Newcastle Knights put on a club record in their 66-0 win over Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in front of 11,004 fans at Stadium Australia on Sunday afternoon.
It was one-way traffic in the center of Sydney in this contest. Kalyn Ponga starred with hand and boot while Bradman Best scored a hat-trick in the huge win which gave the Knights their sixth win of the season.
The game was an arm wrestle for the first ten minutes before the floodgates opened. Jackson Hastings sold the Bulldogs a bigger dummy than crash test dummies to slice through and make it 6-0.
Hastings got involved in the Knights second four-pointer. It was some quick hands down the left side which ended with Bradman Best crashing over from close range then Lachlan Fitzgibbon ran a similar line to dive over and make it 18-0.
Newcastle Knights ended the half with a bang to lead 30-0 at oranges. Ponga weaved past the defense before he offloaded to Phoenix Crossland to score then Best made it a double from another superb Ponga pass to round off a dominant first half.
Coming out of the break, Knights felt just fine. Fitzgibbon sliced through, found the trailing Kurt Mann who strolled over. Bulldogs fans who booed their team off the ground as half-time were fed up with their side after 44 minutes.
Hayze Perham had an afternoon he would rather forget at fullback. He almost gifted Best his hat-trick after spilling a routine kick but was bailed out by the bunker. Knights scored a few tackles later through Greg Marzhew to make it 42-0.
Best who has played every minute in 2023 for Newcastle turned provider for the Knights eighth try. He strode through the gap, tried to get to the line himself for the hat-trick but offloaded to Hastings for the score.
The Bulldogs were charitable enough to give Bradman Best his hat-trick minutes later. Paul Alamoti dropped the ball off the scrum, the centre scooped up the ball and went the length to bring up the half century.
Knights put the icing on the victory cake with a pair of late scores. Enari Tuala ran a good line to dive over then Kurt Mann set up Phoenix Crossland for his second four-pointer to round off the 66-0 thrashing.