ASK any Newcastle player about the side's chances this season, and you're likely to get a pretty coy response.
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After a winless inaugural campaign, it's perhaps no surprise that expectations are being kept in check.
But there have been glimpses of what their true aspirations are this season.
"Win a premiership," prop Caitlan Johnston said at the side's season launch.
"That's what we want do," teenage debutante and Commonwealth Games rugby sevens gold medallist Jesse Southwell added last week.
Of all six NRLW clubs, the Knights went on the largest recruitment drive this season - bringing in 16 new players.
The club wasted no time in trying to land some big-name signings after failing to win a game last season.
There was also a sense of frustration after missing out on some of the game's stars first time round due to the old contracting system.
The club showed its hand when it unveiled the shock signings of premiership-winning Brisbane duo Millie Boyle and Tamika Upton in May, less than a month after the last season had finished.
A host of other signatures would follow, including homegrown trio Hannah Southwell, Olivia Higgins and Yasmin Clydsdale, who were fresh off winning a title with the Sydney Roosters.
The Knights also managed to keep most of their best players from last season, including the likes of Romy Teitzel and Kirra Dibb.
But with only about a month of training, if the Knights can go from wooden-spooners to competition front-runners this season it will be a remarkable effort.
Beyond the task of gelling as a new team, they start with a 17-year-old debutante halfback in Jesse Southwell.
There are huge wraps on the Cameron Park product, including from no less than Knights legend Joey Johns, who rated her earlier this year as a superstar in waiting.
Southwell has proved she can handle playing at senior level in rugby sevens, but knows she will be challenged in the NRLW. Opposition sides will target her given her age and key role in the team.
"Playing NRLW is so different to playing [rugby sevens] overseas," she said. "You can take some things [across], but some things it's a whole other prospect."
The bookies expect the Knights to improve, ranking them fourth most likely ($5.50) to win the competition. But they're not far off joint-favourites the Dragons and Roosters ($3.50).
Along with the boost of key recruits, the Knights also have Caitlan Johnston back in their side. A club-captain last season, the 21-year-old prop suffered an elbow injury in the first game - a one-point loss to the Eels at home - and did not play again.
But after a lengthy recovery, the Belmont product returned to play in the state competition before a rampaging performance for NSW in State of Origin. She and Boyle look the league's most formidable front-row duo.
Boyle, a co-captain alongside Hannah Southwell, feels the Knights could be building something special but, like her teammates all preseason, cooled any hype ahead of the season opener.
"We're looking to win our first game and then build from there," she said.
"Each week will be a new focus ... it will be to improve on our last performance.
"But we haven't played together as a team yet, we haven't had any trials yet - it will just be about building from this game."
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