Newcastle Knights will face unbeaten rivals Penrith and Canberra at Campbelltown Stadium during the opening two rounds of the rebooted competition with the NRL set to release the full, revised season draw on Thursday.
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As expected, the Knights have been allocated Central Coast Stadium in Gosford as their "home ground" along with the Warriors and Manly Sea Eagles over the next seven rounds with venues for all games from round 10 yet to be locked in.
The Dragons, Tigers, Panthers and Raiders have been allocated Campbelltown as their home base over that period with the Eels, Bulldogs, Rabbitohs, Sharks and Roosters to play home games out of Bankwest Stadium.
The Cowboys will play out of Townsville while the Broncos and Titans will share Suncorp Stadium.
Despite last season's capitulation to the Wests Tigers, Campbelltown Stadium should hold no fears for the Knights as they bid to keep their own unbeaten start to the season intact when they clash with the Panthers on Sunday week.
The Knights' record at the south western Sydney stadium stands at nine wins and 10 defeats from 19 games, which is better on paper than their record in Gosford [six wins from 15 games].
Meanwhile, Knights lock Herman Ese'ese says he is fully recovered from an ankle injury he suffered in the round two win over Wests Tigers and is not in any doubt for the Panthers game.
"I was probably not as fit as I would have liked to come back [from the isolation period]," he said. "I couldn't really do much running [initially] but I'm good to go."
Asked about starting at lock against the Panthers after holding down the spot for the opening two rounds, Ese'ese said: "That's the goal but at the end of the day, all I can do is just train hard and see if Ads [coach Adam O'Brien] picks me or not."
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