Joseph Tapine has finally been granted with a release from his Newcastle Knights contract.

This opens the door for Tapine to join the Canberra Raiders for the 2016 NRL season, a move which looked likely but was always going to be tricky to pull off given that it appears as thought the Knights and Tapine's team (manager etc) weren't exactly seeing eye to eye.
Knights coach Nathan Brown had apparently told Tapine that he would have to play out the 2016 season in NSW Cup after signing a big money deal with the Raiders.

That set the chaotic wheels in motion as legal teams got involved, even resulting in rumours of a possible deal between the Knights and Roosters that apparently involved Tapine playing the 2016 season with the Roosters.

Playing a season with the Roosters and then joining the Raiders in 2017 would have been dumb, hence that deal never happened.

Tapine was coming off-contract at the Knights and both the Knights and Raiders had tabled deals over $1million dollars for a few seasons.

Nothing Tapine did was wrong, he just signed a better deal with a team that wanted him more/were willing to pay more money for his services.

Tapine obviously did not want to spend the season in NSW Cup, hence he asked for a release.

Now that release has been granted we can look forward to seeing a talented kiwi big bopper in the lime green of Canberra.