Knights CEO Phil Gardner reveals the huge cost of the club's commitment to its pathways programs

For the first time in the club's history, the Knights will be represented in nine competitions in 2022, featuring in the NRL Women's premiership for the first time alongside the NRL men.

From a pathways perspective, they will field a women's team in the Tarsha Gale Cup as well as being represented in the NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg, S G Ball, Harold Matthews, Laurie Daley Cup and Andrew Johns Cup competitions.

The club will need to find in excess of an extra $1 million on top of their usual spend on pathways to fund the programs.

Despite the significant outlay, Gardner expects the Knights to finish in the black for a fifth straight year in 2022, with how far largely dependent on the performance of the NRL squad.

"We have made a profit every year since we took over in 2018 and we've budgeted for another one for next year," he said. "It is a huge operation now. We'll turnover around $38 million.

"We've invested a lot of money in the Centre of Excellence which is going to be great and like the rest of the NRL clubs, we've had a lot of support from the NRL over the past few years to help get through the pandemic period. So we are in a very strong position both on and off the field."

Gardner is confident the club has finally got its pathways programs on track.

"I'm really excited about where we are going with the pathways and the people that are involved with Garth [Brennan] in charge alongside Alex [McKinnon]," he said. "I think it is now in the best shape ever as far as the people involved and the resources available to all our players.

"We've got Joey {Andrew Johns] doing some work there and ex-players of the highest calibre like Kurt Gidley, Steve Simpson and Billy Peden involved alongside Bedsy [Danny Buderus].

"It's taken us a while but we have got it right now and the kids are really excited as you can imagine with who they are being coached by. With all those people involved, there is a great feeling around the place.

"We'll obviously have to wait to see how all the teams perform and how the players benefit and progress but we are very confident in what we are now doing."

Gardner is optimistic the club will be more than competitive in both women's competitions next year.

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