Gallen, who has been a regular critic of the Knights over the years, has delivered another frank assessment of their chances of building on last season's fifth-placed finish.

He said after the off-season departure of winger Dominic Young, who scored a club-record 25 tries in 2023, he doubted Newcastle's capacity to match last year's feats.

"Newcastle are a team who, to me, I never expected them to make the eight," the former Cronulla, NSW and Kangaroos lock said on Channel Nine's 100% Footy.

"Last year they won 10 straight to make the semi-finals.

"Their winger [Young] probably won three or four games on his own last year. He's obviously left the club. Kalyn Ponga was on fire.

"A little bit of expectation around them this year I think will affect them also, so I don't think the Knights will make the top eight this year.

"I think they'll fall out."

Fans can only hope Newcastle's players take those comments personally and respond by bouncing back from two straight losses when they host Melbourne Storm at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday night.

It is far from the first time that Gallen has voiced less-than-complimentary opinions about the Knights.

In his autobiography, he described Newcastle's 2016 wooden-spoon outfit as "the worst first-grade team I ever faced in my entire career".

"I remember playing for Australia against minnow teams such as the United States, and the Knights were even worse than them," Gallen wrote, adding that he "felt sorry for the Newcastle players and fans" after Cronulla's 62-0 slaughter of the Knights at Hunter Stadium in round 10, 2016.

He also declared in 2017 that Mitchell Pearce "might live to regret" his decision to join the Knights instead of Cronulla, predicting "Newcastle are two or three years away from being a consistent top-eight side".

"As for winning competitions, well, I just can't see that happening for a long, long time," he added.

After retiring from football, Gallen had a more optimistic outlook for the Knights when he visited Newcastle in 2022 to promote his Australasian heavyweight title fight against Kris Terzievski.

On that occasion, he said they could build a possible premiership team around Ponga.

"He's got toughness, he's got skill and he's got X-factor," Gallen said. "You need a bloke like him in your team.

"But you also need guys like the Saifiti boys, and Tyson Frizell, Bradman Best - what a star he is - and Dane Gagai. So I think they've got the making there.

"They're building the makings, without a doubt.

"But premierships don't happen overnight.

"You've got to build for a couple of years.

"To win a competition you need a player like Kalyn Ponga, without a doubt.

"The first thing for Newcastle is to keep Kalyn Ponga. Keep Kalyn and build around him."