Newcastle Olympic looking to get on a roll in NPL men's

Now comes the momentum part.

Olympic, who had a 1-1 draw with in-form Weston, meet Cooks Hill at Fearnley Dawes Athletics Field (5pm) on Saturday in round five.

Griffiths, who steered Olympic to fifth last year, asked for a response last week after a 3-2 loss to a Magic side who played with 10 men for an hour.

"My message last week was to build momentum off something, so we grinded out a result," Griffiths said.

"I don't think we were better than them, but being such a young group, I think it's just important to stay in the contest and that's in terms of the season as well.

"You'd be surprised what a point can do. We've had a good week, but we've just got to build off that now and get some confidence."

Hindering his efforts is the loss of centre-backs Marcus Duncan (knee) and Luke Rutledge (hamstring). Duncan is out for another month, while Rutledge picked up a slight strain against Weston.

In contrast, Cooks Hill will be trying to hit back from a first loss of 2023 - 2-0 to Magic. Rebuilding under new coach Chris Zoricich, an ex-Jets teammate of Griffiths', Cooks Hill have five points - one more than Olympic.

"I think Chris has done a really good job considering everything," Griffiths said.

"It's not easy with the limited amount of information he had [about the league], and I try to help him out with the teams he's coming up against ... but I obviously didn't call him this week."

Zoricich, who has Matt Berrigan (hamstring) out, was happy with the second-half effort last week after being 2-0 down at halftime.

"That's something we've worked on all pre-season, to get that fighting spirit, so that was pleasing," Zoricich said.

"But to get the wins against these better sides, we need to take our chances and with some of the goals we've conceded, the defending hasn't been great. Against the better sides, you'll get punished.

"But this week I think it's two sides who are a little bit indifferent in terms of results so far, but heading in the right direction overall."

Zoricich was wary of the young Olympic line-up

"They are a good side and strong all over the park," he said.

"Obviously results haven't quite gone their way. I was at the game when they conceded the last-minute goal against Magic. They were unlucky there. They created quite a few chances and probably on the second-half performance should have got a result.

"I don't they are far away from getting a result. Hopefully it's not this week. I think it will be a pretty even game.

"Even though we lost last week to a good side, I felt like we gave a good account of ourselves, especially in the second half.

"If we can put away our chances, hopefully that can translate into a result for us."

Also on Saturday, New Lambton play Valentine at Darling Street Oval (2.30pm) and Maitland host Weston (7.30pm). On Sunday (2.30pm), Edgeworth are away to Lakes and Charlestown host Adamstown.

Broadmeadow played Lambton Jaffas on Friday night.

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