Beware the underdog. Or in this case, the underDogs.
After a week where so much of the focus was on the off-field movement of players Connor Watson and Josh King to rival clubs next season, the Knights take on the bottom-placed Bulldogs on Saturday on the Gold Coast in a game no-one expects them to lose.
With so much at stake, therein lies the danger.
A quick history lesson will tell you these are the type of games the Knights have struggled to get up for mentally in the past.
This season, they have lost twice to the Wests Tigers when they went in as a heavy favourite. Likewise, they went down to St George Illawarra and the Cowboys. And the Bulldogs have become a bogey side since 2013.
In 10 meetings between the two sides since then, the Knights have won just twice. One of those was the opening round this season when Newcastle were victorious 32-16 at home. Prior to that in both 2019 and last season, the Bulldogs produced big upset wins.
Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga admitted on Friday the side has spoken about the dangers of complacency against a side that has won only two games all season as seventh-placed Newcastle looks to strengthen their grip on a finals spot.
"Our mentality is huge heading into this game," Ponga said.
"We are doing all right at the moment off the back of a few wins and that [complacency] could definitely creep in. That has sort of been the chat throughout the week - that we want to be good, we want to start well and continue that throughout the game.
"We don't want to go out there just expecting to score points. We've got to work hard for it and at the same time, we've got to be steely and have our defence going.
"It's definitely a game where we want to be patient and resilient in and like I said, we don't want to go out expecting anything easy."
Knights coach Adam O'Brien said on Friday he is confident the distractions around Watson and King earlier in the week won't be a factor against the Dogs.
"If training is an indicator, there won't be an issue," he said. "Everyone is switched on and our session today was really good. I'm excited and the boys are excited for Jirah's [Momoisea] debut and there'll be no excuses if we don't play well. We have put the stuff surrounding Connor and Kingy to bed."
Ponga admitted prop Daniel Saifiti's loss through injury is a blow.
"He is a big loss for us. He's obviously our go-forward, our big man in the middle. He's an Origin player, a leader among our team. His presence is huge," Ponga said.
"In saying that, the man that's coming in, Jirah, who is making his debut, it's exciting times for us as a team and whoever comes in next will do a job.
"For DSaf, hopefully he is back on the field soon and continues to play good footy. He'll work hard to get back on the field, there is no doubt about that. While he's not out there, we'll work hard."
