Campbell unleashed a new-look and extremely young squad when he took the reins at Rosebud last year.

They won five games from 14 outings to finish sixth with eight points. They put up some good fights but the lack of a dominant goalscorer proved telling.

Coming into this season there were no doubts Adamstown would again be a well-drilled and competitive side, but question marks remained as to where their goals would come from.

But, after making a slow start to this campaign, they quietly began gathering momentum through the second round and issued a statement to the league on Saturday night in the form of a 10-0 rout of Mid Coast.

Kimmie Trappett continued her recent form streak by banging six goals into the back of the net, Kiarra Lewis bagged a hat-trick and Ellen Hughes also got on the scoresheet.

The win moved Adamstown to 25 points and kept them in third place as they prepare for important back-to-back matches with fourth-placed Maitland (24) and sixth-placed Charlestown (18).

They lost 6-2 to Maitland in round three but only 2-1 in round 10 after conceding an injury time goal.

In round 11, they produced their own last-minute strike to down Azzurri 3-2 and keep alive their finals hopes. Rosebud have only dropped points to league leaders Broadmeadow since.

"Our next six games are all teams that are in and around or above us," Campbell said.

"Two weeks ago, we said we need to get six points from the next two games and get as much of a goal difference as we can, then we just need to build from that. We've done that.

"Now we go into Maitland and Charlestown and, if we can win both of those games, I think we're almost safe for the finals."

What has been even more pleasing for Campbell is that they have managed to take wins without key players Leia Puxty, Jemma Lawson and Brianna Trappett. Puxty and Lawson have been out for the past four games and Trappett unavailable for three of those.

The absence of Puxty has forced a switch from right-back to left-back for Kimmie Trappett and she has relished the move.

"She's been doing really well there and it gives me headaches because this week we've got Puxty, Jemma and Brianna back in," Campbell said.

"I said to the girls the best thing for me is I've got training all week with 13 or 14 players that can all consider they should be playing this week.

"We haven't got anybody where they're a shoo-in to play every single week, apart from Liv [goalkeeper Olivia Sneddon]."

Fifth-placed Warners Bay (22 points) have a Saturday-Sunday double-header against seventh-placed Mid Coast (4) in Taree this weekend and could move to 28 points by winning both games.

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