Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans is set to face a barrage of pressure at Brookvale today as Newcastle attempt to limit the influence of the halfback's kicking game.
The veteran playmaker arguably kicked Manly to victory when the Knights hosted the Sea Eagles in round five and his kicking-game was superb in Queensland's Origin victory on Wednesday.
Back in April, Cherry-Evans produced with the boot to guide Manly to a 30-6 win at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The game was played after and partly during pouring rain, but the 33-year-old made 644 kick-metres.
He also forced two goal-line dropouts, set up one try and almost caught Newcastle's outside backs out with other early-set kicks.
Coming off a captain's knock for the Maroons, the 275-game halfback shapes as the greatest threat the Knights face in their attempt to upset the Sea Eagles and keep their finals hopes alive.
"He really hurt us," Knights coach Adam O'Brien said of Cherry-Evans' performance when the two sides last met.
"It was all around Cherry-Evans and there's no doubt that's been shown and spoken about this week."
But while the scoreline blew out in the last encounter - Manly scored three tries in the final 11 minutes - Newcastle were in the fight for much of the game and if one or two moments went their way it could have been a different outcome.
The Knights were also reduced to having only a single player on the bench in the first half after Dom Young, Kalyn Ponga and Jirah Momoisea all left the field with injuries.
"The conditions weren't great but I watched it earlier in the week and we competed quite hard for a big chunk of time," O'Brien said.
"But the last 10 minutes they piled on some points through our middle. We were down on some troops, but that's been the disappointing thing for our season and something I can't get past.
"I should be standing in front of you coming off the back of three wins.
"We had the Raiders game in our control and let it slip.
"We obviously beat the Titans and then Souths last week at 16-6, we should have put that away.
"We should be having a conversation about making it four in a row.
"The reality is we're not, so we need to go down and perform."
