Going into the NSW Cup preliminary final on Sunday afternoon the Knights' halves partnership looked to be in disarray.
With hooker George Ndaira replacing an absent Carlos Tuimavave and Jaelen Feeney only just returning from a virus, the new pairing would have to gel quickly if they wanted to come away with the win.
80 minutes later the red and blues had booked themselves a place in the NSW Cup final and Feeney had a hat-trick of tries to his name.
The 20-year-old halfback was also named man of the match, but credited his forward pack for the accolade.
"The boys obviously helped me to get man of the match, and just being on the back of the big forwards we had sort of delivered two or three of my tries," Feeney explained.
"Just being on the back of a good team performance helped."
Feeney's first try came after a tidy offload from Sam Mataora 30 metres out while the second followed a scrum that was earned after plenty of hard metres up the middle by the Knights' forward pack.
And while the forwards certainly created the opportunities, Feeney still had plenty to do on his own by beating three or four defenders on both occassions to get over the line.
"Obviously I had a virus the week before, so I just tried to come out and do my best for the team," Feeney said.
"But you couldn't just give one man of the match because all of the boys played really well."
The team will have to play just as well next week if they want to give the Wyong Roos a run for their money in the grand final.
The Central Coast based club have plenty of first-grade experience with the likes of winger Brendan Elliot, who has scored nine tries from nine NRL apperances this season, and formidable prop Suaia Matagi, who has 43 NRL games to his name.
"It'll be a big physical battle as they've dropped a couple of their first-graders back, and they got a couple of players over from the Warriors mid-season," Feeney said.
"They're going to have a tough, physical pack but we've got one as well.
"If we meet them in the middle then our outside backs can do the job."
The NSW Cup Knights will train on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday before travelling to the game on Sunday.
Gates open at 11.20am with the NSW Cup grand final kicking off at 4.15pm following the Sydney Shield and Ron Massey Cup.
Adult tickets are just $10, with kids under 12 free. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets now.
Sid Fogg's is planning a NSW Cup grand final bus to Pirtek Stadium which will cost $40 return. A minimum of 25 people are required for the trip to go ahead. Call 49281088 to book or for more details.
