NRL: Stone gets Knights back on track

Knights centre Junior Sau makes a break during last night's match against Melbourne. Photo / Getty Images

NEWCASTLE - Newcastle coach Rick Stone said he was delighted to see the Knights rediscover their passion as he kicked off his stint in the top with a resounding 26-14 NRL victory over Melbourne last night.

Stone brought a new energy to the underperforming Knights team which had tumbled to three consecutive losses under former mentor Brian Smith in the past three weeks.

Smith stood down on Saturday and Stone is carrying the Novocastrians finals hopes on his shoulders.

The change at the top had the desired effect, with the Knights putting on a show for the home crowd at EnergyAustralia Stadium and leaping from 11th to 7th with the inspiring win.

"We talked a little bit about the energy and the passion in the footy team and how that's been missing a little bit in the last few weeks and we displayed plenty of it," Stone said after the match, where the Knights led 18-0 at halftime.

The only blip an otherwise sparkling display was that the Storm managed to pile on 14 points in six minutes, sparked by a Cooper Cronk try in the 66th.

"Obviously we got a little bit tired with that much football in the last 15 minutes, but (the win) it was exactly what the doctor ordered," Stone said.

"Yeah, there was (a nervous moment), but I think we surged again in the last five or seven minutes, I thought we were defending well enough to hold the Storm that's for sure."

Stone said he entered the match feeling confident his side would beat the Storm.

"I think I was pretty calm, I was excited, that's for sure," he said. "I was looking forward to the game, there was a good feel at our last couple of training sessions.

The newly enthused Knights donned busy and bright Indigenous jerseys and played with matching pizzazz and colour in front of a vocal home crowd of 13,580.

The Knights galloped out to a 18-0 lead by halftime and pushed out to 26-nil through a penalty then a converted Cooper Vuna try in the 51st minute.

But when faced with their worst defeat of the season, the Storm switched on with tries to Cronk, Steve Turner and Scotty Anderson within six minutes to make the scoreline far more respectable.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy bemoaned his side's lack of effort in the first 40 minutes and their inability to get a recent win away from home.

"Our defence was really off in the first half, it was probably the softest defensive performance that we've put in all year and we paid the price for that," Bellamy said.

"I didn't know what to expect from them (under Stone) ... We were more worried about us and how we were going to go out there and our energy levels, they were pretty nonexistent in the first half.

The Storm were hit with further bad news after the match with second rower Matt Cross suffering a right ankle injury.

While a break was ruled out, his season could be over because of ligament damage.

- AAP