However unlikely it may seem, the Newcastle Knights are not yet willing to abandon their hopes of featuring in the 2018 NRL play-offs. And history would suggest their quest for the finals is not an impossible dream.

After last week’s 18-16 win against Parramatta, Newcastle are 11^th on the ladder, six points adrift of eighth-placed Brisbane.

They have won seven of their first 17 games and face Gold Coast (home), North Queensland (away), Wests Tigers (home), Warriors (away), Penrith (away), Cronulla (away) and St George Illawarra (home) in the remaining preliminary rounds.

Since the NRL was founded in 1998, there have been 17 campaigns featuring 24 rounds that culminated in a top-eight play-off series.

Depending on the season, anywhere between 10 wins and a draw and 13 wins has been the cut-off point for the finals.

Last season, North Queensland finished eighth with 13 wins. Twelve months earlier, Gold Coast scraped into the post-season with 11 victories and a draw. In the preceding six seasons, 12 wins were required.

In other words, the Knights are likely to need to win at least five, and perhaps six, of their remaining seven games to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2013.

It’s a daunting challenge, best evidenced by the $26 price the TAB is offering.

But as Knights co-captain Aidan Guerra said on Monday: “Every side wants to play finals football, and our mentality behind that hasn’t changed.

“To get there, we’ve got to play some good football and keep working hard. If we get in, then we’ll be happy. And if we play really well and build as a side and just miss out, well, we’ll take the positives out of that as well.”

After three consecutive wooden spoons, many Knights fans would agree that Nathan Brown’s troops have made genuine progress this season.

But Guerra said Newcastle’s players were “not happy at being 11^th”.

“I haven’t got a calculator out yet, but it’s still in the forefront of our minds, that we want to win as many football games as we can,” he said. “If that takes us to semi-final football, well so be it. If not, as long as we’re growing as a club and developing the style of football that we want to play, we’ll hold our heads up high.”

Like Guerra, Knights back-rower Mitchell Barnett believes “we’re still in the hunt obviously” but added that there was no point looking any further ahead than Saturday’s home clash with Gold Coast.

“We just want to keep building on last week’s performance and just try and get a few results go our way,” Barnett said.

“It would be nice to make the eight. 

“At the end of the day, it’s something we’re holding onto, but in the short term, we just have to take it week by week and get the results.”

Barnett said it was “a huge motivation” to continue climbing the competition ladder and that, collectively, the Knights had been “aiming a lot higher” than the rung they currently occupy.

“Especially when you’ve got sides in front of you who you’ve beaten, or nearly beaten,” he said. “It shows we’re good enough to be up there. But we just need to work hard, and wherever we finish, we finish.

“We can’t control that now, we’ve just got to get a few performances together.”

The return of co-captain and chief playmaker Mitchell Pearce from pectoral surgery gives Newcastle a fighting chance. 

The Knights have won five of eight games with Pearce calling the shots, as opposed to only two of the nine he missed.

“The way that we let games get away from us while Pearcey was out might make that [finals] task a little bit more difficult,” Guerra said.

“But as a side, we just have to keep playing well, and if we’re playing well, we’ll win the majority of our football games. If we win the majority of our football games, we’re still a shot for the eight.”