With round 22 and North Queensland now behind them, the nib Newcastle Knights have firmly set their sights on the Wests Tigers.
The scenario remains the same for the Knights, with a win required to keep their finals hopes alive.
It’s a fact not lost on star prop David Klemmer, who claims the Knights are right in the hunt for a spot in the top eight.
“The win on the weekend helped us a bit and some results went our way,” Klemmer said.
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“We’re in the race still and there’s some belief in our squad that we can still make it.”
The Knights go into the clash with the Tigers off the back of their first win in six weeks, which also doubles as their biggest win of the 2019 campaign.
Klemmer said he was pleased with the result, pinpointing his fullback and No.7 as the masterminds behind the result.
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“It was pretty pleasing to see some smiles for once in the sheds, I thought the boys did a terrific job,” he said.
“Kalyn (Ponga) and Pearcy (Mitch Pearce) really stood up and took control of the game.
“We’ve got those key players in key positions and they showed what they’re about.”
Reflecting on his own performance, Klemmer said he was content with the platform he laid for his star-studded backline.
“I went alright, it was more the other blokes scoring all the tries, they did all the work,” he said.
“I try to do my best week in week out and put those blokes in position.”
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With a charge to the finals firmly back on, the Origin front rower insisted he and the team are not getting carried away.
“For me personally I’m just looking at week in, week out,” he said.
“Obviously we want to be there (in the finals) but I think we’ve got to take it week by week.
“Results have to go our way as well, so for us to keep marching forward we have to focus on the week to come.”
With the Tigers hitting a rough patch in recent weeks, Klemmer said the team will not be making the mistake of taking them to lightly.
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“They’re a classy outfit, they’ve got some strike in their footy side,” he said.
“We’ve got to play similar to how we did on the weekend, if we can have the same enthusiasm and hold the footy, we can score some points.
“If we do those sort of things, it makes the games easier and we can score tries as well.”
