Newcastle legend Danny Buderus says the club must invest in their current crop or risk making the same mistakes again.

The Knights have been flogged in both of their opening round matches and face Canberra this weekend in their first home match of the season.

“When the Knights won the title in 1997, many of those guys had been signed through the early ’90s. They became a brotherhood. The current Knights are rebuilding in the same way, there is no question,” Buderus wrote in this week’s Big League magazine.

“The hardest part is in the interim. If the Knights can build well now, then the success in the long-term could be something special. You can see it starting to play out at Wests Tigers.

“For the clubs who don’t have financial clout, it’s their best bet to be competitive and then successful. The worst thing the Knights could do right now is to try and start again.

“If clubs try and buy new players, they very rarely stay on to build something. The Knights cannot afford to do that en masse. Patience and great coaching can lead the team out of a dark place, but impatience and constant change just puts you back.”