After six weeks, the nib Newcastle Knights come back home to McDonald Jones Stadium for their Round 17 clash against the Wests Tigers.
“It is our first home game for a while now, we’re doing the Voice for Mining Family Day and we’ll be in our hi-vis so there will be a lot of emotion,” explained Ross.
“We have to try and contain that and put our best foot forward because it’s really a do-or-die match to get ourselves off the bottom.”
Ross expects the Tigers to be a dangerous team.
“(Luke) Brooks has shown that he is a quality player, Aaron Woods a State of Origin player, David Nofoaluma is probably one of the best play one, play two runners in the game so they’ve got all the strike power there,” cited Ross.
“I think it is the strongest team they’ve fielded in the past month so we’ve got to be ready for everything.
“James Tedesco is also an amazing player but I’m not going out thinking about his game, I’m going to go out there and think what I can do to help our team to win.”
Although, the 28-year-old admits they’ll have their own fire power coming back in Jamie Buhrer, named on the bench after a long break from injury.
“It is massive, Jamie is a classy player and he showed at the beginning of this season how vital he is to our attacking structure,” Ross stated.
“He runs hard, he plays in defence well so bringing him back is only going to help us for sure.”
After a first NRL hat-trick last weekend, Ross said he was grateful for his chance to shine at fullback.
"I have played fullback for a number of years now and it is a position that I have eagerly been waiting to get a shot at,” Ross commented.
“I think on the weekend I put a pretty good foot forward."
But the 28-year-old has acknowledged that while his try-scoring surge in the first half on Sunday felt good, a win would have made it a lot better.
“At the end of the day we lost so I can’t stand there and separate myself from the team,” he said.
“We win together, we lose together and I’ve just got to keep bringing some intensity and energy and hopefully build on last week.”
The Knights are back at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday, NYC kick off at 11.45am before NRL at 2pm.
