Walker's stock rises as Roosters ravage Knights

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Newcastle Knights v Sydney Roosters

Sam Walker has stolen the show in a big Roosters win over Newcastle tonight at McDonald Jones Stadium, the Tricolours 38-4 victors on a night centre Josh Morris bagged a hat-trick.

While the Roosters won big to maintain their status among the top group of premiership heavyweights - minus injured star James Tedesco no less - they have more injury drama to contend with, both Brett Morris and Lindsay Collins being carried off late in the contest.

For Newcastle, the loss keeps them firmly outside the top eight, sitting in tenth place after eight rounds. They looked like they could overturn a slow start close to halftime after Brayden Musgrove posted what would be the side's only points.

Trailing 20-4 at the break, the Knights showed little resolve upon play resuming - tries either side of the hour mark ensuring the home team would have no sniff of a comeback win.

Tricolours fans would've been impressed with their side's start, with only some patchy early goalkicking from Walker slowling the side's chances of beating the clock over the first 20 minutes. Daniel Tupou opened the scoring out wide up first before Josh Morris, Angus Crichton and Matt Ikuvalu all got in on the action, beating some fairly ordinary Newcastle defence to post a strong early lead.

While the Musgrove try gave the Novocastrians some kind of hope, the second half saw much of the same in terms of sketchy Newcastle defence. Ultimately the away side grabbed tries through Walker and Josh Morris to push the lead out to 28 points and were well and truly home.

It was then that the Roosters' injury crisis deepened - already missing a swathe of key players, both Collins and Brett Morris hobbled off in the last ten. The medical department at Bondi will no doubt have their work cut out for them ahead of their side's visit to Bankwest Stadium next Friday.

Newcastle on the other hand will need to regroup before heading out west - south-west in fact, as they visit the Raiders' home-away-from-home in Wagga Wagga next Saturday afternoon. While another loss isn't ideal, they're certainly still within reach of the eight and will want to take advantage of a Raiders side who are also struggling for form.