Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett praised his team for the manner of their performance against Canterbury as the Knights ended a poor run of form with a 44-8 victory on Sunday.
The Knights were a shadow of the side that capitulated in the second half against Canberra last week in an almost flawless display that also impressed Bulldogs coach Des Hasler.
Two tries from young winger Kevin Naiqama and efforts from James McManus, Joseph Leilua, Darius Boyd and Kurt Gidley sealed an impressive win in front of a crowd of over 18,000 at Hunter Stadium.
"It was a lot better than the way we've played over the last two weeks," Bennett said.
"We needed to come here today and play well and we have done that, which was good as otherwise our season would have been under a fair bit of pressure."
With Willie Mason leading from the front in a performance that would have given NSW coach Laurie Daley plenty to think about, the Knights forwards dominated one of the best packs in the NRL.
So good were they going forward, Hasler hooked giant prop Sam Kasiano after he lost the ball on the first tackle in the lead up to the Knights' decisive fourth try scored by Boyd to take the score to 24-8.
"It was the best we have played as a pack, they have got it, they just need to find it sometimes."
Hasler said Newcastle deserved credit for the manner in which they responded to last week's heavy loss in Canberra but said his side's inability to keep the ball was their downfall.
"You have to congratulate Newcastle, coming off the back of what they came off last week, they almost pulled off the perfect game," Hasler said.
"I think they completed 95 per cent of their sets .. they were very controlled and very on for the game today.
"For us it was the other end of the scale. We were disappointed with how we went today.
At halftime at 12-8 we were well within a shout ... but you can't go five from 12 in a half of football and expect to compete."
Hasler was critical of whistleblower Jason Robinson before the game in a radio interview and maintained his ire at the officials and referees boss Daniel Anderson afterwards for the number of penalties awarded to both sides.
"There were 21 penalties, I know what Daniel is trying to do, but it has to stop," he said.
"It spoils the contest, it's pedantic and over-refereed.
"I said before the game the penalty count would be 6-1 or 8-2 and sure enough at halftime the count was 8-3 our way.
"Then in the space of five minutes it was 8-7 and ends up being 11-9.
"Generally across the board there is too much stop-start."
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