BRADMAN Best plans to use the roller-coaster ride he endured in 2019 as his launchpad to a long-term NRL career.
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Best emerged as a beacon of hope for Knights fans amid the gloom of their team's implosion in the second half of last season.
The 18-year-old centre's initiation into the top grade was nothing if not eventful.
He made his NRL debut against Wests Tigers at Campbelltown in round 23, and in a game Newcastle had to win to have any hope of reaching the finals, they were hammered 46-4. Barely 48 hours later, the man who handed Best his debut, coach Nathan Brown, had parted company with the club.
Newcastle bounced back to beat Gold Coast 38-4, and Best scored his first NRL try, but they then suffered a 54-10 shellacking from Penrith in the last round.
It was enough to leave Newcastle's veterans with spinning heads, but the team's youngest player believes the experience will stand him in good stead.
"The three games, two of them we got touched up and got flogged, but I can take a lot out of that," he said.
"It was a good learning curve. The experience was unreal.
"But next year is a new year and it can only get better. Onward and upward."
This will be Best's first full pre-season with Newcastle's top squad, and he has a different attitude to when he started training with them last January, after returning from the 2018 Australian Schoolboys tour.
"The mindset has changed for me a bit," he said.
"Last year at training I was just doing my thing. I wasn't pushing for any spots, I was sort of just hanging back.
"This year I've got a bit more confidence.
"The boys are pushing me to compete hard at everything. So yeah, the mindset has changed, and I will be doing everything I can to grab that jersey in round one."
Best said the first few weeks of training under Adam O'Brien - the third coach of his brief NRL career - had been "tough but good", and he is embracing the challenge of preparing himself physically for a full NRL campaign.
Last season he was frustrated by knee, hamstring, groin and ankle injuries and spent more time on the sidelines than he did on the field.
"I've set a few little goals, like get my body right, eat right, nutrition, body composition, speed," he said.
At 103 kilograms and 1.82 metres, the Woy Woy junior is powerfully built but is hoping to add more muscle to his frame.
"Weight wise I could probably put a bit more size on but also maintain my speed, and hopefully that will show when we start playing," he said.
Best is rated so highly by the Knights they have contracted him for the next four seasons, and his potential has been recognised by NSW Origin coach Brad Fittler, who said in August: "From what I've seen, he's one of those kids who could go all the way."
Best is looking no further ahead than his next training session.
"You want to cement that spot and play consistent footy," he said.
"The goal is to play week in, week out first grade, but if not, that's when you go back to play wherever you have to play and do your best there."