On the back of a brilliant hattrick by Knights' winger Matt Morris, the Jets rarely put pressure on the Knights who cruised to a six-tries-to-nil win.

The visitors couldn't possibly have wished for a worse start when they tried to pass the ball under pressure from behind their own line and the ball was dropped and Knights' Daniel Martin was on hand to grab a 4-0 lead.

It got worse in the 19th minute when a piece of Morris magic saw the winger seemingly cornered but be brilliantly grubber-kicked around the Jets winger and won the race to score. Brad Killmore landed an excellent conversion for a 10-0 lead.

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The Jets just couldn't get out of their own half, with frequent bad passes and dropped balls having them under constant pressure. That pressure told once again in the 28th minute when the Jets dropped the ball from a scrum win near their own line and Morris showed clever footwork to leave the Jets' defence standing to race over in the corner for 14-0.

Tempers flared right on halftime when a scuffle resulted in Jets' lock Matt Rouen and Knights' back-rower Tom Angle earning themselves a 10-minute spell in the sin-bin.

Things didn't get any better straight after the break when a mistake from a Knights' clearing kick was dropped by the Jets and two tackles later a barnstorming Ethan Ford skirted the defence and plunged over for the Knights' fourth try of the day and an 18-0 lead.

Six minutes later Morris had his hattrick when, after some scrappy play, Knights' captain Tom Atkins cleverly cross-kicked for Morris to cross in the corner. Killmore, who had all sorts of problems judging the flukey winds, hit the posts for the second time in the game with the conversion.

Knights' lock Vaughan Thistlethwaite, in his return to the club after several years away, put his stamp on the game in the 61st minute when he stormed onto a pass on halfway and outpaced the defence to score in the corner and round out the scoring.

To their credit the Jets did manage to put together a couple of decent attacking raids late in the game, but the Knights were able to hold them out.

The Knights will now travel to Berry Showground next Saturday to take on the Magpies, while it doesn't get any easier for the Jets when they take on Shellharbour at Ron Costello Oval.

Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs went within an ace of starting the season with an upset win after pushing the highly-rated Warilla-Lake South Gorillas all the way before going down 34-22.

Playing on their beloved Mollymook Oval, the Dogs surprised the Gorillas to lead 10-0 until the 28 th minute before the visitors managed to open their account, but the home side stretched their lead to 16-6 with a runaway try off a loose Gorillas' pass just before the break to and set the scene for a thrilling second half.

Whatever the Warilla coaches said at the break certainly did the trick and they came out firing and tries in the 46th , 60th, 67nd and 70th minutes turned the 10 point deficit into a 14 point lead and from that point the Gorillas never looked in trouble.

The Dogs however did score a 75th minute try of their own, but that was cancelled out when Warilla scored in the final minute.

The Dogs face another big test next Sunday when they host Gerringong Lions, while the Gorillas will take on their traditional rivals, Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles at Cec Glenholmes Oval.

Shellharbour Sharks opened their 2022 account with a comfortable 22-6 win over local rivals Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles at Centenary Field on Saturday.

Both sides showed early season nerves and it wasn't until the 17th minute that a sweeping backline movement gave flyer Jay Brooker space to squeeze over in the corner. Matt Carroll landed the sideline conversion to give the Sharks a good start with a 6-0 lead.

The Eagles held tough and managed to level things up in the 30th minute when the talented Cooper Tunbridge barrelled his way over close to the posts. Kyle Williams added the conversion to level things up at the halftime break.

It was a tight contest until the 50th minute when the evergreen Carroll cleverly held up a pass close to the line and the returning James Ralphs charged over and shortly afterwards Carroll had a try of his own to blow the score out to 16-6.

Try and they did, the Eagles just couldn't bridge the gap and the Sharks put the icing on the cake in the final minute when Ralphs and Carroll combined on the left for Carroll to get the ball to replacement James Duncan who scored under the posts.

The Eagles face another tough challenge next Sunday when they travel to Cec Glenholmes Oval to play the Gorillas, while the Sharks will be at home against the Jets.

Stingrays of Shellharbour found that the returning Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies weren't going to be a pushover this season before holding a late converted try gave their side a 26-18 win in a match that was transferred from Flinders Field to Bomaderry Sports Complex.

In a see-sawing encounter, the Magpies grabbed an early 4-0 lead with a typically crafty try from the evergreen Blake Dryden in the 17th minute, but back-to-back tries in the 29th and 33rd minutes to the Stingrays seemed to have their side on top before the Maggies hit back again to close the gap to 14-12 at the main break.

The second half was a real arm-wrestle and when the Stingrays went further ahead in the final ten minutes it looked like the game was all over, before Billy Hayburn engineered a clever converted try in the closing minutes to close the gap to just two.

But as luck would have it the Magpies surrendered possession close to their own line and from the scrum the huge figure of Jake Kamire charged over next to the posts.

The Stingrays will travel to Kevin Walsh Oval to take on Jamberoo Superoos next round, while the Magpies will be at home against Kiama Knights, also on Saturday.

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