The Raiders will attempt to avoid a hat-trick of losses for the first time in almost two years when they play the lowly-ranked Newcastle Knights on Sunday.

It's a game many expect the Raiders to win, but Bateman insists the Green Machine won't underestimate the Knights as the Canberra players continue to adjust to being favourites instead of underdogs.

The Raiders sit just outside the top eight but the closeness of the competition means they will be knocking on the door of the top four if they topple the Knights.

Bateman said consecutive losses had not rattled Canberra's confidence and the players were more concerned with finding their desire.

"I don't think we're at a crisis point or anything like that, but losing [to the Canterbury Bulldogs] was a bit of a wake up call for us," Bateman said.

"It wasn't acceptable as far as everyone's concerned and what we've come to expect of each other and ourselves.

"It just wasn't acceptable, one player to another we let each other down and that's not we're about here.

"[Coach Ricky Stuart] is really big on everyone looking out for each other - mate's looking out for mates. So that's what we have to do, we didn't show that in the last game and that was the biggest thing to come out of it."

The Knights are languishing at the bottom of the ladder with just one win from their past nine games.

The Knights, in fact, have won just two of their past 35 games and haven't beaten the Raiders since 2014.

But the Raiders only have to look back to a 44-0 loss against the Knights in a pre-season trial in February and two golden point thrillers last year to know they cannot relax.

"Last year they finished with the wooden spoon and both times sent us to golden point so we're definitely not expecting an easy game," Bateman said.

"You never expect to beat a team easily or by a number of points but it always seems to be a close game with them.

"The last two losses have been hiccups for us and we definitely need to turn things around. We can't keep losing close games or it will come back to bite us at the back end of the year.

"It's never an easy game at Newcastle so we expect it to be very tough again. You can't show up on the weekend if you don't have thinks right at training. So that's a massive focus for us."

The Raiders will be without the suspended Josh Papalii but the club is confident Shannon Boyd and Jarrod Croker have overcome their niggling problems for the road trip.

The Raiders face a tough stretch of matches, with games against the Knights, the Parramatta Eels, the Sydney Roosters, Manly and Penrith as they aim to set up their premiership charge.

"We've come off the back of two tight losses and we're thoroughly disappointed with that," said halfback Aidan Sezer.

"It hasn't been up to the Raiders standard we set and pride ourselves on so we'll be ready to rectify that and replicate it at training.

"We base ourselves on effort plays and that hasn't been there. Those things are important and go a long way to winning a game."

NRL ROUND 10

Sunday: Newcastle Knights v Canberra Raiders at Newcastle, 2pm. TV time: Live on Fox Sports 2.

Raiders team: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker, 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Josh Hodgson , 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Sia Soliola, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Luke Bateman. Interchange: 14. Adam Clydsdale, 15. Dunamis Lui, 16. Clay Priest, 17. Joe Tapine, 18. Scott Sorensen, 19. Jordan Turner, 20. Dave Taylor, 21. Zac Santo.

Knights team: 1. Brendan Elliott 2. Ken Sio 3. Dane Gagai 4. Peter Mata'utia 5. Nathan Ross 6. Brock Lamb 7. Jaelen Feeney 8. Daniel Saifiti 9. Danny Levi 10. Josh Starling 11. Sione Mata'utia 12. Sam Stone 13. Luke Yates. Interchange: 14. Anthony Tupou 15. Joe Wardle 16. Jack Stockwell 17. Jacob Saifiti 18. Trent Hodkinson 19. Tyler Randell 20. Josh King 21. Lachlan Fitzgibbon.