Young playmaker Phoenix Crossland wants to win the battle, but he is relishing the "healthy" challenge of competing with Adam Clune for a spot in the Knights' halves.
Crossland, who has played 16 NRL games over the past three seasons, could have left the Knights for an opportunity elsewhere last year but the 21-year-old chose to stay at his home-town club for another season.
Having spent three years training alongside former halfback Mitchell Pearce and starting eight of his nine games last season in the halves, Crossland seems well placed to get first crack at partnering Jake Clifford this season. But 26-year-old Clune, who joined the club last year to be a back-up half before Pearce departed for France, is the more experienced player having notched 25 NRL games and spent years in reserve grade.
Crossland said while the duo were clearly jockeying for the one position, it had been "healthy competition" with Clune becoming one of his "best mates in the team".
"The good thing about Clunes is when he first come here, he wasn't replacing Mitchell Pearce and was another older head I could learn off," Crossland said.
"Although we compete very hard at training and there has been a bit of talk around who is going to get it ... at the end of the day it's good competition and whoever gets it, has earned it, because we've both been training extremely hard.
"You can tell he has a point to prove as well coming from the Dragons, sort of being in the same boat as me on the cusp of playing each week. It might be a bit hard to believe that I'm not salty about him being here, but it's actually the complete opposite - I'm stoked he is here and I know he is going to make a massive difference to this team."
Crossland, who has also been training at lock, said working with club legend and now coach Andrew Johns had been one of the "most exciting" things about his pre-season.
"We've been talking a lot all pre-season about how all the teams run the same shape, but the best teams like the Rabbitohs and Storm they just run it way better," he said. "Their details are first class and that is what he has brought in - execution. Although he has helped me, Jake and Clunes, his presence has caused everyone to lift."
Crossland soaked up all he could from Mitchell Pearce, but he also takes plenty from the standards David Klemmer sets.
"He is the biggest professional off the field," Crossland said. "It's diet - I don't think I've ever seen him eat a bad bit of food; the training he does on days off and how he recovers, and say if we get a four-day weekend to enjoy ourselves, he will still be doing something to improve his game.
"He is one of the best front-rowers in the game and I want to be one of the best players in the game one day too."
