Predicted Finish: 10th

Actual Finish: 7th

This year was all about returning to the finals for the Knights. I didn't think they'd do it, but happy to be wrong here. 7th could probably be seen as a little disappointing after their tremendous start, however the building blocks are now in place.

2. Lowlights

- Defence went missing late: The Knights defence completely went missing at the most important part of the season. Across their final four games of 2020 the best defensive effort was conceding 18 to the Dragons. That's ok when you score 42 points, but 42 points conceded to the Roosters, 36 to the Titans and 46 in a final's game make for horror reading. Most teams lock down their defence in the final few rounds and prepare for finals footy. The Knights looked all at see when playing in form competition. They smashed the broken Sharks and trounced the disinterested Dragons but against the top sides they spent far too much time under the posts watching conversions.

- Stuttering Attack: The Knights were far from the worse attacking side in the competition in 2020 with 421 points, however only the Eels (392) scored less than them for finals teams. The Knights defence was better only than the Sharks, so their attack needed to be elite levels to worry the top sides comes finals time. I feel like I'm nitpicking here but you never got the feeling Newcastle could win a 'shootout' game between two sides who cared only for scoring points. Turns out they needed that in Round One of the serious stuff.

NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 29: Mitchell Pearce of the Newcastle Knights looks to pass the ball during the round 15 NRL match between the Newcastle Knights and the Brisbane Broncos at McDonald Jones Stadium on June 29, 2019 in Newcastle, Australia. (Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

- Finals Bomb: At the 14th minute mark in their first round final's game against the Bunnies, Newcastle lead 14-0. They lead 4-0 after a minute. Two tries inside six minutes. This game could, and probably should have been over inside the opening 15 minutes, yet the Knights would go on to lose 46-20. Only an 80th minute try made this game somewhat respectable after conceding eight straight tries. The Bunnies were good, real good, but the Knights outside that opening blitz looked as though they didn't belong there. Sad end to a promising season.