JETS captain Brandon O'Neill has warned his teammates not to underestimate struggling champions Central Coast Mariners in Saturday's A-League derby in Gosford.
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Since last season's memorable grand final triumph, Newcastle's arch-rivals have fallen upon hard times, losing coach Nick Montgomery to Scottish Premier League outfit Hibernian, as well as key players including Socceroo Jason Cummings (India).
Their 6-1 hammering of Melbourne City in the 2022-23 decider is a fast-fading memory after losses to Adelaide (3-0), Macarthur (2-1), Perth (2-0) and Brisbane (2-1), which have left Central Coast in the competition cellar.
Seventh-placed Newcastle, in contrast, are coming off a 1-0 win against Western United and a second consecutive victory could lift them into the top six.
Regardless of what rungs both teams occupy on the ladder, O'Neill expects them to lift for a derby.
"After watching a lot of how they do things this year, they've been quite unlucky," O'Neill said.
"I know they've been on the wrong side of results, but they haven't been far away.
"And especially when you haven't won a game, you're desperate. Especially in the first 10 or 15 minutes, if we don't rock up in the frame of mind that we're there to win a football game, and compete in a derby, it could be bad news for us."
O'Neill said the Mariners "haven't had the rub of the green" this season but Newcastle were more concerned about their own preparation and performance than their opponents.
"You don't really think about what they've done," he said. "You just think: 'It's a derby match, how good is this?'"
The match was initially scheduled for McDonald Jones Stadium, but damage caused to the pitch by the recent supercross motorcycle event has resulted in it being transferred to Gosford.
Newcastle will still host the Mariners in two games this season - in round 19 and then in the final preliminary round - and O'Neill had no complaints about the fixture switch.
"To be fair, not many players batted an eyelid," O'Neill said.
"It is what it is ... it's not like we're missing out on a home game. We get that home game obviously at the back end of the season.
"The first four out of five games away, [that means] the last five games we'll have four of them at home and hopefully we're coming home with a wet sail.
"We're thinking about it like that.
"It's only up the road, Central Coast. It's not far and we've just got to bring a lot of Newcastle fans."
After two draws, one loss and the win against Western, the Jets freshened up during last week's bye and O'Neill is excited about how the team is progressing under first-season coach Rob Stanton.
"We're on the verge of being able to create this momentum shift of enjoying winning football games," he said.
"The lads really did [enjoy] the last one. We've been so close previously.
"I feel like we're just maturing as a group and a win this weekend will go a long way to just nudging that confidence that this is what we can do. We're a good side and we can really mix it and have a crack and get results."
