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Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien has signed a two-year NRL contract extension with the club, keeping him at the Knights until the end of 2024.

Newcastle have backed rookie coach Adam O'Brien to break a 20-year premiership drought with a contract extension keeping him out of reach of NRL rivals.

The former Melbourne and Sydney Roosters assistant broke a seven-year finals hiatus with the Knights last year and has been backed to take them even further with the two-year extension, announced on Friday.

O'Brien was already contracted until the end of 2022 but the Knights have staved off any approaches from rival clubs with the extended deal keeping him at the club until the end of 2024.

That includes Melbourne, with the Storm rumoured to be interested in bringing O'Brien back as a replacement for Craig Bellamy once he leaves the job.

The Storm life member is highly regarded in Melbourne after spending 11 seasons at the club rising the coaching ranks before joining the Roosters in 2019.

His re-signing with the Knights puts a stopper in what could be a coaching carousel at the end of the season with Wayne Bennett set to leave South Sydney and Bellamy contemplating retirement.

Through adversity O'Brien was impressive in his debut year as an NRL coach in 2020 but the Knights bowed out of the finals in the first week.

His next challenge is delivering Newcastle their first premiership since 2001.

"It's hard to put an exact time frame on it, but I have the mentality we should be fighting for one this year," he said on Friday.

"That's not being arrogant, that's the mindset that needs to happen every day.

"I'm comfortable with the playing roster, I'm comfortable with the people here and if we work hard every single day then anything is possible this year."

One of the biggest keys to success is getting star halfback Mitchell Pearce firing after a troubled off-season as he returns from a broken thumb.

The off-contract ex-Origin half is understood to be close to signing a one-year extension.

"He's been excellent," O'Brien said.

"He's come back really strong from that hand injury so he's done a full week and a half of contract training.

"I only met with him (on Thursday) and he looks focused, he seems to be in a good place at the moment and I think he's just looking forward to getting the season started."