A major benefit for the month of August is the fact the Newcastle Knights have four home games in a row, which means no travel as well as longer periods between games to recover and prepare.
According the Gagai, the team is taking full advantage of that time leading into Sunday’s match against the Penrith Panthers.
“The boys ripped in today,” he said about Tuesday’s training session.
“We were working on a lot of defensive stuff around the ruck so it was a pretty solid session this morning, but we have the day off tomorrow and have plenty of time to rest.”
After Saturday’s tough contest against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, the Knights will place emphasis on a sustained 80-minute performance this weekend and have identified the areas they will need to bolster.
“We were good in some areas and then we dropped off in some areas,” he said.
“We will try to play out the full 80 at a high level.
“We did a job to bring the game back, but we want to put ourselves in a position where from when the first whistle is blown, we take the game."
The talented centre predicts the Panthers will have plenty to prove at Hunter Stadium.
"They are going to come out firing as they will want to cement that position in the top eight,” he said.
“I think we set that as our standard now."
On Sunday Gagai celebrated his 100th Club game with the Knights in front of a home crowd after making the milestone the previous week against the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval.
More than a thousand Dane Gagai masks were given out to fans as a memento.
“The support has been unreal since day one when I came to Newcastle,” he said.
"All the fans have been welcoming and supportive so I can’t thank them enough.
“To be able to play 100 games at one club is a high achievement for me and something I will never forget.
“Hopefully there’s plenty more to come.”
Pleasing the Club’s fans in the final matches of the season is something very important to Gagai and his teammates.
“We are going to go out there and build into next year. I think it’s going to be a good game, we just have to make sure we do everything right and don’t take a backwards step from here,” he concluded.
