Newcastle City coach Mitch Knight has challenged standouts Hugh Blanchfield and Max Quinlan to lead the way heading into the Black Diamond Cup finals.
City take on Warners Bay in the competition's final round on Saturday with fourth position and their finals spot already secured.
Warners Bay have narrowly missed a finals berth but with the Bulldogs celebrating "old boys day" at Feighan Oval, Knight knows the Blues will be in for a tough contest.
Back-to-back grand finalists in 2019 and 2020 following their 2018 premiership, City entered this season as a younger outfit and have been without a home ground for most of their campaign.
They have only once beaten a top-three side, but have not been too far off the pace up until last weekend's 65-point loss to Terrigal.
Knight said his side were "really disappointed" with their display and had worked to address a number of areas of their game this week.
"Number one being effort," he said. "We want to get some momentum going into finals, but the main thing is that we show a different performance to last week. Hopefully we can respond."
While there has been "a number of guys step up" for City this season, Knight said, the "challenge has been to put consistent performances together". He singled out Blanchfield and Quinlan as two who could be instrumental leading into finals.
"Hugh Blanchfield - he has taken a real step up and does a lot of work in the midfield," Knight said.
"Early on, Max Quinlan was a bit up and down with his form, but his last month of footy has been really good.
"It's been pleasing to see him mature a bit.
"There's a number of guys in that early 20s age group that have got 50 to 100 games under their belt.
"It's really up to them to stand up when it counts and get the other guys to come along with them."
In the other games, Terrigal Avoca host Cardiff while Killarney Vale face Maitland.
In the women's competition, the top four of Newcastle City, Cardiff, Terrigal Avoca and Killarney Vale is already locked in.
City will be officially crowned minor premiers if they beat last-placed Warners Bay.
Cardiff meet Terrigal Avoca on the Central Coast, while Singleton host Wyong Lakes.
Killarney Vale have the bye.
