But the curse of the Newcastle dummy halves won't stop Kurt Mann putting his hand up for the job against Melbourne Storm next weekend if his coach wants him to play there.

Mann, who has been outstanding in the five-eighth role this season, and rookie Chris Randall are the only real options left standing for Adam O'Brien after a horror afternoon at McDonald Jones Stadium yesterday.

The performance and the 18-12 scoreline to the Bulldogs in atrocious conditions was bad enough. But looking ahead, season-ending injuries to Andrew McCullough and Connor Watson could prove more fatal then the loss of the two competition points.

McCullough ripped his hamstring off the bone 24 minutes in and his replacement Watson lasted just six minutes before rupturing his Achilles tendon.

In the space of four months, O'Brien has lost his number one hooker Jayden Brailey and now McCullough and Watson, all for the season. The curse stretches back to 2017 with then new signing Rory Kostjasyn forced to retire without playing a game for Newcastle after a serious throat injury in a pre-season training accident.

His replacement the following year, Slade Griffith, was also forced to retire after failing to fully recover from a fourth knee reconstruction.

With backrower Sione Mata'utia also picking up a late leg injury against the Dogs, a shell-shocked O'Brien could be forced to go into the Storm clash with a quarter of his playing roster on the injured list.

As well as his three hookers, Tim Glasby won't be back, Edrick Lee is more than two months away from a return while Daniel Saifiti and Brodie Jones are also unavailable.

O'Brien said he will be looking at both Mann and Randall as potential 9's with youngsters Phoenix Crossland and Tex Hoy in contention for the five-eighth role depending on which way he goes.

Mann, who switched to dummy half when Watson went off and finished the game with 52 tackles without a miss and a try assist for Mata'utia, put his hand up for the job more permanently if it's in the best interests of the team.

"The number 9 jersey has got a bit of a curse on it but If I have to then yeah, definitely, I'll do whatever I need to for the team," he said.

"I'm happy to do that. I've spent a bit of time there before and got through 60 odd minutes today. I do feel comfortable there. It's not much different to playing in the halves except you defend in the middle. I've defended in the middle at times playing lock a fair bit so I'm happy if that's what's needed."

When told of his tackle count, he said: "I said to one of the boys the other day if I made over 40 tackles I has going to retire. I guess I'll probably be doing the same thing again."

Mann and lock Mitch Barnett could hold their heads up after the game along with prop David Klemmer, who played the full 80 minutes in tough conditions. There wasn't much else to like about it. While the Dogs played to the conditions, the Knights were wasteful with the footy with their final play options poor when they managed to get to an end of a set without a mistake.

Skipper Mitchell Pearce, like a host of teammates, was well below his best with the attack still spluttering along and the kicking game lacking any sort of imagination or purpose.

The fact the side recovered from 6-0 down at halftime and 18-0 midway through the second half to threaten to take the game into golden point late did not hide the deficiences evident in the opening 60 minutes.

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