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Improve discipline and the team will prosper.

That's the blunt message from prop Willie Mason heading into Sunday's crucial clash against Crounlla at Hunter Stadium.  

On the back of three consecutive losses to start the season, Mason admits the team has let themselves down with too many penalties.

This was evident against Melbourne last Monday with the side conceding 15 penalties, a facet of their game that must improve to beat the Sharks.    

"Zero and three is awful to start the season, but we’ve got to go and kick-start it on Sunday," Mason says.

"They (Cronulla) are in the same situation, so they’ll be coming up here to steal two points.

"We just can’t give away 15 penalties.

"I think we are the most undisciplined side in the comp.

"So we’ve got to fix that and everything else is starting to come together, I can feel it.

"But as a football team we just need to stop giving away penalties, especially against sides like Melbourne.

"So we need to start dealing with our problems on the field and just start winning some games and this will be a happier place." 

Skipper Kurt Gidley agrees with Mason, saying the Knights are more than capable of beating the Sharks if they can improve a few basics in their game. 

"It’s not the ideal start for either team and certainly us," Gidley says.

"But we’ve just got to move on and there is nothing else for us to do. 

"We can’t be walking around kicking stones and we’ve got to work on things that we need to improve on and that needs to come this week.

"The past couple of weeks we’ve shown in different parts of the game that we’ve been a chance to win those games, but our discipline and certainly defensively we’ve let ourselves down.

"We’ve got to move onto this week and improve on the things we need to improve."

Meanwhile, injured fullback Darius Boyd trained strongly on Thursday morning and is edging closer to a return.

| CLICK HERE to watch CEO Matt Gidley and Club Ambassador Danny Buderus on The Footy Show |

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