The crowd was less than half Knights officials would have been expecting in normal circumstances, but it was nonetheless remarkable given that the game was played in torrential rain from start to finish and was live on free-to-air TV.

In comparison, the earlier clash between Canterbury and Sydney Roosters, played in similar weather at Sydney's Accor Stadium, attracted a crowd of 7169.

"How good are they?" O'Brien said of Newcastle's fans.

"Some clubs don't get that on a sunny days. Ours turn up in that [rain].

"They're unreal. I wouldn't swap them for anything, and it makes us want to roll in each day ... that's why they do it, because they know these people care, and we care.

"We want to make them proud. I'm sure those boys did that tonight."

Somehow the Knights defied the driving winds and drenching rain, which left the playing surface looking like a rice paddy, to score five tries in their 30-10 triumph.

Skipper Kalyn Ponga said he had played in wild weather previously, but never "to that extent".

"We played well, so maybe we need more," he said.

O'Brien said he was pleased that his troops stuck a basic game plan.

"We didn't try to play too expansively," he said.

"We played to the conditions. It's low-risk, high-percentages completions. It's not rocket science."

Leading the way were Newcastle's big men in the middle of the ruck, who dominated their Dragons counterparts.

"I think Jacob [Saifiti] and Leo [Thompson], they set a really, really strong platform, with Adam Elliott," O'Brien said.

"I thought those guys, in the first 30 minutes ... we had to absorb a lot of pressure with our goal-line defence. There was a lot of talk that the Dragons were going to come through our middle. And our guys took that personally."

First-game halves pairing Jackson Hastings and Jack Cogger also impressed, especially given the battle against the elements.

"I don't want to make that change weekly," O'Brien said. "I'll have a look at what Tyson Gamble did in reserve grade, and from all reports, he played a big part in that.

"But at the moment, those two halves can hold their heads up."

Dragons skipper Ben Hunt admitted the Knights "just played the wet conditions better".

"I let us down with our kicking game a lot, just put us in bad situations," Hunt said. "They kicked better and capitalised on it."