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Newcastle coach Nathan Brown said his NRL players are only human and that jails prove people are unpredictable in a bizarre press conference moment.

Newcastle coach Nathan Brown delivered an early contender for NRL quote of the year on Thursday.

Brown was keeping his cards close to his chest at a press conference, and when trying to explain the Knights' dips in form this season, against Manly and the Gold Coast, he provided a peculiar explanation.

"I can't sit here and give anyone a hundred percent reason. We're dealing with human beings I suppose, and jails are full of all sorts aren't they? Because we don't know how people are going to react at different stages," Brown said.

Brown went on to say his current squad is the best in his four years at the club and believes they're slowly learning how to win ahead of a trip to New Zealand.

Newcastle face the Warriors in Auckland on Sunday and Brown is confident his men can back up their win against Parramatta last week.

"The key for us is definitely getting that consistency. There were a lot of new players and at the start of the year we weren't quite sure what kind of team we were," Brown said.

"But after seven games and seeing what works and what doesn't work, I'm pretty confident the guys understand what type of team we are and now the challenge is to get that team week in week out."

Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce returned to form against the Eels and Brown said a repeat performance would deliver another victory.

"Over his nearly 300-game career, nobody would ever doubt the way he has competed and that was probably the area he wasn't happy with himself," Brown said.

"I thought we saw defensively how hard he competed (against Parramatta) and obviously his attacking game was quite good as well.

"If Mitch can replicate that as our captain and our leaders lead from the front there's no reason we can't put in another strong performance."