Matthew Crowley and Blake Thompson are back in the country and available for selection, with the Magpies likely to be further boosted with the pending transfer of Ryan Clarke.

Piggott will finalise his squad on Friday, with a Wednesday night catch-up fixture at home against Newcastle Jets Youth also in his calculations.

The Magpies are unbeaten, with a win and two draws, and will be chasing maximum points against Adamstown Rosebud at Adamstown Oval on Sunday.

The Bears will be without goalkeeper Benn Kelly and midfielder Robbie Turnbull who were both red-carded in last week’s 4-0 loss to Hamilton Olympic.

The Bears, who play Valentine at home on Sunday, have two draws from their four games, but have been unlucky not to record a win.

“We’ve played three of the red-hot favourites to win the comp and I think we have acquitted ourselves well,” Bears coach Trevor Morris said.

“It puts us in good stead for the upcoming games. We’ve got to be there on the day mentally and physically, but I’ll back these guys they’re doing well.”

Magpies coach Steve Piggott said the powerfully-framed Ben Martin will start up front for Maitland against Adamstown.

“Benny Martin will stick up front and he’ll be supported by Matthew Comerford on the right, possiby Jye McKellar on the left and Ryan Broadley helping the front men out,” Piggott said.

“We haven’t done really well yet, but we’ve done enough to be in matches.

“All we’ve got to do now is start to execute better in front of goal and things will start to fall into place,” he said.

”There’s a little pressure on us to start performing but we’re pretty close. 

“We’ve got four or five front-men who are capable to put goals in for us. we just need to execute a fraction better.”

Piggott said he was likely to rest a couple of players from Saturday’s game if the catch-up game against the Jets goes ahead.

“I’ll look for some fresh legs,” he said.

Morris will bring goalkeeper James Wand into the starting line-up and has a couple of options on the left-side to replace Turnbull.

“The team will be basically unchanged apart from those two positions,” he said.

Young defender Will Myers is one of those in consideration to come into the side after recovering from concussion

“He came back in 22s last week and he came through good, so he’ll be in calculations,” Morris said.

“It’s a good mixture, all we need is a couple of victories now and we’ll make giant strides.”