The last game of the year against the Cronulla Sharks is on home turf this weekend, and the Club will celebrate Old Boys Day as well as farewell departing players.
“Some of us won’t play together again and we owe it to our fans and our Club and ourselves to finish on a really good note,” explained Mitch Barnett on Monday.
“The Sharks are probably one of the hot favourites to go a long way in the semi-finals, if not all the way, so we need to put up a good performance against them.
“Last time they beat us by one point so if we can deliver a little bit better this time and get a win, it will be good going into next year for ourselves and it will be good for the Old Boys to celebrate a great day.”
The 23-year-old said he loves the challenge of coming up against any top side.
“I look forward to every week but it is always good to come up against sides like the Cronulla Sharks who are one of the best teams in the comp,” Barnett explained.
“I like challenging myself against them to see where I’m at and I know all the boys are looking forward to the contest and it will be a good one.”
Barnett admits the Club is looking forward to some handy recruits next year.
“Those blokes who are staying at the Club can continue to learn, develop and work hard,” he maintained.
“We can’t just rely on getting some good players, we need to work really hard and continue to develop and want to get better.
“If we can do that, we will improve next year and the Club will continue to move forward.”
Barnett was again the team's top tackler against the Canberra Raiders last Friday, as he registered an impressive 34 tackles, two offloads and his fourth try for the season.
The Knights forward admits it was a disappointing result in the nation’s capital.
“They had mountains of possession there against us and unfortunately we didn’t get the result," Barnett said.
“They started really fast even though I thought, after that first couple of sets, we had good defence.
“We didn’t have good discipline coming out of yardage and we gave them a couple of penalties which they were able to capitalise on.”
NYC and NRL are in action at McDonald Jones Stadium this Sunday for their final home game. Under 20s kick-off at 11.45am before NRL at 2pm.
