Why the Newcastle Knights are not dead yet in the finals race

After their 24-20 loss to Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, the Knights occupy 13^th rung on the competition ladder, two points adrift of the top eight.

With 11 games remaining in their season, there are already nine rival teams with at least two more wins in the bank than Newcastle, who have secured five victories and a draw from their first 13 assignments.

The TAB have the Knights as $6.50 outsiders to feature in the post-season, but Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien and his troops should be reassured by the knowledge that they have been there, done that, from an even more daunting position.

Two years ago, the Knights had one competition point fewer at the corresponding stage of the season, having won five of their first 13 games.

They then lost 24-10 to South Sydney a week later to find themselves languishing in 14^th position on the points table.

But just when it seemed their season was a write-off, they proceeded to win seven of their next nine games to qualify seventh, securing a play-off berth in the penultimate round.

While O'Brien was frustrated on Saturday after his team conceded two late tries against Brisbane to let a much-needed victory slip through their fingers, he was consoled by the commitment and reslience his team have shown in all but one game this season.

"The ladder position isn't saying that we've made progress, but I think it's pretty clear that we have in a lot of areas with our footy," O'Brien said after the game.

Nonetheless, if they are to realise their finals goal, the Knights need to start converting effort into points, starting on Saturday when they host another team in a similarly precarious position, the Sydney Roosters.

The Roosters - who started the season as premiership favourites - have been a major disappointment and, with six wins to their name, are only one point and one position ahead of Newcastle.

After four losses from their past five games, the Roosters find themselves in virtually the same desperate situation as the Knights - making Saturday's clash a live-and-let-die scenario for both teams.

"We're not firing enough bullets at the moment," Roosters coach Trent Robinson admitted after last week's 30-6 defeat by Penrith.

"We're not scoring tries and we're not even pressuring teams at the end of that."

Robinson is the Roosters' longest-serving coach and has steered the club to three premierships in his 11-season tenure, but he has started attracting scrutiny from disgruntled fans.

Roosters hooker Jake Turpin, however, described Robinson as "a great coach" and said any criticism was unwarranted.

"It's sort of funny to hear that," Turpin said on Monday. "Inside our four walls here we know he's a great coach. I don't think that's really the right thing to be saying."

Turpin said the Roosters' form slump was "not the end of the world" and they intend to kick-start their campaign with wins against Newcastle, Canberra and Manly in the next three weeks, before enjoying a round-19 bye.

"That's the plan - we want to win them all," he said. "We want to do the best job we can these next three weeks and go into the bye hopefully refreshed and come back and go again. With rugby league, losing's contagious and I think winning can be contagious as well."

The Roosters will be without skipper James Tedesco and prop Lindsay Collins because of State of Origin commitments, while the Knights will lose Tyson Frizell.

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