BY STAFF WRITERS

Rugby league Immortal and Newcastle Knights legend Andrew Johns says he would take a role with his embattled club if offered a job by Knights CEO Phil Gardner in the wake of coach Nathan Brown’s scandalous exit.

Johns recently made the claim Brown had been “sabotaged” in his role to oust him from the organisation.

But Gardner hit back at Johns on Fox Sports’ NRL 360.

“The players had no role in Nathan Brown’s departure. None at all,” Gardner said.

“To my knowledge the players were not canvassed in the lead up to Nathan’s departure. Certainly after Nathan decided to go, we discussed what we were going to do with the playing group.

“The players actually knew before me that Nathan was going to resign.

“We felt the players would lift for him and run through that series because he had resigned and we would end up in a good position at the end of the year. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.”