Fleming said the player placement program introduced this year, in which Knights stars such as Cory Paterson (Lakes), Cooper Vuna (Cessnock), Dan Tolar (Central) and George Ndaira (Kurri) played for Newcastle clubs when not required in first grade, raised the profile and standard of the domestic competition.

Surplus senior Knights will play for the Crusaders next year so Newcastle teams will be restricted to lower-profile players from the club's second tier and under 20s.

"Our relationship with the Knights has been really good the last five or six years or so, and I suppose if the decision that they've made is right for them, we'll support it," Fleming said. "Disappointing is the word that comes to mind for me, because it really lifted the profile of our competition this year, and all the crowd levels were up.

"I would imagine the majority of the players coming back would be NYC players. If it's still in place in some way, that's good, but to the level it was this year, it worked really well so it's a bit disappointing that it won't be like that again."

Fleming said the Newcastle Rugby League did not feel abandoned by the Knights.

Knights chief executive Steve Burraston said the club would continue to support the Newcastle Rugby League through the player placement program and the increased education of coaches, trainers and administrators.

"We intend that it doesn't change in a whole lot of ways, except there won't be as many players available to go back. We intend to step that up and not pull away from it at all," Burraston said.

"We'll keep the ambassador program running, in which our more senior players who don't drop back to play in the local comp will still have an affinity with their club and be available to attend promotions and training and education."