The Newcastle Knights are well prepared for Saturday’s match against the Wests Tigers according to forward Jack Stockwell.
The week has been all about bouncing back from Sunday’s result against the Cronulla Sharks, and that’s exactly what players have done across game reviews and training sessions in the lead up to this weekend’s game.
“The headspace is good and we’ve had a good week at training and haven’t thought too much about what happened on the weekend and have put it in the past, so it’s been a good week,” he said following Friday’s Captain’s Run training session at Knights HQ.
“It was a tough loss and you can’t dwell on it too much.
“It’s rugby league and what’s good about rugby league is that there is always a next week and that’s what we have focused on this week."
This week, focus has fallen on ensuring each player knows their role within the team.
“They (Tigers) have a couple of players out, but we have been trying to play some consistent football and concentrate on ourselves more so than the opposition,” he said.
“Once we get our team playing correctly, we might string a few wins together.”
Stockwell predicts a physical match through the middle with a number of the Tigers’ key players out to test the Knights.
“It will still be a tough contest there through the middle," he said.
“We are going to concentrate on the big boys through the middle to meet them here.”
Meanwhile the presence of Aaron Woods in the forward pack will be felt during the game.
“He is a State of Origin front rower and he’s the benchmark,” he said.
“To come up against him it will be good to test where our game is at.”
The Knights travelled to Sydney on Friday afternoon with an extended squad. The final team will be confirmed on Saturday.
