Jets coach Ernie Merrick says the club's failure to make the finals is all his responsibility and his focus now was on fixing their problems for next season.
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The seventh-placed Jets were knocked out of the finals race with a 1-0 away loss to premiers Perth on Sunday. Eight points outside the top six, Newcastle finish the season away to Brisbane on Saturday then at home against Sydney.
The campaign is a far cry from last season's stunning rise from wooden spooners to second spot and unlucky grand final losers.
Only Riley McGree and Pato Rodriguez departed from that grand final team, while Andrew Nabbout was an earlier loss to Urawa Red Diamonds. Matthew Ridenton, Jair and Kaine Sheppard were among replacements for the attacking trio, but the Jets have managed just 32 goals in 25 games. In 2017-18, they scored a club record 57 in the regular season.
Asked on Wednesday to reflect on the Jets' strategies this season, Merrick said: "There's definitely some things I would have changed.
"But when you look at the players who have been available who are goalscorers, the number of weeks they've been out. The latest one being Jason Hoffman, before that Roy [O'Donovan] at the start of the season, Joey [Champness] 14 weeks, you add it all up and it costs you.
"And from midfield, we really haven't had anyone score goals consistently like we did last year. So hindsight is wonderful, but I think we have to learn from the mistakes we made this year and next year we get it right.
"But it's all my responsibility, it's nobody else's at the club."
Asked about the impact of losing players from last season, he said: "Sometimes you sign a new player to replace someone and sometimes they are better than the previous one, and sometimes they are not as good.
"Usually there's an issue regarding him fitting into the team, or injury, or missing in pre-season - there's just so many factors involved.
"But the bottom line is, I think we were well funded by our owner Martin Lee.
"Lawrie [McKinna] and Joel [Griffiths] did really well in helping recruit the type of players that we had, but for one reason or another, it hasn't worked for us, but bottom line, it's something I've got to fix."
With the vast majority of his squad re-signed for next season, Merrick said the focus for the last two games was "building for next year" and giving young players opportunities. He said Angus Thurgate will start against ninth-placed Brisbane and Joeys representative Jack Simmons will come into the squad.
Meanwhile, Merrick said he wanted to keep striker Roy O'Donovan and the club was "working hard" to re-sign him. The club has offered O'Donovan a one-year deal.
As for off-contract imports Ronny Vargas and Jair, Merrick said: "I can't speak for those two".
He said the club's recruitment would focus on either "a striker, winger or attacking midfielder or two".
