Clydsdale and his brother Luke, who is captain-coach of the Maitland reserves in 2018, are grandsons of Pickers legend Don “Bandy” Adams.

Adams, a premiership wingman, played 191 games for Maitland and was picked from Maitland to play for Australia in 1956.

A veteran of 57 NRL games with the Knights and Raiders, Clydsdale signed with Maitland after meeting with club officials on Wednesday.

Maitland president Frank Lawler said it was exciting news for the club and supporters to welcome Clydsdale aboard to join coach Luke Dorn and Dane Tilse to lead a quality squad of local players.

“Adam will be a great asset for the club both on and off the field,” he said.

Clydsdale played most of his career as a hooker, but he went to the Newcastle Knights as a halfback.

He walked away from a new one year deal at the Raiders a fortnight ago citing burn-out and declaring he wanted to start a new phase of his life.

Lawler said having NRL and Super League experienced players in Dorn, Tilse and now Clydsdale would hopefully assist in signing a few remaining recruiting targets for 2018.

“We have been fairly active in talking to people, but I think having three players of Luke, Dane and Adam’s calibre on board gives potential recruits a real indication that we want to be a top-four side and push for a premiership,” he said.

“We have been able to re-sign the core of a very exciting young squad and I think that extra experience that Adam brings will help with the development of the team as Luke and Dane have already done.

“The bulk of our team are Maitland juniors and we were looking to bring in three or four experienced players to provide the on and off-field leadership to take us into the semi-finals and challenge for the title.

“We’ve been really fortunate that Luke is a Maitland junior and has a real passion to take the club back to the top. Adam and Dane are both from Scone, but country Hunter boys at heart and Adam of course is the grandson of one of the club’s legends in Bandy Adams.”