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Parramatta have put aside their significant injury shortage to pull off their most complete performance of the year, flogging Newcastle 39-2.

Brad Arthur has praised Parramatta's ability to overcome injuries after they flogged Newcastle 39-2 in their NRL clash at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The Eels put on a clinic in their best performance of the year on Sunday, picking apart the Knights defence with ease close to the line to stay in the top four.

And they did it all while missing seven players, with Dylan Brown forced to play at left centre amid the ever-growing list of injury casualties.

Brown scored once in the rout and the left edge, where he played beside fill-in five-eighth Jake Arthur, ran rampant against a flimsy Knights defensive line.

Having never played centre before this year, Brown spent time there in the pre-season trials and has now been called upon twice to shift out wide.

"I thought Dyl was excellent. He's a footy player," Arthur said.

"We knew pretty early in the week that we haven't got another back available in our squad, in the top 30.

"Dylan bought into it, did a great job. Defensively he was great, carried the ball well.

"His best position is No.6, but he needed to help us out there today.

"It's not the ideal situation, but we're a squad ... It doesn't matter about injuries, if you put the next guy in he can do a job."

Brown could well play in the centres again next week against North Queensland in Darwin, with Tom Opacic no guarantee to return from a neck injury.

Parramatta were brilliant across the park, with hooker Reed Mahoney having his best game of the year and regularly picking the right man in attack.

Their defence was also superb, going from conceding the most missed tackles in the competition to only letting the Knights break their line twice.

It was set up with a dominant performance in the middle, with no Knights players topping 100 run metres.

In comparison, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Junior Paulo and Ryan Matterson rolled them through the middle, leaving the Knights regularly battling to get out of their own end.

"When our forwards put their mind to it and think that power game, they are hard to stop," Arthur said.

"When you are completing high and making the opposition get their tackle count up, at some stage you're going to get the rewards."