YORK City Knights have filled their vacant half-back spot with the signing of Australian Brendan O'Hagan.

The 21-year-old has had three previous spells at NRL clubs, joining Newcastle Knights' high performance unit as a teenager before linking up with Canberra Raiders in 2019, the year in which they won the NRL Grand Final. Most recently, the half-back was with Wests Tigers for the 2020 season.

O'Hagan, who was previously linked with a move to Featherstone Rovers, has also represented the New South Wales’ State of Origin squads at Under-16s, 18s and 20s.

York had been searching for another half-back to partner Morgan Smith following the departures of Connor Robinson and Ben Johnston.

On O’Hagan’s acquisition, York head coach James Ford said: “I’m looking forward to working with Brendan, and I’m excited to see what he can bring to our group.

"His pedigree is first rate and from the footage I’ve seen I’m very confident he’ll be a key player in our team.

“He is clearly a running threat, works very hard off the ball, and has been around some elite coaches and environments, but I was mostly drawn to Brendan’s hunger to continue improving and his drive to be the best version of himself.”

O’Hagan said: “I’ve been speaking to John Bateman a fair bit, as we were teammates at Canberra Raiders, trying to get what it’s like over there and he had some great things to say about the place of York and the club as well so he helped me make the decision.

“I’m pumped to get over there, start ripping in and get ready to win a comp over there.

"I heard great things and obviously the new facilities we have at York are awesome.

“The club’s got a real professional feel and it looks like it’s going to be a good year.”

The deal is subject to clearance from the RFL.