Before a ball was kicked in the 2021 NRL season, Knights officials announced they had extended coach Adam O'Brien's contract for a further two seasons.

At the time, it was either a vote of confidence or a strange call, depending on your point of view.

O'Brien was only one season into a three-year deal, so to extend that for an extra two years was an enormous show of faith.

Most agreed O'Brien acquitted himself admirably in his debut campaign as an NRL head coach, ending Newcastle's seven lost years in the play-off wilderness.

But there was also a sense of anti-climax after O'Brien's troops ended the season with a 36-6 shocker against Gold Coast - which cost them home-ground advantage in the finals - and then bowed out after a 46-20 thrashing by South Sydney, having led 14-0.

There's no doubt 2020 was a breakthrough season for the Knights, but by the same token they finished with a whimper, rather than bang.

On the strength of that, and possibly spooked by rumours that Melbourne Storm were considering O'Brien as a potential replacement when his former mentor Craig Bellamy decided to retire, the Knights moved to lock "Adzy" in for the long haul.

Eleven rounds into the season, were they second-guessing themselves?

At that point, the Knights were four and seven and, other than a 24-16 win against Canberra in round nine, had scarcely put together a solid performance all year. Their season had reached a tipping point.

With key players like Mitchell Pearce, Kalyn Ponga, Tyson Frizell, Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Edrick Lee unavailable through injuries, there were genuine fears that Newcastle were in a downward spiral and would finish with the also-rans, making up the numbers.

Adding to the concern were several post-match press conferences at which a clearly frustrated O'Brien delivered some home truths and held his players to account.

Were the coach and players on the same page?

Was he starting to lose the dressing room?

Would this all unravel and leave the powers-that-be facing the unenviable situation, like the Brisbane Broncos last year, of having to terminate a coach prematurely and pay out his contract?

With the benefit of hindsight, Newcastle's 18-10 win against Manly in round 12 - minus Pearce and Ponga - was the catalyst for a revival.

In clawing back from an early 10-0 deficit to beat one of the NRL's form teams, the Knights unearthed a glimmer of hope.

Since then they have won seven of 11 - including their past five in a row - to secure seventh rung on the competition ladder, with a game up their sleeve.

In doing so, they have become the first Newcastle team to qualify for back-to-back finals series since 2002-03, at the end of the golden era that delivered the premierships of 1997 and 2001.

So for the first time in almost two decades, the Knights have put two "winning" seasons together.

O'Brien has now achieved a feat that was beyond the likes of Wayne Bennett, Mal Reilly, Brian Smith, Rick Stone, Allan McMahon, David Waite and Nathan Brown, in steering Newcastle into the finals in his first two years at the helm.

If the Knights beat Brisbane in next week's last round, they will have won 13 games in a regular season for the first time since 2009.

On that basis alone, the decision by head office to extend his tenure would appear vindicated.

The challenge for O'Brien and his men now is to give a good account of themselves in this year's finals, and then use that as a springboard towards even greater success next year.

Logic suggests that teams who consistently appear in the play-offs are more likely to win premierships than those who fluctuate from year to year.

It took Bellamy five years to win a grand final with Melbourne.

So too Bennett with Brisbane and Des Hasler with Manly.

And that's the other reason to believe the best is yet to come from O'Brien.

Despite serving an ideal apprenticeship as an assistant coach at premiership-winning Melbourne and Roosters teams, this is his first stint in the hot seat.

He's been learning on the run, dealing with the multiple issues caused by an unprecedented pandemic, as well as the week-to-week business of trying to win games.

As the late, great supercoach Jack Gibson used to say: "Experience is a tough teacher. It gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

The experience O'Brien has gained over the past two years has surely been invaluable.

In most professions, the longer you do something, the more proficient and confident you become.

I'm sure if you asked Bennett or Bellamy, they would say they are better coaches now than at the start of their careers.

Coaches who survive as long as Bennett and Bellamy - in any sporting code - are few and far between and worth their weight in gold.

Have the Knights found one in Adam O'Brien?

Results thus far would suggest the most important judges - Newcastle's players - have no doubt that he's the right man for the job.