Kantarovski, who has appeared in a club-record 180 A-League games for Newcastle, was named in the squad on Thursday and is expected to be used off the bench on Saturday night.

The 27-year-old midfielder missed last week's season-opening draw against Central Coast, and a number of trial games, after being hindered by groin and hamstring issues.

But he has convinced coach Ernie Merrick that he is fit to resume and should soon be challenging Steven Ugarkovic and Matthew Ridenton for a spot in the starting line-up.

"I didn't want to rush back and have it hampering the rest of the season, so we just took our time to make sure it was 100 per cent," Kantarovski said.

"But it feels good now, nice and strong, and so it's just a matter of keeping it that way."

Kantarovski admitted it would be a "bit of a task" to displace either Ugarkovic or Ridenton, who have developed a solid partnership while he has been sidelined.

"That's the ideal scenario," he said. "That's what you want in the team, everybody fighting for positions all around the park. I think we've got that right across the board, and that just shows the depth of our squad."

The Jets will be chasing their first win of the season against an Adelaide side riding high after Wednesday's 4-0 thrashing of Melbourne City in the FFA Cup final.

Kantarovski watched the final and was impressed with what he saw of Adelaide, who were coming off back-to-back defeats in their opening two A-League games.

"They did well, credit to them," he said.

"They worked hard and beat Melbourne City with a really direct sort of game. It was a good performance, at the end of the day.

"They didn't concede, and they scored four goals.

"But that's ideal for us. We get to play a good team and show what we're about, so it's even more of a challenge.

"Nobody wants to back down from a challenge, so we'll be really excited to play Adelaide at their best."

The clash with Newcastle will be Adelaide's third game in the space of a week, but Kantarovski said the Jets had no illusions that their opponents might be leg-weary.

"It's just a matter of sticking to our game plan," he said. "It doesn't matter how many games they've played, we want to put them under pressure, attack them consistently, score goals and win the match. Whether they've played one game in a week or three games, we still back ourselves to do a job."

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