Their start to the season was not crash hot by any means, and it had many Newcastle fans frustrated at just how their season was going to turn out – but fast forward a month later, and the club have suddenly won 3 of their last 4 games, including an obliteration of premiers Manly.
Although Bennett downplayed his side’s finals chances after the game, the 32-6 win over Manly has many thinking if the Knights can continue this sort of form, heading into the back-end of the regular season.
“Three of the last four weeks we have played pretty fair football, it would be nice if it was four out of four but three out of four is pretty good,” Bennett said.
“They knew they had to aim up and they made sure of that with that wonderful spirit they do have.”
It was rookie Tyrone Roberts who led the way with a stellar performance – giving the Knights just their seventh win all season, and something for their fans to cheer about.
“When you challenge a football team you like to think the courage and character come out and tonight it did,” Buderus said.
“There’s been a lot of bad losses, so any win for us at the moment is a good win. At the end of the day (that spirit) comes from within.
“… We were disappointed with how we played last week (a 34-14 loss to South Sydney) and wanted to make up for it.”
From the word go, it was all Newcastle, as Manly had no answers defensively for the onslaught – with their usual crisp attack unable to penetrate some sturdy Knights defence.
“Our attack wasn’t too crash hot and our defence wasn’t either. It was disappointing. We knew we were in for it tonight. We knew they would be up for it,” Lyon said.