The Newcastle Knights rediscovered their mojo against the Cronulla Sharks and must maintain it.
That's the opinion of winger James McManus, who says last Sunday's 30-0 win over the Sharks is the type of clinical performance his side must consistently replicate for the rest of the season.
“Yeah that’s the form we’ve been searching for since the start of the season," McManus said after training on Wednesday.
“Our ball control was good and we probably let it slip a little bit in the second half when a few opportunities started presenting themselves.
“But our penalties were down again, which was great to see.
“It just put us in a position to control the game really and to put that many points on in one half of footy was great.
“That’s the sort of standard that we need to continue.
"It’s the standard we set last year and we want to maintain it.”
When it comes to standards, centre Joey Leilua was at his barnstorming best against the Sharks with a hat-trick of tries.
McManus joked that Joey's eye sight might have been restricted on the day, given the amount of times he ran the football without passing to his winger.
"Yeah I don’t know, I think he might have had a patch over his eye that day," he grins.
"No, he is going great and whenever he wants to take the line on he produces results.
"I thought there were a couple of times he could have slipped me the ball.
"He is going great, maybe he was chasing down that fourth try to try and get in the records.
"We probably haven’t got too much ball in the first opening rounds.
"I think most of the opposition’s attacks and particularly kicks have been going down the other way.
"So we haven’t seen too much ball, me and BJ, so it was good to see us get a bit on the weekend."
While McManus is expecting a tough match against the Cowboys on Monday, he knows his team are more than capable of winning away from home.
"Obviously they’ve been narrow losses, so they are probably not that far off," he says.
"It’s a tough trip up there, particularly at this time of the year it will be nice and warm and they’ll be fired up for a big performance I’d imagine after three losses.
"We’ve just got to make sure that we keep those things, like good ball control and then you’ll put yourself in good stead for a win.
"So if we can maintain it, that would be great.”
