The Jets conceded goals in both halves at Cromer Park on Sunday but Wilson "could not fault the players' effort and mentality", saying a lack of consistency and composure in attack at crucial moments proved their downfall.

"The whole game they worked and looked to try to get pressure on the ball and looked to work for each other and double-up in defence," Wilson said.

"They showed that energy that we're coming to know this team brings. It was just the consistency of the quality when they have the ball wasn't what it needed to be against a good team like Sydney, who when they wanted to settle the game were able to control parts of it. That was probably the biggest thing."

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Brewer made some key defensive plays on Sunday and was the only Jets player to feature in the W-League round-six team of the week.

The seasoned campaigner dominated her duels for the ball, produced 10 clearances and four interceptions and won the ball in most tackles, the most important coming in the 71st minute when her last-ditch sliding effort on the edge of the 18-yard box dispossessed Sydney strike weapon Princess Ibini.

There was plenty of desperation in defence shown across the park as Newcastle chased the game and Wilson was largely unfazed by a 15-minute period of the second half in which four players picked up yellow cards, three which resulted in free kicks.

Centre-back Taren King was booked after pulling Remy Siemsen down by the arm, Cassidy Davis for a challenge on Ibini in a dangerous area and Sunny Franco for a tackle on Ally Green. Right-back Tessa Tamplin earned a yellow card for booting the ball away in frustration.

"There were lots of incentives for them for this game," Wilson said. "To win and also Tara's [Andrews] 100th game, so they were pretty passionate and pretty determined about the game.

"When you're down and you're that passionate about something, sometimes it can come across as being overly aggressive or ill-disciplined, but I think they were coming from a good place when they were trying their hardest to make those efforts and to get more pressure on Sydney.

"It was a quite physical game both ways and, from a positive side of things, you can look at it and say our girls are trying to match it with these teams that have typically and traditionally in the past tried to bully us in a number of ways."

The Jets were meant to have the bye this weekend but will now travel to Melbourne to play Victory at La Trobe City Stadium on Sunday after W-League fixtures were changed on Tuesday due to a coronavirus outbreak in Perth.

The match shapes as crucial to both teams' top-four hopes. Newcastle are sixth on four points and five points adrift of fourth-placed Adelaide (nine points) while Victory are fifth on seven.

"We'll be looking at areas that we want to continue to improve on and for me that's around that front third and just the quality of where we're building and the moments that we're looking to play forward and getting that execution and that quality in," Wilson said.

Meanwhile, former Newcastle player Larissa Crummer has signed with Brisbane for the rest of the season. Crummer signed with the Jets for the 2018-19 season but has not played since horrifically breaking her leg against Adelaide in round 13 of that campaign two years ago. Last year she moved back to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to be closer to family.

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