He doesn't have to worry about short turnarounds, recovery and managing player loads.

After jamming seven games into 28 days, the Jets have a full week to prepare for the A-League leaders.

And significantly, Papas will have use of a near full squad to devise a game plan.

"Apart from some niggles we haven't lost players for too long," Papas said. "That is credit to the players, credit to the staff and credit to the program we have in place.

"Now we can get ourselves back to a level where we can focus purely on performances and the way we want to play, rather than just getting people through games.

"That is what we have been doing because of circumstances."

A part from Jordan O'Doherty, who has missed the past two games with a ankle issue, long-term absentee Ben Kantarovksi is the only player unavailable.

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Approaching the halfway point of their season, the Jets are in eighth spot on 15 points, three points adrift of sixth-placed Sydney, who have played three more games.

What's more they have one of the healthiest rosters in the league.

Papas has purposely rotated his squad, especially players in wide areas who churn through the kilometres each game.

"It was so important to get to this period without significant injuries," he said. "There have been certain decisions we could have made that possibly could have affected a result.

"It is not easy to get consistency [of play] in such an inconsistent schedule. It is a circumstance never confronted before - you miss six weeks of an A-League season when others are playing and you are meant to be at the same level.

"If we we focus on improving our performances, the results will come. As long as we are in the mix at the right time of the year, I think we can still do something special."

Macarthur FC, whom the Jets drew 2-all with at home last Saturday, have been lees fortunate with injuries.

They are without Danny de Silva, Tommy Juric, Jake Holman and Jake McGing.

"Newcastle and ourselves had such a long pause with COVID," Bulls coach Ante Milicic said. "We were 37 days and they could have been 38 days. Some teams had under 20.

"It is like another pre-season and you throw in COVID as well. It is difficult to get back to your way of football.

"I can't afford to lose any more bodies. Whoever can keep their better performers fit and whoever has the most depth and who can get that right - which isn't easy - will get some decent results and performances moving forward."

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