The rookie coach has quickly developed a side that's setting benchmarks in both attack and defence not delivered by a Knights team for many years. After the leanest of lean runs, he has rolled out a team full of grit and resolve, qualities missing when it mattered most in 2019.

If the jury is still out with some pundits about the team's longer term prospects this season, there is at the very least a high level of respect for the way this side has been going about it's business to date.

But O'Brien's biggest test as a coach is still ahead and it won't be as much about tactics and game plans as it will be about player management and welfare.

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This COVID-19-interrupted season has already thrown up enough curve balls for coaches and players without now having to deal with the prospect of playing 18 straight rounds without a break for Origin or a bye thrown in leading straight into the play-offs.

Even for the most experienced of coaches, there is an art to firstly getting your side into the play-offs with the consistency required to make that happen. But what's just as important is getting them there in physically good shape on the back of some momentum so they are peaking at just the right time.

O'Brien already acknowledges that managing his squad over the course of the season and resting players when needed without disrupting rhythm and momentum will be one of his biggest coaching challenges.

For instance, at what stage of the season does he look to give players like Mitchell Pearce or David Klemmer a rest? Can he afford to? Can he not? Can he realistically expect hooker Andrew McCullough, a veteran of 260 odd NRL games, to play 80 minutes every week for the remainder of the year?

"Those coaches that manage those scenarios the best will give themselves a huge advantage," he says.

"It could mean the difference between making the play-offs or just missing out or if you get there, determining how competitive you are going to be when it matters."

Complicating it even further this season is the loss of the tier underneath the NRL that has left all the fringe players in squads training fulltime but not getting the reward of a game on the weekend.

While O'Brien believes you can map out a bit of a strategy around how things might pan out, most of it will be reactionary.

"You've got to have a bit of a plan there but a lot of it will be playing it by ear," he says.

"I just need to be mindful of looking for signs where I need to give guys a rest. At the same time though, I'm not going to get too clever. I haven't been doing it long enough to be playing silly buggers.

"You don't want to break any connection that you are building because you've given guys some time off.

"There is a lot that goes into it. I think it will just be about me understanding the players and who they are and what they are capable of and when they need a break and when it's good for the team and when it's not. Hopefully, I don't stuff it up."

O'Brien believes a bit of a rotation system is going to be inevitable at some point.

He has already dabbled in it with his centre combinations. With Bradman Best injured and Tautau Moga returing to full fitness, he started the season with Gehamat Shibasaki and Enari Tuala as his pairing for the opening two games before the shutdown.

When the competition resumed, he went with Best and Tuala for three games before swapping Tuala for Shibasaki against the Broncos last week after looking at Tuala's physically-taxing GPS stats.

The return of Lachlan Fitzgibbon from injury last week and Mitch Barnett's impending return following the Cowboys clash on Saturday with ease some of the work load on the forward pack from the opening month of footy.

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