Newcastle Knights coach Nathan Brown has announced his 21-man squad for Friday night’s match against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in Newcastle.
Brown has made one team change, with fan favourite Nathan Ross returning on the wing in place of Jacob Gagan.
Ross was a late omission due to calf tightness in the Knights one-point loss to the Sharks last weekend.
“(Nathan) Rossy was out with a slight calf injury, we’re hopeful he’ll be ok but we won’t really know until the latter part of the week,” Brown told Knights TV.
Danny Levi starts at hooker after starting from the bench last weekend, while Jamie Buhrer moves back to the second row.
The Bulldogs will head to Newcastle on Friday off the back of a gutsy win over the Brisbane Broncos in Round five and Brown believes it will be a big challenge for his side.
“Dave Klemmer and (Sam) Kasiano, they’re big guys and then you’ve got (Aiden) Tolman and (James) Graham, not as big as those guys but quite clever,” Brown added.
“They have got a really balanced side and Josh Jackson is a really quality player. You look at their games, they had two good wins as well as the result against Melbourne was touch and go until the end of the game so I think they’re going far better than what people think.”
KNIGHTS TEAM:
1. Brendan Elliott 2. Ken Sio 3. Dane Gagai 4. Peter Mata'utia 5. Nathan Ross 6. Brock Lamb 7. Trent Hodkinson 8. Jack Stockwell 9. Danny Levi 10. Josh Starling 11. Sione Mata'utia 12. Jamie Buhrer 13. Mitchell Barnett 14. Sam Stone 15. Anthony Tupou 16. Joe Wardle 17. Daniel Saifiti 18. Jaelen Feeney 19. Luke Yates 20. Jacob Gagan 21. Jacob Saifiti
BULLDOGS TEAM:
1. Brad Abbey 2. Brett Morris 3. Josh Morris 4. Brenko Lee 5. Marcelo Montoya 6. Josh Reynolds 7. Moses Mbye 8. Aiden Tolman 9. Michael Lichaa 10. James Graham 11. Josh Jackson 12. Greg Eastwood 13. David Klemmer 14. Sam Kasiano 15. Danny Fualalo 16. Adam Elliot 17. Raymond Faitala-Mariner 19. Craig Garvey 20. Matt Frawley 21. Francis Tualau 23. Reimis Smith
