The Knights have piled on a century of points in their past two matches and go hunting a big scalp when the Storm arrive in Newcastle on Saturday night.
With Kalyn Ponga and Bradman Best in supreme form out wide and the forward pack muscling up, the Knights have climbed from 14th to 10th across the past month and will fancy their chances of an upset in front of the McDonald Jones Stadium faithful.
The Storm find themselves in familiar territory inside the top four on the back of a dominant win over the Roosters, with Origin stars Harry Grant and Cameron Munster backing up in style to lead Craig Bellamy's side to their 11th win of the season.
With clashes against the Eels (rd 22), Panthers (rd 23), Raiders (rd 24) and Broncos (rd 27) still to come, the Storm have plenty of challenges in the run home and need to make hay against the likes of the Knights and Dragons.
Having negotiated the Origin period and with a relatively healthy squad, the Storm will set sail for the finals, looking to improve on last year's fifth placing to ensure a double chance.
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Team News
Knights: The Knights will start at 1-17 as named, with star centre Dane Gagai returning from the foot injury that has sidelined him since Round 17. He replaces Enari Tuala in the only change to the team that rolled over Wests Tigers in Round 20.
Storm: Coach Craig Bellamy has made a late change to his squad, with Bronson Garlick promoted to the bench and Tyran Wishart named as 18th man. Otherwise, Bellamy has stuck solid with the squad that got the job done against the Roosters. Alec MacDonald retains his spot on the bench.
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Stat Attack
- The Storm have racked up a combined score of 98-6 in their past two games against Newcastle, winning 50-2 last year and 48-4 in 2021.
- The Knights have won five of their past seven games at McDonald Jones Stadium.
- The Storm have won their past 11 games against the Knights.
- Knights winger Dominic Young has scored 16 tries in his past 13 games.
- Storm winger Xavier Coates has scored eight tries in his past five games.
- Knights star Kalyn Ponga has lost all seven career games against the Storm.
- The Knights have racked up 692 tackle breaks this season compared to the Storm's 547. The Broncos have the most tackle breaks with 714 but have played one more match than Newcastle.
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Stats supplied by David Middleton, League Information Services, author of the official annual of the NRL.