Newcastle captain Mitchell Pearce holds no fears his side's momentum could be disrupted by a potential mental letdown off the back of a pressure-easing three straight wins as the Knights prepare for Sunday's showdown against nemesis St George Illawarra in Mudgee.
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With their season seemingly back on track after ending a challenging run of five consecutive defeats, the Knights come face to face with an opposition who has dominated them over the past two decades.
Remarkably, the joint venture Dragons have won 21 of 27 matches between the two clubs since 1999, including a 13-12 golden point thriller in Newcastle in round four early last month.
Pearce is the first to admit the tide can turn at any moment and "the dark side is always tapping on your shoulder" but he's confident out of their early season adversity, his side has discovered its identity and a winning formula and is ready to topple an "elite" team in the Dragons.
"I feel like we are in a good place as a team and we've worked really hard to create winning feelings and we've found a good formula and a bit of an identity as a team," he said. "The coach is impressed with how we've been going and the style of footy we've been playing and we have to keep delivering that.
"We've got full confidence we can but every week is a new game and if we don't bring the same attitude again, work as hard as we have been at training and on the field, we'll come up short so we have to recreate it again this week."
Pearce is adamant the Dragons game could define their season heading into matches against Sydney Roosters, South Sydney and Melbourne.
"In my opinion, it could have a huge bearing on our season," he said.
"It's nice to win three in a row but I've been around long enough to know it's going to get a whole lot harder.
"It's been tough the last three weeks to get these results. We've had to to be in our very best head-space to turn it around but the tide can turn real quick.
"We have to keep building. We have to build on our defensive game and be more ruthless with the ball in attack because there were some loose periods on the weekend [in the win over the Bulldogs]."
There is little doubt Pearce has been an influential figure in the Knights revival, picking up three Dally M points in each of their last three games.
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It's a far cry from the criticism leveled at him earlier in the season when the side was struggling.
"I feel like I have got back to playing my best footy by just trying to compete and as captain, it's my responsibility to set the example with a lot of the one percenters," he said.
"Whenever you get criticism, something I was always taught is to grit your teeth and keep fighting and as a team here, we have a bunch of guys who I feel are pretty resilient characters including our coach [Nathan Brown].
"Our coach is a calm, resilient guy. We lost five in a row and there was a real calm energy around and if you keep that sort of composure when the chips are down, we've proven you can turn it around with some positive results."