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Stung by their recent NRL finals exits, Parramatta are ready to prove a point but won't be taking unheralded Newcastle lightly in a sudden-death play-off.

Just like their own final round result, Parramatta five-eighth Dylan Brown says they're disregarding Newcastle's closing loss as they prepare for Sunday's sudden-death showdown in Rockhampton.

Both teams finished the season in defeat, although the Eels fielded a vastly understrength team against Penrith while resting their stars including Brown.

The seventh-placed Knights opted against that tactic as they tried to find their attacking mojo but still fell to Brisbane 35-22.

But Brown felt with the NRL finals already locked in, both teams were already looking ahead to the week one play-off, while the Broncos had more incentive with veteran Alex Glenn retiring.

"They (the Knights) had Kurt Mann at centre and I felt like the Broncos put on a pretty good performance with Alex Glenn's last game they had a lot to play for," Brown said.

"No doubt the Knights will brush that and come in strong this week.

"They've got that experience and (Kalyn) Ponga has been humming ... last weekend was an average game but they will be firing for the finals."

Brown said the Eels had taken more from their last game with all key personnel in the line-up, when they shocked premiers Melbourne in round 24 for the second time in the season.

Brown himself had his best game of the year in the 22-10 victory.

"We had a pretty good performance against the Storm; I'm not saying that means we're going to win the thing but it's definitely given us some confidence," the 21-year-old said.

Finishing third last season, the Eels lost both their finals to bomb out while they had a semi-final exit from fifth spot in 2019.

Heading in from sixth on the ladder this time, Brown said they wanted to prove that they could win the big games as they look to break a 35-year premiership drought.

"We've been there before and we know how much it hurts when you lose," he said.

"The last couple years have been disappointing when it comes to finals so we've got a lot to prove, not only for all the fans that but for ourselves so hopefully we can get to a good start this weekend.

"We've won six games before in a row so hopefully we can do four."