Bargain buys playing a crucial role in Knights' rise

Tuala was released at the end of last season by North Queensland Cowboys, having played in 18 top-grade games for his home-town club before his 21^st birthday.

After 13 years and 260 games for Brisbane, McCullough transferred to the Knights during the recent coronavirus shutdown on what amounts to a loan deal until the end of this season.

As was the case with the Cowboys and Tuala, the Broncos apparently had no qualms about allowing their former Queensland Origin hooker to head south.

But one club's trash is another club's treasure.

Both Tuala and McCullough have been invaluable acquisitions, getting their jobs done with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of efficiency.

Having switched from left to right centre during his first seven games for Newcastle, Tuala found himself moved to the left wing when Edrick Lee suffered a broken arm two weeks ago. He has wasted no time in striking up a combination with explosive Bradman Best, racking up 137 and 141 attacking metres against Parramatta and South Sydney respectively, and scoring Newcastle's opening try - his fourth for the year - in Saturday's 20-18 win against the Rabbitohs.

McCullough, meanwhile, has been making a mockery of Brisbane's decision to offload him.

Against Souths, he made a game-high 63 tackles, which takes his tally to 399 in seven games for Newcastle, at an average of 57 each week.

In the absence of their long-term hooker, the hapless Broncos have leaked 252 points, or 36 per game on average.

In all seven games, McCullough has played the full 80 minutes, which allows coach Adam O'Brien to use his bench utility - Tex Hoy or Connor Watson - as a roving attacker, rather than as a back-up dummy-half.

While the likes of Api Koroisau (Penrith), Harry Grant (Wests Tigers) and Ryan Matterson (Parramatta) feature prominently when discussing the best NRL signings of season 2020, Tuala and McCullough have proven worth their weight in gold for Newcastle.

Their contributions have helped the Knights climb to fourth rung on the competition ladder at the halfway point in the regular season, and having spent so many hours in transit during the early rounds, they now enjoy the luxury of four home games in their next five starts, starting with last-placed Canterbury on Sunday.

O'Brien's team could hardly be better placed in their quest for a first finals appearance since 2013. Indeed, the prospect of hosting a play-off for the first time since 2006 would appear a realistic aspiration.

In saying that, long-suffering fans will need no reminding that last year the Knights were in a similar position mid-season, only to lose eight of their last 10 games to finish 11^th.

Now they have a chance to exorcise those demons, but as they showed on Saturday night, O'Brien's team remain a work in progress.

For 65 minutes, they produced their most complete performance of the season to lead 20-0. Then, inexplicably, they conceded three converted tries in seven minutes to leave their coach in danger of bursting a blood vessel.

They regained enough composure to close out the game, but it was a white-knuckle ride.

O'Brien insisted afterwards that "there's definitely more improvement in us".

If he can harness their full potential over the second half of the season, anything would appear possible.

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