Newcastle coach Brian Smith would never begrudge one of his players a representative jumper, but that hasn't stopped him wishing it was all hands on deck for Saturday night's match against the Bulldogs.

The Knights are in a flux after three straight losses and know another loss at ANZ Stadium could see them drop four points outside the top eight.

It's hardly the sort of game you would want to go into without your bona fide stars, but that's exactly the predicament facing Smith's men with skipper Danny Buderus, fullback Kurt Gidley and prop Steve Simpson all in camp with the NSW Origin side.

"There's a little part of them (the representative players) that whilst they're extremely excited about playing in rep footy and they love the opportunity ... some of them feel a bit like they're letting down their club team as well when they're not there," Smith said.

"That's the bit of the coaching staff as well.

"We're greedy, we'd like to have all our players available all of the time but on the other hand, those guys are richly deserving of the opportunity to play at the highest level."

While Smith would no doubt rather have the experienced trio out there on Saturday night, he does see an upside.

The veteran mentor believes the match could give the likes of inexperienced halves Jarrod Mullen and Scott Dureau and young forwards Chris Houston and Cory Patterson an opportunity to leave their mark in a game which could otherwise have been dominated by one of the representative stars.

"You can't replace players like Simmo, we've just got get everybody in our club to band together and get the job done this weekend," he said.

"Some guys when you get into this situation they freeze up because they've been dependant on senior players to help them to play well.

"A couple of them have actually come to me today to talk to me about how they see it as an opportunity that they can play their best footy without senior players around them and it's a positive mark on their character and their ability to play under pressure.

"They're the sort of guys we're looking for."

The Knights get the Bulldogs at the best possible time with the home side in the midst of an injury crisis which has claimed seven first-choice players, including the biggest star in the kennel in Sonny Bill Williams.

Depleted even further last week, the Bulldogs were no match for premiers Melbourne with everyone but winger Heka Nanai missing a tackle in what was a woeful display."

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