Wests Tigers have taken a step towards avoiding their first NRL wooden spoon, beating Newcastle 33-12 on Sunday.

The win puts the Tigers two points above the Knights at the bottom of the ladder with a bye in hand.

The Tigers’ attack looked the most cohesive it has at any point under new coach Ivan Cleary as Luke Brooks and Tuimoala Lolohea combined well.

Moses Suli had the best game of his young career.

NSW State of Origin prop Aaron Woods was also in form with four offloads and 161m in a dominant display.

Suli, 19, busted through seven tackles and had one try assist at left centre as Tigers fans got their best glimpse of the future of the club at McDonald Jones Stadium.

In their best half of football since round one last year, the Tigers went to the break leading 20-0 after Lolohea and Brooks twice combined for tries.

The first came when Lolohea landed a lofted cut-out ball perfectly on the chest of winger Malakai Watene-Zelezniak to score in the eighth minute, while they also put Suli into space for fullback Kevin Naiqama to cross.

The two halves then linked again to put David Nofoaluma over after half-time for a 24-0 lead, as hooker Jacob Liddle also fooled the Knights defence from dummy-half to score before the break.

They iced the game with a late field goal and try for Brooks, after the Knights staged a brief comeback.

Newcastle scored twice through Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Joe Wardle in the 62nd and 66th minutes, and looked dangerous as Queensland State of Origin back Dane Gagai began to inject himself into the game.

However it fell short in a clumsy final 10 minutes, as a 68 per cent completion rate condemned them to the bottom of the ladder and closer to their third-straight wooden spoon.