Congratulations to the Raiders on their win tonight, but the Knights will be gutted with their performance.

They don't want to have to go on another 10-game winning streak at the end of the season to make the finals, so they need to sort their issues ASAP.

But we'll leave that all to the future and leave you with a reminder that we'll be blogging every round of the NRL (and AFL) this year, so we'll be back tomorrow night for Warriors-Sharks and Storm-Panthers.

See you then!

Josh Papali'i has slimmed down in the off-season.

He played 43 minutes tonight and had three tackle breaks from 10 hit-ups. Of his 105 metres, 41 came after contact.

That was an impressive and typical Canberra Raiders win tonight. Just holding on and taking advantage when they got their chances.

Ricky Stuart will be thrilled with that performance, bearing in mind they still have Elliott Whitehead, Corey Horsburgh and Sebastian Kris to come back into the side.

The Knights looked really ordinary tonight in attack and the defence crumbled late in the piece once a bit of fatigue set in.

He had the worst play of the night, but he ends it with a try on the end of an improvised move with six passes, two offloads and a tackle bust from Emre Guler to crash over.

Both sides look gassed, but the Raiders' big men find the energy to put a move on and send Young over.

Halfback Jackson Hastings just strolls between some tired Canberra defenders and jogs it in under the posts.

Ponga converts for a 22-12 deficit, but it would take a miracle.

The Knights five-eighth tries a chip and chase from his own half and earns his team a penalty as he gets taken out by Joe Tapine after the kick.

Tapine challenges, but the bunker says he intentionally backed into Gamble.

On the back of a good run from Tom Starling, they spin it wide to Ethan Strange, who skips across the defence and fires a ball out to Albert Hopoate. He spins and passes out to Rapana to score right where Savage touched down a couple of minutes ago.

Not sure why Rapana's on the wing, but it's earned him some points there.

Fogarty hooks the sideline conversion. He's kicked well in play, but the tee kicking hasn't been great.

Winger Enari Tuala is off with a quad injury…

… and Dylan Lucas was filling in out in the centres, but now he's off after hurting himself trying to stop Savage. So I have no clue what the outside backs for Newcastle looks like now.

I think Tyson Frizell is playing right centre with Dane Gagai on the wing.

Another Jamal Fogarty kick leads to points for the Raiders.

Albert Hopoate climbs above a grounded Dane Gagai to rein in a high ball, popping a pass out the back to Hudson Young, who recycles in a flash out to Xavier Savage, charging to the line and stepping inside Kalyn Ponga and Dylan Lucas to dot down out wide.

Jamal Fogarty's mis-hit bomb is allowed to bounce a couple of times, and Greg Marzhew picks it up deep in his in-goal with the Raiders swarming. Substitute hooker Tom Starling gets under his ribs and big Big Papi finishes him off up top to force the dropout.

The Knights go close but get held up on the fifth, then, after a bunker review that give Canberra time to reset its defence, the Knights just slowly spin the ball the width of the field. The Raiders simply number up in defence and force the handover on their own 20m line.

Hudson Young was carrying on like a pork chop on the ground after tackling Kalyn Ponga, driving his head into his chest for a couple of seconds. He doesn't get penalised, but the penalty on Jamal Fogarty on the following tackle feels like a real make-up call.

Knights on the attack deep in Canberra's territory.

And a repeat set as Jack Cogger's grubber is played at.

Jamal Fogarty launches a spiralling bomb, but it doesn't tip at the top of its flight the way a Cleary bomb might, meaning it falls relatively straight and Ponga makes a clean take, firing himself back into the defensive line.

The Knights conceded a penalty on their tryline and about two tackles later, former Knight Pasami Saulo gets a quick play-the-ball and the Knights, even with the markers shamelessly side by side, can't stop Danny Levie scooting over between Jack Hetherington and Jacob Saifit under the posts.

Jamal Fogarty boots a long ball straight to Kalyn Ponga.

Finally a normal kick-off.

Hudson Young finished that first half back on the park, but he could have a case to answer at the judiciary for his late, high shot on Kalyn Ponga in the 24th minute.

Ponga had clearly passed and been knocked by Jordan Rapana, and Young came through late.

Granted, his momentum was always going to carry him into Ponga, but Jillaroo Tiana Penitani said it best on Fox…

"He had enough time to make a decision to not throw his shoulder into Kalyn Ponga's head."

Pretty much sums it up.

The Knights are looking very sloppy out there, but their defence is holding up pretty well.

If they can cut out some silly mistakes, they look the better of the two sides.

Credit to Canberra though, because they played a quarter of that first 40 minutes down to 12 men and even scored a try in that period.

Dane Gagai jams up and in on the 19-year-old five-eighth and jolts the ball loose.

Strange has been pretty quiet tonight. Jamal Fogarty needs to find a way to bring him into the game.