Adam O'Brien has settled on his squad of 17 for the premiership-opener against the Warriors but the Knights coach may still have some fine-tuning to do in the wake of his side's trial demolition of a severely depleted Sydney Roosters.
While they were up against an opposition devoid of any stars with Roosters coach Trent Robinson resting his entire World Club Challenge squad, there was still a lot to like about the ruthless way the Knights powered to a 58-0 whitewash in Gosford on Saturday night.
They crossed for 10 tries in all, with seven coming in a helter-skelter second half as the Knights scored at a point a minute to run the young Roosters off their feet.
In a sign of how well the spoils were shared around, the Knights had nine different try-scorers, with backrower Mitch Barnett the only player to nab a double. The seven second-half tries were scored without linchpins Mitchell Pearce or Kalyn Ponga on the field, after they were rested at half-time.
In the absence of the injured Sione Mata'utia, Barnett was shifted from lock to start on the right edge and is almost certain to find himself there again for the Warriors clash in a fortnight.
O'Brien confirmed Kurt Mann will partner Mitchell Pearce in the halves for the premiership-opener but there is still some conjecture over who will start at lock. Tim Glasby was a regular in the position last season but has come off the bench in both the side's trials under O'Brien.
Herman Ese'ese now looms as the leading contender after starting there against the Roosters and doing his chances no harm with a strong game that included some ball playing worthy of Pearce to put Lachlan Fitzgibbon over for a second-half try.
But what may go against him is he missed the Dragons trial because of a foot sprain that kept him off the training paddock for a couple of weeks, and there are those who believe his explosive ball-running ability may be better utilised in an impact role off the bench.
Unless O'Brien springs a major surprise, Connor Watson, Jacob Saifiti and Aidan Guerra will all find themselves on the bench, with Watson outstanding against his old club in a combined lock/hooker role.
The form of new hooker recruit Jayden Brailey and the ease with which he has slotted into the side at dummy-half is a huge positive for O'Brien, as are the contributions coming from the likes of centres Gehamat Shibasaki and Enari Tuala and winger Hymel Hunt.
Shibasaki scored an outstanding try and laid on another for Hunt and has already shown he is a great pick-up by the club.
The lop-sided scoreline does belie the early efforts of the young Roosters, who kept the Knights scoreless in the opening 24 minutes and there were some worrying signs early with Newcastle's edge defence opening up on three or four occasions.
The Roosters weren't good enough to take advantage. It might be a different story against the Warriors.
