Canberra Raiders fans were given a glimpse of the future, but it's unlikely they had a glimpse of the season ahead.

Young gun Nick Cotric showed enough to justify the hype surrounding the 18-year-old, albeit in a comprehensive 44-0 loss to the Newcastle Knights at Seiffert Oval on Saturday.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was impressed with the way Cotric took the opportunity he was given.

He started on the left wing, outside of English recruit Jordan Turner, and he produced a nice run in the second half before offloading with a flick pass.

This game had been touted as an audition for that pair to replace injured captain Jarrod Croker (knee) at left centre.

Former St George Illawarra forward Dunamis Lui got through a lot of work early as he plays for a spot on the Raiders' bench, while Adam Clydsdale also had a good shift at dummy-half.

Young half Lachlan Croker had his first run following his knee reconstruction. Stuart said there were no injuries from the trial.

"[Cotric] did good, he's a class talent, he actually showed a lot of players out there tonight that whenever you get an opportunity it's really important that you take it with two hands and perform well and he definitely did that," Stuart said.

He only gave his stars the minimum amount of time they needed to be ready for round one, with a majority of the game played by his second-tier players.

Those players found themselves up against a near full-strength Knights side and Stuart said the trial would prove a valuable lesson about what it's like to play first grade.

"A lot of our squad tonight got to feel, experience and see exactly where they're at in their careers with their endeavour to be first grade," he said.

"We played against a first-grade footy team and a lot of these boys have never played first grade ... and that's a really, really good experience for them."

It probably won't be a valuable guide as to how the Raiders will come out when they begin their 2017 campaign against North Queensland in Townsville in round one in a fortnight.

They started well against the Knights, with winger Eddie Aiono getting on the end of an overlap only to spill the ball as he dove for the corner. But after that Newcastle scored points almost at will.

Knights hooker Danny Levi dove across the line out of dummy half and then Peter Mata'utia, former Manly Sea Eagle Jamie Buhrer, Sione Mata'utia, Jacob Saifiti and Trent Hodkinson crossed to make it 30-0 at half-time.

Prop Junior Paulo was one of the few recognisable Raiders starting the second half as he got some extra conditioning because he's suspended for round one.

The Knights ran in three more tries in the second half — Brendan Elliot, Chanel Mata'utia and Ken Sio all getting on the scoresheet - to complete the rout.

Acting Raiders captain Josh Hodgson was still disappointed with the first-half showing.

"We had a few key guys out, but I don't think we can use that as an excuse as to why we were poor in the first half," he said.

"We had a great first 13 for the first 20 minutes so we had the squad there to do the job."

NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS 44 (Danny Levi, Peter Mata'utia, Jamie Buhrer, Sione Mata'utia, Trent Hodkinson, Brendan Elliot, Chanel Mata'utia, Ken Sio tries; Trent Hodkinson 4, Brock Lamb goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 0 at Seiffert Oval.