to get their money out — akin to a bank run.
The Celsius situation also makes the risks clear for Australian cryptocurrency investors: overseas companies are subject to overseas rules.
Aaron Lane, a lawyer and senior research fellow in the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, said how much local investors ultimately recovered from Celsius was now in the hands of US courts, where cryptocurrency bankruptcies were a relatively new phenomenon.
“That’s something that consumers need to consider at the front end … doing your research and really considering who controls the cryptocurrency that you’re putting in,” he said.
Both Dr Lane and Dr Harvey suggested Celsius’s situation, as well as the litany of other cryptocurrency collapses, was likely to spur government regulation of the industry.
This may include whether cryptocurrency lenders like Celsius will be forced in future to abide by rules set for more traditional financial institutions, such as capital requirements to protect depositors.
“How can consumers know that if they’re putting money into one of these platforms that they can get it back, or at least get a proportion back?” Dr Lane said.
Ms White says there’s a pattern in how cryptocurrency projects are allowed to operate that can’t continue.
“Crypto projects do whatever they want, advertise however they want, run their businesses with basically no transparency and no requirements for how they’re handling their assets, and then [regulators] just wait for them to explode,” she said.
“We can’t afford to have done it as long as we have. People are continuing to get hurt.”
Your favorite monthly Telstra sale turns 1 year old and it’s sharing its presents.
Telstra Day is here again! To celebrate a lap around the sun, Telstra is giving away an Xbox All Access bundle including an Xbox Series S console and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
It can be yours with any Samsung Galaxy S22 series purchase.
You’ve got these Telstra Day phone deals to pick from this month:
New and existing Telstra customers can get today’s phone deals outright or on a 12-, 24- or 36-month repayment plan.
Remember: This Telstra Day sale ends at midnight tonight 4 August 2022 AEST.
Samsung Galaxy S22 series
Samsung’s current flagship, the S22 series, are premium phones with a price tag to match. However, if you’re interested in scoring a free Xbox Series S with All Access bundle (RRP $729), now might just be the perfect time to buy.
Get the Samsung Galaxy S22 from:
Get Telstra’s S22 deal here
Get the Samsung Galaxy S22+ from:
Get Telstra’s S22+ deal here
Get the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra from:
Get Telstra’s S22 Ultra deal here
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
A slightly older Galaxy model, the S21 has a quality camera and good performance. It’s available from:
Get Telstra’s S21 FE deal here
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
When you want a new Samsung phone but don’t want to fork out for a Galaxy, the A53 is a perfectly acceptable option. It can be yours from:
Get Telstra’s A53 deal here
What do I get on a Telstra mobile plan?
Each Telstra mobile phone plan is available with repayments options of 12-,24- or 36- months.
Telstra operates the largest phone network in Australia, reaching 99.5% of Australians – perfect for when you’re traveling further out of the cities.
With every Telstra plan you can:
Make unlimited standard national calls and texts
Use unlimited data with no excess data charges (this is slowed to 1.5Mbps after you reach your cap)
Share data between up to 10 plans on 1 account
Earn points with Telstra Rewards which you can spend on accessories and other goodies.
Save up to $350 on other devices and accessories
Not interested in the Telstra Day phone offerings? Check out these other devices and accessories you can get your hands on for less:
Save $350 on Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra 5G – now $1,649
Save $150 on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm) – now $399
Save $150 on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic Edition (46mm) – now $549
Save $100 on Sony WF-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones – now $289
Save $60 on BlueAnt X2 – now $60
Save $25 on BlueAnt X0 – now $24
Save $70 on JBL Live 660 Noise-Canceling Headphones – now $179
Save $75 on JBL Tune 130NC Earbuds – now $74
Save $40 on Sprout Dual Wireless Charger – now $80
Save $30 on $150 Telstra Pre-paid SIM starter kit – now $120
Save $60 on Nokia C30 pre-paid – now $89
How do July’s Telstra Day deals stack up?
We were expecting Telstra to go big for this anniversary sale and it didn’t disappoint.
If you’ve struggled to get your hands on the latest Xbox model, now is the perfect time to upgrade to a Samsung S22. There’s no discount on the handset but the Xbox All Access bundle is incredible value for money with hundreds of games.
Compared to last month’s Telstra Day sale, however, there’s a lot less variety. Deals tend to come back every so often so if you were hoping to save money on the S22, an iPhone or even a Telstra NBN plan, don’t forget to check back next month.
Looking for more phone deals? Compare mobile plans to find the right one for you.
As it stands, Klemmer, having been issued with the show-cause notice, can’t even train with the team. The club has supposedly drawn a line in the sand by standing down the man leading the players’ player voting for seemingly caring too much.
Klemmer is renowned for his short fuse. There is no doubt he should have handled the situation better and listened to instructions rather than fire off an expletive-laden tirade at trainer Hayden Knowles. However, anyone who sits on the sideline at an NRL game will tell you that you’d struggle to go through a round without seeing something similar.
O’Brien is in Klemmer’s corner. According to sources at the Knights, he has privately thrown his support behind the embattled prop despite the power he once yielded seemingly diminishing by the day.
The question that has been asked during the past 24 hours, since Newcastle sent out a press release confirming the decision, is whether there is more to the story. There has to be, right? The course of action seems out of context with the incident.
Apparently not. Suggestions there was a post-match altercation between Klemmer and Knowles have been strongly denied.
Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien is under pressure to keep his job.Credit:Getty
Klemmer was taken away by Sport Integrity Australia testers and did not return to the change rooms until much later, otherwise there may have been another heated exchange, judging by the steam coming out of his ears during the team’s hapless performance against his former club.
Knowles and Klemmer had history. The trainer, who joined the Knights from Penrith this year, is the right-hand man of NSW coach Brad Fittler. Klemmer was controversially left out of the Blues squad a couple of years ago.
The 28-year-old prop wasn’t the biggest fan of the alternative methods of Knowles and Fittler, but has embraced Knowles’ ways at the Knights in 2022. It’s said the outburst on Sunday was not as a result of bad blood between the pair.
The red pen was put through his name for the Blues due to his attitude, NSW insiders have said. Despite playing 14 games for NSW between 2015 and 2019, Klemmer was not named in Fittler’s 27-man squad for the 2020 post-season Origin series.
Those connecting Parramatta’s pursuit of Klemmer on Monday and Newcastle’s sanctions are off the mark, too.
Klemmer is comfortable with the club not letting him leave. In fact, it was Klemmer who stopped the potential switch in his tracks for family reasons, given he would have to leave his wife and four children for up to 10 weeks.
Now he finds himself at a crossroads in his career. He has one year left on his Knights deal, worth about $800,000.
The club’s salary cap is not in great shape. A club with one of the best junior league nurseries in the world is now relying on a recruitment manager based in Queensland, who is close to the chief executive.
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Perhaps the seemingly excessive action against Klemmer isn’t a lack of judgment, but a move with desired intentions. Time will tell.
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