BY STAFF WRITERS

Former Australian captain Gorden Tallis has blasted the NRL’s new generation of players telling them to ‘toughen up’ after the Newcastle Knights told star recruit Jesse Ramien to find another club.

Ramien has struggled on-field at his new club in 2019 with reports suggesting the centre has also had difficulty with the change of lifestyle.

“These young guys, the game needs to toughen up, when the coach tells you something, you just have to do go and do it,” Tallis told Fox League on Thursday night.

“I’m over them going ‘I want to get out of here’ because the coach is challenging you. Everyone wants a challenge in life, they’re playing the greatest game of all.

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“The coach tells them to pull their finger out and start having a go and making their tackles and stop letting their team down, and all of a sudden they pull the cord and they want out.

“I feel sorry for our fans a little bit in that sense, that we play a tough sport and it’s been going around for a long time and you challenge some person and they walk away from it.”

Ramien was given his marching orders after training on Thursday by Knights coach Nathan Brown.