THEY have already locked in a top-eight berth, as well as home-ground advantage in week one of the finals. Now the Newcastle Knights reckon they're in with a shot at winning the whole damn thing.
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"That's the belief we've got here," feisty Knights five-eighth Tyson Gamble declared after Sunday's 32-6 triumph against Cronulla, which was Newcastle's eighth consecutive victory.
"We're not just going into the finals to win one or two games. We want to go into the finals and go all the way.
"It's a belief we have. It's a belief [coach] Adam [O'Brien] has instilled in us.
"We'd love to win it all."
Towering winger Dominic Young, whose try against the Sharks was his 21st for the season - equalling the club record - shared Gamble's ambitious outlook.
"I don't see why not," Young replied, when asked if Newcastle could challenge for the title. "We've all got a lot of confidence in one another and you can see it on the field. What is it? Eight in a row now?
"I don't think many teams will be wanting to play us and we've got a lot of confidence and belief in the group, so I think we can go a long way."
With one round remaining, against struggling St George Illawarra at Kogarah on Saturday, the Knights have climbed to fifth rung on the competition ladder.
Having already secured their first home final since 2006, if they extend their streak against the Dragons they will emulate their 1995 counterparts as only the second Newcastle team to have won nine consecutive games.
Coach O'Brien steered Newcastle into the finals in 2020 and 2021, when each time they qualified seventh, only to be bundled out in week one of the post-season.
This year, all the indications are that he has a stronger squad at his disposal, as well as the advantage of almost 30,000 Novocastrians baying for the blood of whoever the Knights host in their opening play-off.
After winning only six games in finishing 14th last season, O'Brien revealed "we didn't speak about grand finals in the summer", saying the collective goal was more circumspect.
"We spoke about how good would it be to be in a semi-final at home," he said.
Asked if this was his best chance yet, O'Brien replied: "Yep, that's the aim.
"I don't want to be disrespectful to those [previous] teams, but we're just a team that's playing well at the moment at the right end of the year."
The Knights have beaten five of their top-eight rivals and their losses against Penrith and Brisbane went right down to the wire.
Skipper Kalyn Ponga will miss this week's clash with a shoulder injury and Newcastle's medical staff will be working overtime to get him back for the finals.
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