Kade Snowden looks forward to playing with added strength this weekend against Wests Tigers after experiencing significant improvement to a niggling knee injury that’s caused the 27-year-old pain for a number of rounds.
“It’s a million times better than what it was a month ago, so I’m really happy with it,” he said after training on Thursday.
“There’s not much pain there anymore.
“In training I run harder and in tackling, it helps a lot.
“A month ago I was pretty much trying to grab blokes and just bring them to the ground.
“Now I can use my knee.
“I’m really happy with it and hopefully it keeps going that way,” he added.
He explained that although the lining in his knee has started to repair itself, he’ll have to wait until the end of the year for an operation, but insists he’s happy with where it is now.
The dominating prop believes Sunday’s game at Hunter Stadium against Wests Tigers is a big one and should be the start of the Knights’ run home.
“We need to get a win so we can celebrate," he said.
Snowden doesn’t discount the team’s application and effort but says it must maintain high intensity for the full 80 minutes in order to overpower the Tigers.
“We need to just start the way we have been, that’s probably been the best part of our game.
“We need to do that for 80 minutes and I think just finishing off our sets and competing.
“We have a simple game plan, we just need to stick to that,” he added.
Snowden said the Knights forward pack and backline will give the team the strength necessary to win.
Snowden urged fans to stick with the Knights and have faith that each week, they are there to do a job.
“We owe it to the crowd every home game to come home with a win, and that hasn’t been happening.
“I think the fans always have the faith,” he said with confidence.
“The fans just need to keep on sticking with us, we’ll start our run home.
“This week it needs to start, especially for the miners.
“Anything for the miners. They probably have the hardest jobs in Newcastle.
“If we want to make the top 8 we have to start this week.”