Hoy will deputise for the suspended Kalyn Ponga at Campbelltown Stadium and while the Panthers won't have halfback Nathan Cleary on deck to be firing towering torpedo bombs in his direction, there is little doubt Hoy will have a target on his back.

But Pearce is confident the 20-year-old son of former World Championship surfer Matt Hoy, will handle the big occasion.

"We all saw Tex play in the Nines and how dominant he was over there and the talented player he is and he's got his opportunity with Kalyn being out," he said.

"I wasn't surprised [with his Nines performance] because I was seeing what he'd been doing at training all pre-season. He's got great speed, footwork and vision and I'm sure he'll take it [his chance] with both hands.

"He's a very natural footy player Tex who's earned his debut and he is super-pumped."

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Asked about the pressure of filling the huge void left by Ponga's absence, Pearce said: "I think Tex will really back himself.

"He's had a really good pre-season and from our point of view, there is no pressure on Tex. He'll do a good job for us and I'm sure it will be the first game of many.

"I've got full confidence in him that he is going to have a really good career and a long career."

The Knights go into their premiership re-boot with not only Ponga missing but also key forwards, hooker Jayden Brailey and backrower Mitch Barnett.

Brailey won't be back this season while Barnett is still a number of weeks away from a return after neck surgery in late March.

Alongside Hoy, rookie hooker Chris Randall gets his debut off the bench with Brailey out and Pearce believes his selection has been earned through sheer hard work.

"He's probably one of the fittest players in the club, he's a local junior and he's fought to get his spot," he said. "He's worked his backside off to get into the fulltime squad firstly and then to push himself into a debut.

"As a club, we are really proud of the both of them and as a senior player, you want to do everything you can to get them a win for that first game."

The Knights skipper is confident his squad has the depth to adequately cover the loss of Barnett.

"Any leader of your forward pack that's not there is definitely a loss," he said. "But we've got a really good forward pack there. The side that we've got running out this weekend, being a halfback playing behind them, I couldn't ask for better - we've got a great pack."

Pearce acknowledges the Panthers will miss Cleary, who is out suspended after breaking social isolation rules and falling foul of the NRL.

But he claims it would be dangerous to underestimate young halves Matt Burton and Jarome Luai despite their lack of experience.

"Nathan's obviously a big loss for them," he said. "I thought his start to the year, he was close to probably the best halfback in the comp, he was really dominant.

"Any team who loses an experienced half and a game-manager type player is obviously a loss but their two halves filling in are obviously talented players and they will be players for us to watch this weekend."

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