NEWCASTLE face an uphill battle to improve on their inaugural NRLW campaign, but Knights coach Casey Bromilow believes the club should benefit when a group of "very talented" local players enter the fray in "two or three years" time.
The Knights ended their debut season with a 14-10 loss to the Gold Coast on Sunday, their fifth defeat in as many games in what was a short regular season.
They might not have won a game, but the Knights more than proved their worth as one of three expansion clubs in the NRLW's fourth season.
Along with Parramatta and Gold Coast, Newcastle were last year added to the league for the 2021 season, which was postponed until this year due to COVID.
The Knights began training in mid-January and despite having a COVID-disrupted preseason and playing no trials, fired out of the blocks and fell agonisingly short of a first-up win against the Eels at home in late February.
The game, part of an historic triple-header that attracted more than 5000 fans, could have gone either way but the Eels prevailed 13-12 with a last-minute field goal.
The Knights then stuck it to three-time champs Brisbane a week later on a wet track in Wollongong, and despite losing 28-10, showed that the reigning premiers weren't the untouchables they had been made out to be.
A 28-12 loss to the Roosters at the SCG followed, but the Knights were in that contest until they conceded two tries while a player was in the sin bin in the second half.
The round-four game against the Dragons at home was the only match the Knights weren't competitive in. The side lost its way against their in-form opponents and went down 40-4.
On Sunday, the scores were level at 10-all until the Titans scored in the final two minutes, crushing Newcastle's desperate attempt to end the season on a high.
Reflecting on the club's first campaign, Knights coach Casey Bromilow said it could have been a much different story had they won their first or second match.
"Coming into the season, we had plenty of high hopes that we've got a decent squad there," Bromilow said.
"Things didn't go our way."
The Knights had 10 local players, seven from Queensland and nine from New Zealand.
Those from outside the region temporarily relocated to Newcastle, which some of them also did last year before the postponement.
The difficulty for players to leave their respective homes for three months is sure to play a part in the make-up of the Knights squad for the 2022 season later this year.
Changes to the contract system may also have an influence, while expansion in 2023 - particularly the reintroduction of the New Zealand Warriors - will shake things up even further.
Bromilow said he envisioned the club having a greater number of local players in years to come and head of pathways Garth Brennan would "take a major lead" in planning the club's recruitment moving forward.
"Looking at how we can retain players and bring in new players to help build," he said. "Newcastle is such a great catchment area. We're probably another two or three years away from genuinely having all these talented girls coming out of that Tarsha Gale system ... into the Harvey Norman competition and then into NRLW.
"We started in that under-19 competition in 2018. Those girls are starting to turn 20 and 21. In the next two or three years when they're 23, 24, we are going to have some very talented girls in the Hunter region."
Knights captain Romy Teitzel said it had been a "special time" with multiple players making their NRLW debuts with the club this season.
"We just went out there to prove ourselves," she said.
"Obviously the team is going to build from now.
"[I] just want to enjoy it with the group we have now, because it's probably going to change as we know."
