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Coach Adam O'Brien has given Newcastle a wake-up call, ensuring complacency will not be an issue in Saturday's NRL clash with battlers North Queensland.
Complacency will not be an issue for high-flying Newcastle in Saturday's NRL clash with battlers North Queensland after a sobering wake-up call from Knights coach Adam O'Brien.
Newcastle could be forgiven for giving themselves a pat on the back before flying up to Townsville, having already knocked over 2019 grand finalist Canberra since the season restart and cruising into the top three.
On paper they are hot favourites to claim five wins from the opening seven rounds for the first time since 2013 against a Cowboys outfit reeling from a run of three straight losses.
But there is little danger of them getting carried away, after rookie coach O'Brien delivered a blunt reality check to his players following their last round 27-6 thumping of Brisbane.
"We had a pretty honest video session earlier this week," he said.
"We are going well, I don't want to take that away from the team, but we are not going as well as we might think.
"There are lots of areas for us to improve on."
With that in mind, O'Brien is not keen on his Knights being seduced by their lofty NRL ladder position.
"It's not something I would speak about with the group," he said.
"If we start looking too far ahead you are going to miss what is important right now.
"They (Knights players) are human beings. I am sure at times they are looking at the ladder and being quite happy with themselves being up there.
"But the challenge for us is to stay there."
The Cowboys are searching for answers of their own after the players' attitude was questioned following their last-round loss to Wests Tigers, in which they trailed 34-0 at halftime.
Yet O'Brien knows exactly what to expect from North Queensland on Saturday.
"We want to respect our opposition and they have plenty of reasons to play well," he said.
"The team we are playing will throw a lot of football at us especially through the middle - we understand what is coming."