KNIGHTS coach Nathan Brown has confirmed that Jesse Ramien has played his last game for the club after an immediate separation he described as "in all our best interests".
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Ramien, the 22-year-old centre who joined Newcastle from Cronulla at the end of last season, met with Brown earlier this week after being dropped from the team to play Manly at Brookvale on Saturday.
Brown told him he was free to negotiate with rival clubs and would be released from his 2020 contract with Newcastle, if that was his preference.
Knights CEO Phil Gardner suggested there was a slim chance of a reconciliation on Thursday when he said: "He can either knuckle down here and show us all what he's got or he can decide it's not for him and he can go.The ball is in his court."
Ramien did not train on Friday and Brown said: "He's finished up ... there's nothing in it, at all. There's no fall-outs with anyone. It's just in his best interests and our best interests."
Brown said Ramien "was a decent young kid" who "isn't happy at our football club."
"You won't find any of the playing group or staff saying anything negative about Jesse ... and I'll be surprised and disappointed if Jesse said anything untoward about us, because we've all tried our best," he said.
"But sometimes it just doesn't work out, for whatever reason."
Brown said there was "nothing sinister" about Ramien's abrupt departure but "the player's happiness has to be top of the tree".
The coach was hopeful the untimely episode would not be a distraction for his players before Saturday's crucial clash.
After four straight losses, another defeat could leave Newcastle three points behind the top eight with only five rounds to play.
"We've got 37 days to go, until the end of the premiership rounds, and we'd like to play past those 37 days," Brown said.
"We're sitting in a position where we can. Our last month of footy, we've had a number of very, very close losses which have obviously put us back on the ladder, but we're still in a position where we can control what we're doing.
"With 37 days to go, there's been plenty of hard work done and we'd like to think we can go to Brooky and give a good account of ourselves against a side who are playing terrific football."
Surprisingly, after indicating during the week that he was keen to retain the goalkicking duties, Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga volunteered at training to relinquish the role to five-eighth Mason Lino. Ponga has kicked 48 goals from 58 attempts this season at a strike rate of 82.78 per cent, compared to Lino's 16 from 18 attempts at 88.89 per cent.
Brown has made an array of changes to his squad after last week's loss to the Tigers.
Ramien, Danny Levi, Herman Ese'ese and Jamie Buhrer have been omitted, with Lino, Jacob Saifiti, Aidan Guerra and Lachlan Fitzgibbon all included.
