The Knights will be glad to be back home for all but one of their remaining NRLW matches after a tough first half of the season ended in a 22-14 loss to the New Zealand Warriors across the Tasman.
Newcastle did well to fight back and lead 12-10 at the break in Hamilton on Saturday night after starting slow and trailing 10-0 by the fifth minute.
But they faded in and out of the second half and, after being locked 14-14 with 18 minutes remaining, the Knights could not match the Warriors' attacking intensity in the end.
"Once they got their noses in front, we didn't have enough energy to respond, I reckon," Knights coach Ben Jeffries said post-match.
"Five out of six games have been travel. That's not excuses, we've still got a very good team on the paddock.
"It's just maybe our legs failed in the end. But the girls have done really well for the last six weeks, especially being on the road for five weeks, so we'll recover from this, assess the game and then go from there."
The Knights have clocked more than 7000 kilometres in the past fortnight with successive trips to Brisbane, Wagga Wagga then New Zealand.
They travelled 12 hours on Friday to reach Hamilton.
They reach the season midpoint with a 3-3 record and in fifth place on six points.
In their only game at home so far, Newcastle produced a 38-0 demolition of the Dragons in round three. They have been in every match.
Jeffries will give his squad Monday and Tuesday off to freshen up before turning their focus to hosting Canberra next Sunday in the first game of a Knights double-header at McDonald Jones Stadium.
After the Raiders, the Knights host Wests Tigers in another club double-header at McDonald Jones Stadium on August 22.
They play the Cowboys in Townsville on August 29 then close out the regular season back at home to the Bulldogs (September 5) and the Titans (September 13).
"We're expecting a response, and when you talk about winning, losing, it's more about our standards," Jeffries said.
"If you play to a certain standard, the result will take care of itself.
"So the expectation is we go home and we put in a good performance next week against the Raiders."
The visitors produced a huge response in the first half on Saturday night through Kirra Dibb.
The experienced half set up Simone Karpani for a try then ran the length of the field to score herself and have the Knights up at the break.
But the Warriors came out of the sheds strong again and had the Knights scrambling for a lot of the half.
Winger Tysha Ikenasio bagged her first hat-trick of tries in NRLW when she beat three Knights players to score six minutes into the second half, adding to two tries in the first half.
Dibb levelled the scores at 14-14 with 18 minutes to go with a penalty kick after a high shot on Knights halfback Georgia Roche.
But it was the Warriors from there.
Centre Stacey Waaka powered to the line in the 56th minute then international fullback Apii Nicholls produced a desperate chip and chase to seal the deal with nine minutes remaining.
"They just ran harder than we did, I think," Dibb said post-match.
"They were making so many post-contact metres on us through that second half in particular, and we just couldn't stop the roll, which is something we really need to fix."
The Knights were without experienced prop Tayla Predebon, who is serving a two-match suspension.
Jeffries made a late reshuffle for the round-six exchange.
Cheyelle Robins-Reti came in from the reserves to start on the wing.
Mercedez Taulelei-Siala shifted to back row with Jules Kirkpatrick reverting to 18th player.
Forward Amelia Pasikala was promoted to the starting side and Karpani shifted to the interchange bench.
