Gold Coast will be alone at the top of the NRL ladder heading into round seven after the Sydney Roosters went down for just the second time this season with a 34-20 loss to Newcastle at Gosford on Sunday.

The Titans' 26-24 win over Brisbane on Friday night lifted them to ten competition points, two ahead of the Roosters, Broncos and Cronulla, who all lost on the weekend.

Melbourne have a chance to join the trio on eight points when they take on Canberra in the nation's capital on Monday night, the premiers looking for their third straight win following a shaky start to the season.

The Storm will be without starting prop Jeff Lima, who is attending a family funeral, and former Test front rower Antonio Kaufusi is expected to go into the run-on side and Sika Manu onto the bench.

Trailing 22-12 at halftime, the Knights piled on 22 unanswered points after the break to get over the Roosters, who will be hoping to bounce back when they take on struggling St George Illawarra in the traditional Anzac Day game on Friday.

Comebacks were the order of the day with Wests Tigers going two better than the Knights in scoring 24 points without reply after halftime to crush the Bunnies 30-6 at the SCG on Saturday.

The loss leaves the Bunnies last on the ladder without a win over the opening six rounds of the season.

On Saturday night North Queensland showed they would be a force to be reckoned with after blitzing the New Zealand Warriors 48-20, fullback Matt Bowen making a spectacular early return from a knee injury with three tries for the Cowboys.

Penrith snatched a 21-20 golden-point win over Cronulla at Toyota Stadium while the Dragons made it four straight losses with a poor performance in going down to the Bulldogs 30-18 at ANZ Stadium.

In Friday night's other game an injury-hit Manly registered one of their most courageous wins in recent seasons in beating Parramatta 20-16.

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