Brown's plan for the run home

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown says he will give his young side another couple of weeks before outlining a plan for the second half of the year.

The Knights have a bye in Round 15, and with class players Peter and Chanel Mata'utia, Robbie Rochow, Jacob Saifiti and Korbin Sims all expected to be available for their Round 16 match against the Dragons, Brown says he will set targets once reinforcements return.

"We will tough through next week where we will have the Warriors at home," Brown said post-game.

"The boys will have a fair week of recovery this week and we'd like to put in a good one at home. All our performances at home have been really good apart from the Cronulla one.

"Then we get a bye and after that we should get a fair few experienced players back, so getting five or six experienced players back with the young ones will help us through the back part of the year where we do have a lot of home games.

"We will just see where we are [after the bye].

"The back part of the year is important for us to build into our pre-season for next year."

They have been a lot more competitive since that dark afternoon against the Sharks in Round 10, and despite the score line, were again resolute in their loss to the Cowboys.

The Knights were right in the fight when winger Cory Denniss evened the scores after 20 minutes, but were simply outmuscled by a bigger, stronger and more experienced forward pack as the Cowboys regained ascendency to go into half-time leading 24-6.

Newcastle punched on to provide a couple of well-executed tries in the final 15 minutes, including a spectacular backline movement which resulted in Jake Mamo's try.

There were positives to take from Saturday night, with Brown saying after the game that his side's attack is starting to find its feet.

"Our attack has definitely improved a lot over the past few weeks. I thought at times we did cause them some trouble with limited opportunity," he said.

"The guys are definitely finding our way in certain areas.

"Our halves have changed I think six times in a row just due to injuries."

Author: 
NRL.com