The man stepping up as Jets coach following Gary van Egmond's departure

Van Egmond parted ways with the Jets on Monday to head up the national youth women's program in China and the club installed Campbell as their head coach in an interim capacity.

Former New Zealand international Leo Bertos has come in as Campbell's assistant.

"When Gary let me know that he was accepting the position in China, one of the first things I said to him was, 'You do realise that it means you're going to have to have some Zoom calls and discussions about what you think and for me to bounce ideas off'," Campbell told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday.

"And to be honest, I think the respect that Gary and I have for each other, he'll also want to run some things by me that he might be doing over there as well because we've obviously worked with each other so often for a consistent amount of time."

Campbell has served as van Egmond's assistant since midway through last season and hopes to lead Newcastle to their first finals appearance in six years.

Van Egmond overhauled the roster this campaign to have the Jets caught in a three-way tussle for fourth place with 10 rounds remaining.

Campbell faces a tough first-up test against defending champions Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday night.

"It doesn't get much harder than playing against last year's winners, and we're presuming that [Matildas star] Cortnee Vine is working her way back to full fitness as well, so we're preparing with the mindset that she'll be playing," Campbell said.

"But, for me that's exciting because I've got a lot of belief in the girls. I've got a lot of belief in what we've been doing already.

"I've been lucky to have been able to work with Gary and to obviously see how he does things on a daily basis. He always included me in all of the decisions that we made in terms of tactical and technical and decisions for teams on the weekend.

"So, from a general point of view, what people will see from the team will be very similar."

Campbell was born in Scone but has lived in Newcastle since he was seven.

The former striker turned to coaching after four knee reconstructions between the ages of 15 and 19 prematurely ended his playing career.

The 33-year-old oversaw the skills acquisition phase (nine to 13 years) of the inaugural Emerging Jets program, which began in 2013, and coached Adamstown in NPLW Northern NSW between 2020 and 2023.

Campbell is a primary school teacher but took a step back last year to focus on pursuing an elite-level coaching career.

He has an A licence and is working towards his pro licence.

Jets executive chairman Shane Mattiske told the Herald on Monday the club would run a process to appoint a permanent coach and expected Campbell to be a candidate.

For the mean time, Campbell is focused on the immediate job at hand and expects to have a full complement of players available this weekend.

Vine produced a late winner as Sydney beat the Jets 1-0 in a tight round-seven encounter at No.2 Sportsground on December 10.

The Sky Blues were third on 19 points, two ahead of Newcastle, Western Sydney and Western United, before facing Central Coast (15) in Sydney on Wednesday night.

"I'll obviously bring my own spin to how things might be done a little bit or maybe decisions on players," Campbell said.

"Some players might come into the team who haven't been in the team, and that's obviously going to come down to performance in training and maybe some minor tweaks that I'll make.

"But, on the whole, it's going to be a very seamless transition where the girls will be able to just keep doing what they've been doing because it's been working for them."

The Jets are unbeaten in their past three starts and produced an important 2-1 win over Brisbane (13) during Unite Round in Sydney last Saturday night.

"Last week was nowhere near the greatest performance that we've had, but as a team we're starting to develop a bit of resilience where we don't play our best but we still can get a result," Campbell said.

"That is something that last year when we came in wasn't there in regards to there would be periods of the game where for 20 minutes the opposition would get on top and they would win the game.

"The girls have developed the confidence now of really digging in, working together, being competitive so that they can win the match.

"The last two days at training have been really good in that, yes, there's obviously been a change in coach ... however, I've been doing a lot of coaching anyway, so it's been good for them to get that feeling of it's not exactly the same but it's a very similar process to what we're already doing."