Newcastle's all-time leading try-scorer Akuila Uate feels like he is back to peak form and fitness after struggling through the most frustrating season of his NRL career.

Fresh from a hat-trick in a 26-4 victory over Canberra in a pre-season trial in Queanbeyan two weeks ago, Uate will resume rivalries with Warriors wrecking ball Manu Vatuvei in Newcastle's season-opener at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.

The former NSW and Australian speedster and three-time Dally M winger of the year has conceded he never fully recovered after sustaining knee ligament damage in a 26-12 victory over the Raiders in Canberra last April.

Uate lost speed, strength and confidence and was restricted to just 15 games – the fewest he has managed in a season since his first full campaign in 2009.

After one of his injury-enforced lay-offs late in the season, he had to make his comeback in the second-tier NSW Cup squad.

Uate sat out six of the last seven games, finally calling it quits after scoring the winning try in the final seconds of a famous 32-30 triumph over Melbourne at Hunter Stadium on August 9.

"Last year was definitely very frustrating for me," Uate told the Newcastle Herald.

"Playing with an injury, I had to make a decision to have surgery, and it was the right decision.

"Definitely it was affecting my form. You've got to play 100 per cent. You can't play 75 or 80per cent.

"The team needs you to play 100 per cent every weekend, and I didn't have that in the last eight games, so that's why I sat out because I wasn't helping the team if I kept playing with it.

"That was the longest I've stayed out of playing, but I was lucky enough to get surgery and move on with it, instead of playing along with it and making it worse. I'm very happy that I made that decision to get that surgery and do my rehab, and it's all paid off now."

Successful surgery and an off-season strength and conditioning program allowed the 27-year-old Australian and Fijian international to make a full recovery and complete all pre-season training, and he believes he is in the best shape of his 129-game NRL career.

"My knee's 100 per cent again," he said.

"It was a long pre-season for me, and a good pre-season. It's probably the fittest I've been for the last couple of years and I just can't wait to play this Saturday."

Knights assistant coach Craig Sandercock has noticed a change in Uate's attitude since they first worked together five years ago and struck up a close working relationship.

Sandercock, who was Rick Stone's assistant coach in 2010 and 2011, is back at the Knights after three seasons coaching English Super League club Hull Kingston Rovers.

"When I was here before, it was me that had to go looking for him, but now he comes looking for me," Sandercock said. "He's matured and his attitude and work ethic have changed for the better. He's worked really hard this pre-season and you can see that by how fit and strong he is."

Uate, who has scored a club-record 97 career tries, said his hat-trick against the Raiders had done wonders for his confidence.

"It all comes down to the little one percenters I've been doing at training," Uate said. "It's pretty hard being in rehab and being away from the team, but I knew if I wanted to play first grade again I had to do whatever the coaches told me to do, so I worked really hard.

"That first time I started running with the boys again at training was the best feeling and made me feel like I was back playing with the boys again. To get those tries against Canberra, it was good to have a good hit-out and play 80 minutes, because it's what I needed before our first game this weekend."

Uate said he always enjoyed the challenge of trying to contain Vatuvei, and he and his fellow outside backs had an extra session at Hunter Stadium on Wednesday to prepare for the 29-year-old Kiwi international's ground and aerial assault.

"Manu, he's big and strong, and I've been working hard on trying to stop him," Uate said.

"He's pretty good under that high ball and I'm still learning so we've been doing some extras this week and hopefully we can do a good job on him.

"We want to show our fans that we can't let them down, especially at home.

"Their support every year all counts towards our performance each week so we want to work hard for them and it would be good to get a win for them in our first game at home."

Newcastle Herald