The Knights will be focused on containing the Baby Broncos and not former coach Wayne Bennett on his first trip back to the Hunter since leaving last year according to Veteran Newcastle prop Kade Snowden.
With the Broncos missing six of their big names for Monday night's clash against Newcastle, Bennett has called upon Joe Ofahengaue, NRL debutant Joe Boyce and Francis Molo alongside the likes of Kodi Nikorima and Jordan Kahu to hold the fort while their Maroon compadres are away.
Boasting 35 NRL games between them – with Kahu's 19 games raising that figure considerably – Bennett would be thankful to have Daniel Vidot, Dale Copley and former Queensland representative David Stagg (who is set to play his first first-grade game since Round 16 last year) at his disposal, which is all the more reason for Snowden to be wary.
Moving past their five-game losing streak after beating the Wests Tigers by 10 points last round, Snowden said it was a "weight off the shoulders for a lot of people" at the Knights but it would count for nothing if they don't focus on anything other than doing a job on the Broncos.
"These days you can't read into [them missing players]. If you are thinking that then you're going to get points scored on you and you're just going to get flogged," Snowden told NRL.com.
"The blokes who come into Brisbane's team will be going as hard as they can because this game for some of them will be one of the biggest games they have ever played so they'll be pumped, if we're not ready to go with them then they are going to leave us behind."
As for Bennett, Snowden said there has been nothing said at the club about the mastercoach's impending return.
"There hasn't been anything said at all. We're just concentrating on our own game and how we need to play to win so that's what we have been concentrating on," Snowden said.
"I'm sure he feels the same way and is taking a similar approach. He doesn't give the papers much so there's no point looking in there to see what he says. Wayne will have them ready to roll though and he's going to have them up for the game."
Snowden added that personally, after re-signing with the club three weeks ago, he can now focus on settling back into his recent good run of form, labelling his performance against the Tigers (169 metres, 26 tackles) as one of his best in a long time.
"I don't particularly think re-signing is the exact reason why [it was my best]," Snowden said. "But it is a massive weight off my shoulders and something I don't have to worry about for a couple of years."
