Jets coach Craig Deans believes Newcastle can hurt Sydney on the counter attack and rated striker Tara Andrews as key to an upset victory over the defending champions at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
Newcastle were comfortable in producing their first win of the season in Perth last round but face a much tougher assignment in the Sky Blues.
Strike weapons Caitlin Foord and Remy Siemsen have been ruthless for Sydney with six of their side's eight goals between them.
But Deans described Andrews as "technically one of the best players in the whole competition" and integral to their attacking raids.
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"I think we've got the speed to counter attack more effectively than most other teams ... we just need the quality of the passing to match the speed of the runs," Deans said.
"I think we saw that last week with Tara's pass for Teigan [Collister] and then Nicki [Flannery] got on the end of the cross to score. So we'll look at a similar sort of game plan to what we've had for most of the games and our asset is our speed and quality with Tara.
"Her awareness and her smarts on the ball are right up there with all of the bigger name players in the league, so for us she's really important and I think the speed that she has around her works to her favour."
Sydney have plenty of star power and plenty of ways to hurt teams and will be out to prove a point after sustaining their first loss of the season in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of City last round.
But the Jets' X-factor is fast emerging to be the unknown quality of their younger players.
"They've got a lot of speed. They have experience. They have quality players, individuals who can win games," Deans said.
"But the bonus of playing the top teams are that the players are all pretty well known and you know what's coming, so it's not a surprise.
"From our point of view, for everyone else, they're not really sure with a lot of our players what's coming at them, so that's working in our favour."
The Jets are fifth on four points after four rounds and a win this round would keep them in the mix for the top four ahead of the no-points bye in round six.
"I think realistically there's one finals position that's up for grabs," Deans said.
"Melbourne City and Western Sydney and Sydney FC are looking like they're going to be quite comfortable in those top three positions at the moment.
"But we've got the chance on the weekend to upset one of those three and keep ourselves in contention for the last spot."
Deans is facing his first selection headache of the season with defender Annabel Martin and attacker Renee Pountney coming into calculations. The pair have been sidelined through injury since the start of the season.
"It's the first time we've had to leave two people out so someone is obviously going to be disappointed but that's what you want as a player," Deans said.
"You want to know that you earned your spot and you want to know that if you perform you'll keep it. The girls who have not been in - Annabel and Renee - have got to work hard to get in there and the girls that are in there have got to make sure they work hard to not let those two back in."
The match kicks off at 4pm and is the first of a Jets double-header with the A-League clash between Newcastle and Melbourne City to follow.
