But while the club got plenty of things right last season, not even the brilliance of Kalyn Ponga and Mitchell Pearce, the importance of the Wests ownership takeover and outstanding crowd support could completely hide what went wrong.

Read more: The eight things that went right for the Knights in 2018

Defence, or more precisely the lack of it, was a major issue as was a crippling injury toll which highlighted the club’s problems with depth while the lack of a winning culture was a factor in a number of games where the Knights threw away handy leads and were run down.

So, in the second of a three part season review, here is the Top 8 negatives of 2018.

We will never know where the Knights would have finished had Mitchell Pearce not torn his pec against the Wests Tigers in round seven and missed the next nine matches but you can make a strong case that it would have been higher than 11th.

With the skipper on the field, Newcastle opened with four wins from there first seven games but won just two from nine without him during the crucial middle part of the season as the wheels fell off.

The team lost his leadership, direction and prodigious kicking game and by the time he returned in round 18 against the Parramatta Eels, the Knights were playing catch-up as far as the top eight was concerned.

That fact that Pearce picked up man of the match honours in seven of the 15 games he played highlights his considerable influence.

If defence and stopping tries is all about attitude, the Knights stunk in that department.

The team let in a staggering 100 tries last season. That is an average of more than four per game and the 607 points they conceded was the second worst in the premiership (only Manly were worse) and only marginally better than the 648 points they let in the previous year when they finished bottom of the ladder.

To put their century of tries conceded in perspective and illustrate just how much improvement is needed if the Knights are to compete with the competition heavyweights, eventual premiers Sydney Roosters let in just 57 tries.

Not everyone was to blame for the defensive lapses that marred their season. Backrower Aidan Guerra made 954 tackles for the season to finish fifth behind Roosters hooker Jake Friend [1255] for most tackles by a player.

While the loss of Pearce had the greatest impact, injuries to other key players did not help the Knights cause and has resulted in a recruitment re-think from the club’s heirachy.

Losing strike centre Tautau Moga for the season during the opening minutes against the St George Illawarra Dragons in round four in Wollongong with a fourth career ACL rupture was a huge blow.

So too the shoulder injury that restricted Jacob Saifiti to just eight appearances off the bench.

Significantly, Connor Watson only featured in 15 games, the same number as Pearce and he, Pearce and Kalyn Ponga played just 176 minutes on the field together for the season.

Read more: The horror injury statistic that cruelled the Knights in 2018

During the final third of the season, the side lost outstanding hooker Slade Griffin with his fourth ACL, Ponga missed four of the last eight while Nathan Ross finally succumbed to groin and pelvic problems.

The Knights might have boasted the second highest home ground attendances in the competition but that didn’t translate into any sort of advantage for the team.

There was a time when rival sides hated coming to Newcastle to play. Not anymore.

The Knights managed just four wins from their 12 matches at home and were on the end of a few hidings including a 48-10 thumping from the Sharks in round 12 and a 36-18 defeat by Souths in round 9.

Read more: Sio’s blunder was costly in the Knights’ fall to Souths

But arguably their poorest performance at McDonald Jones Stadium was their 36-16 loss to the Bulldogs in round 16 when they conceded 24 unanswered points in the second half following the loss of Kalyn Ponga and Slade Griffin through injury.

The Knights will be looking to reap the benefits of having such a healthy salary cap position down the track but going into last season massively under the cap was always going to bite with the loss of key players for any length of time.

And that’s how it transpired.

Halfback Jack Cogger had his moments but at this stage of his development, it was a big ask to think he was going to adequately fill the Pearce void while Brock Lamb was a real disappointment as he struggled to mentally overcome the signing of a new halves partnership following his promising end to the 2017 season.  

But it wasn’t just in the halves that the lack of quality depth proved to be an issue with coach Nathan Brown forced to use 29 players including 20-year-old debutants Pasami Saulo and Tom Starling over the final rounds.

The brilliance of Pearce and Ponga with the footy may have made the Knights a bigger attacking threat on paper last season but the statistics don’t back that up.

Toohey’s take: Should Knights star Kalyn Ponga make the Kangaroos Test squad at the end of the season

In fact, the 414 points they scored at an average of 17.2 points per game was bettered in 2017 [428 points at 17.8 per game] despite an inferior roster and a last-placed finish.

The Knights’ attacking stats left them second last in points scored in front of the Wests Tigers with leading points scorer Ken Sio [98] not even cracking the 100 point barrier.

Read more: The case to pair Mitchell Pearce and Kalyn Ponga 

In contrast, Latrell Mitchell scored 248 points for the Roosters.

The Knights weren’t the most penalised team, nor the most error-prone but their defensive frailties meant they were severely punished whenever their discipline lapsed.

Prop Daniel Saifiti’s dropped ball clanger off the kick-off when his side was in a winning position late in the second half against the Gold Coast Titans in round 11 was a case in point, as was winger Ken Sio’s brain-snap in dropping the ball over the line as he tried to improve his position at a crucial stage during the round 9 loss to South Sydney.

Sio also had his problems kicking off, putting two out on the full in the opening half during the round 21 loss to Wests Tigers and struggling for much of the season to even find the opposition try-line with his restarts.

For the record, Mitch Barnett and Guerra were the Knights most penalised players, both giving away 17 penalties each. 

When you have lost as many games as the Knights have over the past few seasons, it’s no surprise there were still signs of a losing mentality within certain sections of the playing group.