"The coach talked to us about it and said we can go over there with one of two mindsets," Adelaide defender Michael Marrone told The World Game.
"We can either go there thinking they're the team we beat 7-0 in Adelaide, the last time we played them, or they're the team that beat us 2-1 when we played them in Newcastle before that.
"I'm sure we'll all be making the second choice.
"When we went over there, in December, they hadn't won a game yet, but they set up well and countered us well and managed to get a result. So we're definitely going to be up for the game.
"This week, with the season only five rounds away from the finals, it wouldn't matter who we were playing, we need three points. We could be playing Newcastle, or Melbourne Victory, we could be playing anyone, but we've got to be up for the game because we need the three points.
"There are no easy teams or easy games in this league now. We won well that day against the Jets in Adelaide, but it's very rare to get results like that and they have clearly improved a lot since that day.
"They're definitely a lot more solid defensively. Teams are finding it hard to score against them. You look at their game against Sydney FC and it was getting late before Sydney finally got the breakthrough.
"Newcastle are going to be tough to break down, so we've got to be patient and keep playing like we've been playing."
The 7-0 hammering was the catalyst for behind-the-scenes drama to come out into the open at Newcastle. There have since been many changes to the playing, coaching and management rosters.
The Jets have mostly been very competitive since then, apart from one major slip-up when they were whipped 4-0 on the road by Melbourne City two rounds back.
Newcastle bounced back very strongly to beat Western Sydney Wanderers 2-1 on the road last weekend and Wanderers made that form look even better when they beat finals contender Brisbane 4-1 on the road in a midweek catch-up game.
After some indifferent recent form, Adelaide was back to its best in a pulsating, 2-2 draw at home against Victory last weekend.
"It's a funny old game sometimes," Marrone said. "We didn't play well against Mariners at home and got three points and then we came out and played an excellent game against Victory, where we controlled the game and created some excellent chances, but we only got a point.
"The result was disappointing, but we know we played well and we're trying to bring that form across to Newcastle for this game. If we can produce that kind of intensity every week from now on, we're pretty sure we'll be ending up near the top going into the finals.
"I'm assuming Newcastle are going to get behind the ball and make it hard for us, so it's up to us to combat that and still make something happen.
"Our preparation has been the same this week. The first focus is on us and how we want to play and then at the end of the week if there's something the coach wants to touch on we focus on that.
"At the end of this week we worked on how the Jets defend, how they drop behind the ball and what are we going to do to break them down.
"If there are particular movements from the opposition, we have to be sure we know where a defender needs to be at certain times. It comes up on video if a team has habits, so we know what to expect."
