And while they have fallen agonisingly short of their first win, Rosebud have opened their account with draws against Edgeworth (1-1) and Valentine (2-2) in their past two games. They still sit five points behind next best Lake Macquarie, who have two games in hand on Adamstown, and skipper Denis Fajkovic said they were driven to keep the revival going at Weston on Sunday in round 16.

"We've concentrated on structure," Fajkovic said of the draws. "With the young boys, they sometimes get excited and try to play too much instead of sometimes bringing it back and simplifying it. That's probably the only thing we've focused on a bit more.

"It's tough but it's been pleasing [the past two games]. We've got a bit of a buzz about us. We don't want to go back.

"We know Weston are strong, especially with a couple of their nifty guys up front, but we're definitely going to give them a run and we think there's a chance there for points.

"About three weeks ago we sat down and said 'let's go, we're not finishing at the bottom of the table. We've got to turn this around'. So the last two have been good and Weston are definitely a team we're looking to topple."

They face a Bears side desperate to turn around their own fortunes after two draws and two losses in their past four games. They are eighth on 11 points, five points behind fifth-placed Edgeworth.

Assistant coach Anthony Richards said Sunday's match was "season-defining". The former Adamstown coach expected a tough game given Rosebud's recent run and the tight, 1-0 win over them first time around.

"We haven't been playing bad, we just can't close them out," Richards said.

"We'll make one mistake at the back or not take a chance up front, and we get punished for it. But we just haven't been good enough.

"We've got a heap of midweek games coming up, and you only need to get two or three wins on the trot to get back in the mix. But it's certainly a season-defining game and we're going to make it extreme hard for ourselves to make the top five if we don't win."

He said Zac Sneddon was suspended and Michael McGlinchey (groin) was in doubt.

Elsewhere Sunday, Lake Macquarie host Olympic and Maitland are away to Valentine. On Saturday, Broadmeadow travel to Edgeworth and Charlestown welcome Cooks Hill.

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