Jamie Buhrer confident Newcastle Knights will shock NRL rivals in 2017

JAMIE Buhrer says Newcastle’s improvement in the four months he has been at the club is “massive” and has declared they will “shock people” this season.

Buhrer believes the Knights can surprise this season. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

JAMIE Buhrer says Newcastle’s improvement in the four months he has been at the club is “massive” and has confidently declared the Knights will “shock people” this season.

While not getting carried away with a 44-0 trial win over a weakened Canberra Raiders last weekend, the former Manly premiership-winning backrower admitted he was pleasantly surprised by the performance in Queanbeyan.

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Buhrer believes the Knights can surprise this season. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

“I thought we’d do well but just the aggression and intent carrying the football was something I was pleasantly surprised to see and as a team, it is only going to make us better, ”Buhrer said.

“It was just a trial and I wouldn’t get carried away. But I thought our middles really stood up against a very good Raiders pack.

“You’d prefer to win these trials 44-0 than lose them and we can certainly take a lot of positives out of it.”

While the Knights were close to full strength, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart opted not to play many of his big name outside backs with Joey Leilua, Jordan Rapana and Jack Wighton rested and Jarrod Croker on the injured list.

But the majority of the pack that propelled the Raiders to within a game of the grand final in 2016 played a part in the trial, as did halves Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin.

The Knights are dark horses, says Buhrer. Picture by Peter Lorimer

“It was just reward for a really good pre-season,” Buhrer said of the Knights.

“We changed a lot of things as a club and there has been a lot of improvement shown from players on the training paddock and to see that transferred onto the field, it’s very promising.

“Obviously, we are going to be a bit more confident going into round one. The other side of the coin is there were a lot of things in that game that we have looked at that we need to improve.”

Buhrer denied the result would do anything other than give the players some added confidence leading into the club’s opening round clash against the Warriors in Auckland on Sunday week.

“I won’t be getting ahead of myself because we haven’t even played a game yet,” he said.

“But the improvement from October to now has been massive and I’m really confident with where the boys are at. It is a very young squad but every squad has to start somewhere and it was their opportunity to step up and they did.

“I’m confident that we are definitely going to shock some people. Everyone is hungry to turn things around at this club.

“The club has done a really good job of assembling a group of players that really want to do what is best for the club and improve for one another and work for one another.

“As long as we bring that attitude every week, I think the results will eventually follow.”

Knights coach Nathan Brown has virtually settled on his starting side but there remains some conjecture over a couple of bench spots for the Warriors clash.

Originally published as Jamie Buhrer confident Newcastle Knights will shock NRL rivals in 2017