Wayne Bennett is back in town and the Knights couldn't be happier.
In many ways, this joy is because Bennett's arrival coincides with the players touching a football for the first time after two weeks of torturous pre-season training.
As much as this is accurate, the players' are also genuinely pumped about the prospect of linking with the master coach again to continue the momentum built from last season's memorable charge to the finals.
Bennett conducted his first field session with the players at the University of Newcastle on Tuesday and forward Adam Cuthbertson believes there won't need to be too many changes to the plan that worked so well in 2013.
"Wayne will come in with some more fine-tuning tactics I suppose leading into next season, but youd only tweak it a little bit," Cuthbertson says.
"Youve seen how the whole plan came together at the end of last year.
"You know, it was always a structure that was going to work.
"It was just a matter of being consistent at it and sticking by the standards that we set.
"Im sure the intensity will rise again and again and again."
Five-eighth Jarrod Mullen is also happy to see Bennett back at training, especially after a few weeks of constant running without skill work.
"Weve had the first couple of weeks of just running with no football," Mullen says.
"Wayne has come back and weve touched a football for the first time and we played a few games.
"So the season is looking good."
Bennett, meanwhile, has confirmed the Club's World Cup players won't return to training until mid-January.
We wont see those guys at training until early January and Darius Boyd wont come back until the middle of January," Bennett says.
Weve got a pretty depleted squad at training at the moment, because so many players being away at the World Cup."
In many ways, this joy is because Bennett's arrival coincides with the players touching a football for the first time after two weeks of torturous pre-season training.
As much as this is accurate, the players' are also genuinely pumped about the prospect of linking with the master coach again to continue the momentum built from last season's memorable charge to the finals.
Bennett conducted his first field session with the players at the University of Newcastle on Tuesday and forward Adam Cuthbertson believes there won't need to be too many changes to the plan that worked so well in 2013.
"Wayne will come in with some more fine-tuning tactics I suppose leading into next season, but youd only tweak it a little bit," Cuthbertson says.
"Youve seen how the whole plan came together at the end of last year.
"You know, it was always a structure that was going to work.
"It was just a matter of being consistent at it and sticking by the standards that we set.
"Im sure the intensity will rise again and again and again."
Five-eighth Jarrod Mullen is also happy to see Bennett back at training, especially after a few weeks of constant running without skill work.
"Weve had the first couple of weeks of just running with no football," Mullen says.
"Wayne has come back and weve touched a football for the first time and we played a few games.
"So the season is looking good."
Bennett, meanwhile, has confirmed the Club's World Cup players won't return to training until mid-January.
We wont see those guys at training until early January and Darius Boyd wont come back until the middle of January," Bennett says.
Weve got a pretty depleted squad at training at the moment, because so many players being away at the World Cup."
