And he'll continue to use a horses for courses approach with his front row as he looks to get the best out of his emerging young pack.

Lee has been filling in on the wing while his cousin, Edrick Lee, has been out with a hamstring injury and will do so again against the Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

He scored a double in the win over the Gold Coast Titans last weekend in his most accomplished performance of the season.

"I think each game he's played he's got better and the one thing we talk about with Brenko is he's got to be very good at all the little things in his game, that's something Jack Wighton's really been improving upon as well," Stuart said.

"[If] you get the fundamentals correct the bigger part of your game looks after itself – it just comes with the talent and the instinct that Brenko has got and also Jack Wighton."

Stuart has tinkered with his props in recent weeks, with Shannon Boyd and Paul Vaughan starting against the Gold Coast Titans last week, while Junior Paulo and Joe Tapine came off the bench.

He's named Paulo and Boyd to start against the Knights, with Vaughan dropping to the bench, but he said he would simply go by which combinations he felt would work best against any given opponent.

"We mixed it up last week, but that's not to say we're going to do it again," he said.

"There's a lot of pressure on people to keep their positions in the football team and that's why I know the boys are training so well and are consistent in their preparation because they're all on one another's tails.

"Everyone's pushing a person for their position and that's a really healthy environment at the moment.

"It's always combinations and what's best for the team for that game [that decides who starts]."

He said they had prepared for their game against the cellar-dwelling Knights as if they were the top team in the NRL.

The Raiders went into round 17 in seventh spot on the ladder, having won four of their past five games.

Newcastle, however, have lost their past nine games an sit on the bottom of the NRL ladder.

But they almost ran over the top of the Raiders when the two teams met in round three, coming from a 16-0 first-half deficit to spring to a 24-18 lead before the Raiders scored a late try to force a draw.

"Our preparation hasn't altered one bit, whether we're playing a team's coming last or a team's coming first," Stuart said.

"One thing that we do very well is prepare and we're very consistent with our preparation.

"I'm very happy with our preparation again this week.

"If a team's coming first on the table or last on the table, our preparation mentally or physically does not change.

"This is another preparation where we're looking for improvement in our footy team no matter who we're playing against and that's been the case over the last month."

NRL ROUND 17 

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium, 2pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.