Newcastle coach Brian Smith hailed his NRL side's 38-6 thrashing of Sydney Roosters on Saturday at the Sydney Football Stadium as their best display of the season.

The Knights demonstrated their premiership credentials in a sublime first-half performance - scoring three tries with Zeb Taia crossing twice and Jarrod Mullen rounding off a superb 70-metre run to effectively kill the game as a contest by half-time.

Three further tries from Mullen, Keith Lulia and prop Danny Wicks added some gloss to the performance as the Knights moved to joint top of the ladder alongside the Bulldogs.

"It was our best performance of the season, particularly the first half, it was a comprehensive performance," said Smith.

"In the second half we lost our way a bit and went off the boil for a while, but in the big wash-up we have scored 38 points and .. I saw some great signs."

Both Smith and Roosters coach Brad Fittler lavished praise on the inspirational Kurt Gidley who kicked seven goals from eight attempts and the Knights coach is in no doubt he is the best man for the NSW Origin captaincy.

"I love just being associated with Giddsy, he is a prolific professional performer, week in week out, he's gives so much and gives so much involvement in the game," he said.

"Last week he gave one of the great fullback performances especially in his defence and tonight he was everywhere, he has turned into a really good leader.

"He is inspiring, talks a lot of sense and for a bloke who is a human dynamo, he seems to be able to keep a lid on things pretty well and not get over-excited.

"He has a lot of credentials there. There are plenty of other guys who would make good candidates for NSW but I am obviously going to sing Kurt's because I see it first-hand every week."

Fittler, who saw his side lose their seventh game of the season to remain anchored second-last on the ladder, said Newcastle were just too good for his beleaguered side.

"That was a tough one .. they really took their game and smashed us at the start .. and that really hurt us and we are not a team that can fight back at the moment," said Fittler.

"They are a good side, I was pretty impressed, they were super quick off their line really effective in defence and Gidley was a pleasure to watch. He has turned into a fine footballer.

"With all the crap that is going on in rugby league at the moment it is just nice to watch him play week in, week out."

Fittler still believes the Roosters can salvage something from a season that is in danger of spiralling out of control and said he may have to draft in some of the club's young players.

"The 20s played really well in the Toyota Cup tonight, they are young and fast and it will give some of these guys a look," he said.

"I'm not about making any bold statements about selection changes yet but we will have to have a look.

"We're not fighting hard enough at the moment."

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