Newcastle forward David Klemmer is set to face the club’s board later this week in an attempt to explain his on-field actions against Canterbury last Sunday.
According to reports, Klemmer refused to come from the field and verbally abused trainer Hayden Knowles both on-field and en route to the bench.
With his actions causing the club to hand the veteran a breach notice, Klemmer is fighting to keep his career alive by explaining his actions to Knights powerbrokers.
While Newcastle are considering axing Klemmer, The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis says some of his Knights teammates are “extremely frustrated” by the club’s actions.
“It’s going to play out by the end of this week when Klemmer will have to front the board and explain what happened,” Carayannis said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“As it stands, some of his teammates are extremely frustrated by the club’s actions in deciding to sanction him.
“It appears it’s for an incident where he obviously refused to come from the field and abuse trainer Hayden Knowles on and off the field, by the time he got to the bench.
“Part of the investigation I guess will be references from some of Klemmer’s teammates who were on the bench, Pasami Saulo, Mat Croker and Brodie Jones were the players who were off the field when Klemmer came to the bench on Sunday.
“Then you’ve got Danny Buderus who sits on the interchange bench as well, then you’ve got the likes of Craig Catterick and Blake Green who are the other trainers.
“There’s a high-profile list of people who’ll be asked what they heard, the tone, the aggression and how long it went for.
“It’ll be an interesting few days for David Klemmer and the Newcastle Knights.”
In response to reports, SEN’s Greg Alexander described the situation the Knights find themselves in as a “terrible mess”.
“What a Sunday they had up there,” Alexander said.
“Not only were they dealing with that, but they were terrible.
“Newcastle in that second half had all of the football and all of the field position and they could only scratch out one try.
“It was a dark afternoon for Newcastle, and then you’ve got this, player revolt and players abusing some of the coaching staff.
“It’s a terrible mess up there.”
Klemmer is contracted to the Knights for the 2023 season on a reported $900,000.
The forward has been one of the club’s best players in 2022.