If attention from Liberal and Labor leaders is anything to go by, Parramatta is the must-win seat of next weekend's NSW election.
The ABC has tracked the leaders' movements since campaigning officially kicked off on March 3.
So far, Parramatta is ground zero.
The Liberal-held Western Sydney electorate has hosted Premier Dominic Perrottet or Labor leader Chris Minns eight times since the campaign officially began on March 3.
A redistribution has slashed the Liberals' margin from 10.6 per cent to 6.5 per cent in the seat.
The incumbent MP, Geoff Lee, is retiring, creating another headache for the government.
Labor sees the seat, which it had held for all but three years since 1959 before Mr Lee won it in 2011, as crucial to its hopes of winning office after 12 years in opposition.
Former Liberal strategist and consultant John McGowan, a veteran of several election campaigns, played down the "chatter" around Parramatta.
"What you have to remember when you organise seat visits, you have to organise them around media markets, and Parramatta is obviously central to a big chunk of Western Sydney," he said.
He said smaller spends on electronic advertising than previous years meant both parties were relying more on the media to get their messages out.
Out of the 46 campaign visits made by the two leaders so far, 65 per cent have been to Liberal-held electorates.
The Coalition currently have 45 MPs — including 33 Liberals and 12 Nationals — in NSW's 135-seat Legislative Assembly, while Labor has 37.
Simon Banks, managing director of Labor-aligned strategy firm Hawker Britton, said the focus on Liberal electorates was a sign of how the campaign had played out.
"The commentary from most election strategists is that the current government is on the defensive, trying to hold on to seats," he said.
"Whereas Chris Minns and Labor, in particular, are very much on the offensive."
One offensive move Mr Perrottet made was to visit a retirement home in Mr Minns' electorate of Kogarah, to announce a plan to protect seniors from scams.
Kogarah and the Liberal-held electorate of East Hills, are the most marginal seats in the state, on margins of just 0.1 per cent.
Mr Perrottet has visited East Hills three times this election, and Mr Minns once.
The inner-city Sydney electorate is next in line for leader visits, though this is mostly due to its location which takes in the CBD, rather than the idea either party will unseat independent Alex Greenwich, who holds it by a margin of 11.8 per cent.
Many other electorates have been visited by both leaders since campaigning unofficially began earlier in the year.
Final week critical
Mr McGowan said both parties had already released their most important policies and the focus of the last week of campaigning would be about on-the-ground appearances.
"The Liberal Party of Australia is one of the best campaign operations in the world. So in terms of what their strategy is, and what their predicted trajectory is, it is going exactly according to plan."
He said the Labor campaign had strengthened as the campaign progressed.
Mr Banks said elections could be won and lost in the final week and both parties would be focusing on the seats most likely to change hands.
"But of course, Dom Perrottet has got another problem, which is that he's got a lot of community independents running in the north shore, northern beaches, region of Sydney.
"And so it'll be interesting to see how much time he chooses to spend there."
So far, Mr Perrottet has only visited one of those seats where a "teal" independent is running: Manly.
The Liberals hold Manly on a very safe margin of 13.1 per cent, but are being challenged by Joeline Hackman, who has been backed by the Climate 200 group that helped sweep six new MPs into federal parliament in 2022.
Mr Banks said the Opposition leader had looked increasingly at ease during the campaign, and that cost of living concerns were boosting his case for change.
"I think this is the narrative as the campaign has developed, and it has been very much on Labor's territory."
