PENRITH assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo has refuted speculation linking him to the Newcastle Knights in a phone call to Adam O'Brien first thing on Wednesday morning.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday that the Knights had "emerged as a surprise contender" to sign Ciraldo as a replacement for O'Brien, who is midway through his third season as Newcastle's head coach and has another two years to run on his deal.
But before O'Brien had even read the story, he fielded a 5.30am call from Ciraldo, a mate from their time together as assistant coaches of Country Origin.
"I didn't know about this, but Cameron, being the bloke he is, was the first one to call," O'Brien said.
"We had a laugh.
"There's no truth to Ciro.
"He does love the place [Newcastle]. I almost had him coming as an assistant a few years ago. He was all-in.
"But no truth from his end. He's a good man, Ciro. I've got a good relationship with him and we speak often.
"He was the first one to call this morning."
O'Brien said Newcastle's disappointing first half of the season - four wins from their first 12 games - made speculation inevitable.
"Whether it's factual or not, I don't really care, to be honest," he said.
"I just care about preparing the team today to get a result on the weekend."
Ciraldo, who played 43 NRL games for the Knights between 2008 and 2011, appears on the verge of being offered his first head-coaching role.
There are now three vacancies after Nathan Brown (Warriors) and Michael Maguire (Wests Tigers) joined Trent Barrett (Canterbury) on the scrapheap.
"It [coaching] is one of the few positions that gets a performance review every Sunday night, and usually by people that aren't involved in the work that you do," O'Brien said.
"I get it, it's pressure, but this job, that's why it's special ... we sign up for this sort of stuff."
