The NYC Newcastle Knights’ 34-8 victory against the Penrith Panthers was the perfect start to the Club’s three game fixture at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.
According to coach Troy Pezet, the young Knights’ courageous team effort was the most positive aspect.
“I think that’s probably the most pleasing part that they hung in together and played as a team,” he told Knights TV in the sheds after the game.
“We had some really nice tries today and stuff they’d been working on for a while."
Pezet observed an improvement in the Knights’ conviction and cohesion in what was the side’s fourth game of the year.
“Today they seemed to have a bit more confidence in each other,” he said.
“There’s been a bit of continuity in positions and a few combinations, so that worked really well.
“When we built pressure and we scored a few points, we were able to hang on there and it was nice to put them to bed pretty early and to enjoy the win."
As the team has progressed four rounds into the season, a number of combinations have begun to shine.
“I think our young halves did a really good job today. They seemed to get us to the points we needed to get to on the field to execute what we needed to do,” Pezet said.
“Danny Levi and Dylan Pythian were at hooker and fullback, they sort of put on some nice finishing touches off the back of what our halves created for us."
For the Knights’ captain Levi, he was proud of the team’s effort to establish a lead in the first half.
“I thought the boys started off really well,” Levi said.
“There’s a few patches there that we still need to work on.
“During the 80 minutes, I thought it was a really good effort for all the boys.
“We stuck in and even when it didn’t go our way, through those few patches, we pulled through and we got on with the job.
“The past few weeks we’ve only been going one out.
“We’ve been focusing on going into support and that worked for us really well and we got them on the back foot and we’ll be looking to improve on that again next week."
Levi scored twice within the span of 10 minutes in the second half after scooting from dummy half and twisting out of a tackle.
“It was more about my boys giving me a quick play the ball so I’ll give it to them for those couple of tries,” he said.
