THEY have qualified for consecutive finals series for the first time in 18 years, but the Newcastle Knights are not done with yet.
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After their crucial 15-14 triumph against Gold Coast on Thursday night, the Knights have sealed seventh spot in the play-offs with a game up their sleeve.
Not since 2002 and 2003, at the end of a golden era that delivered two premierships, have Newcastle featured in back-to-back post-season campaigns.
Knights players shared emotional celebrations after the full-time siren on Thursday night and coach Adam O'Brien said he was "really proud of them", in particular given the adversity they have had to overcome. But there is still clearly more that they want to achieve.
"It's been a tough year but we've got a good group here that wants to go further," O'Brien said.
Newcastle have now strung together five successive wins, three of which were against fellow top-eight aspirants Canberra, Cronulla and Gold Coast, and will be hoping to make it six straight when they meet Brisbane in their last preliminary round on Saturday week.
Six wins would give them priceless momentum and belief as they head into a sudden-death showdown in week one of the finals, most likely against struggling Parramatta.
"We've got heart. We showed that tonight," O'Brien said. "If you've got that, it goes a long way towards winning rugby league games.
"But I feel like we've got the personnel, and the juice in our legs, to get a bit better, and we'll see where it takes us."
O'Brien dismissed suggestions that whoever finishes seventh and eighth would be making up the numbers.
"It's a different competition once you get in the finals," he said.
"You get in the finals, you've got to be really good for a month. They can say what they want about us. I don't really care."
