Newcastle Knights five-eighth Brock Lamb believes his team's 34-26 victory against the Gold Coast Titans is only the start for a side that is desperate to turn things around for everyone involved at the club.
Along with teammates Mitch Barnett, Luke Yates, and Sam Stone, the 20-year-old tasted his first victory in the Telstra Premiership as the Novocastrians ended a 19-game losing streak with the eight-point win over last year's finalists.
Despite Knights skipper Trent Hodkinson admitting only the juniors knew the words to the victory song, Lamb was one of them and along with teammate Sione Mata'utia, found himself in the middle of the huddle to help launch the celebrations.
"It's unreal… I haven't felt anything like this before," Lamb told NRL.com.
"Some of the boys didn't know the words [to the team song] but geez it was good to sing it.
"A couple of the young boys who came through the juniors got it, but the new boys struggled a bit.
"It's just a great feeling, there's no other feeling like it I guess."
On a special day for the club, the players were greeted by 17 of the Knights' most capped players with legends like Andrew Johns, Danny Buderus and Paul Harragon all in attendance pre-game to deliver the team with some inspirational words as part of their 30th year celebration.
For Lamb, he received the No.6 jersey off 170-gamer and Australian international, Matthew Johns.
"They came in and had a chat [pre-game], presented us with our jerseys. It always helps having the old boys around," Lamb said.
"It just makes us want to train and play like they did and not let anyone down."
The Maitland born junior played a hand in three of the Knights' six tries before leaving the field after some friendly fire with teammate Sam Stone in the lead-up to the final stages of the game.
"I heard it [crowd cheering] in the sheds and I sprinted out there and they told me I wasn’t allowed to go on, but I just wanted to see what was happening," he said.
"Then I was standing in the corner and I saw Tyrone (Roberts) kick the ball and couldn't see anything but him and I saw the way he looked, I knew it went out on the full straight away.
"That was definitely something that changed it and I saw how happy the boys were after it. Just before I went off the boys were talking and everything was positive.
"To see that last try Peter (Mata'utia) got, it made my year and I can't wait to experience more wins."
In a similar position in Round 1 against the Warriors with scores locked at 22-all, the former Australian schoolboy said the side took a lot out of not being able to get across the line in New Zealand, and were better for the run.
"Last week we sort of went away from it a little bit and we got a bit nervous," he said.
"Browny (coach Nathan Brown) just said to back ourselves and we've got the players that want to play here and those that are tough enough.
"We just have to believe and did towards the end there.
"We've gone through a two years of a hard time and even in the NYC they struggled too, so it's just great to see us all coming together and fighting for each other.
"To get that win is going to put us into good stead for the rest of the season."
Lamb's 2016 season was cut short with an ankle injury suffered against the Wests Tigers in May requiring season-ending surgery, and said he was not fazed heading into the clash after a mixed performance against the Warriors in his comeback game.
"It was my first NRL game in 11 months so I was a bit rusty but it just comes with backing myself," Lamb said.
"I said to mum the other day that I'm just getting started, so I'll be right. I'm just grateful to be out here injury free and hopefully I can finish the year like that.
"I enjoy playing with Hokko (Trent Hodkinson) and he's a great bloke. I think when we're relaxed we play a lot better. We were so confident and starting to believe in each other so I think we can really build off [the win].
"We're celebrating all the good things so last year it was just going through the motions but this year we enjoy on the positives.
"We are moving forward."
