The Blacks were battered and bruised in the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union qualifying final by Wanderers with Michael Howell and Travis Brooke left with concussion and Marcus Christensen and Chris Logan carrying bloody head wounds from the 35-19 loss.

But as they have done all season the Blacks picked themselves off the canvas and without Howell and Brooke overcame Merewther Carlton 25-17.

Howell is almost certain to miss this week and Brooke is rated 50-50 at best by Blacks coach Matt Thomas, but he believes with the same effort and execution as last week they can progress to their second grand final in a row against Hamilton Hawks in a week's time.

"It's a huge day for the club with first and second grade battling for spots in the grand final and the women's team playing in their first grand final," Thomas said.

"It's a big ask for all the teams, the women are playing against a Waratahs team which has not lost in two years and we are back against Wanderers who beat us comprehensively in the last game we played them.

"To be honest we're not worrying about Wanderers we are concentrating on what we need to do to win the game.

"We've got some metres in our legs after three weeks off and we've had a couple of games back to back which is going to help us.

"It is going to be a tough ask, this side (Wanderers) is a quality team, they beat us convincingly last time and it's up to us now to turn up and change that."

Thomas said confidence and sticking to the processes they had worked on all year would be the keys to winning.

"Working on confidence, working on keeping things very simple, working on the processes of what we have been working on all year will get us the win.

"We hadn't beaten Merewether at all this season and we came off a hard loss and it came down to a pretty physical and fast game. To our credit our defence won us the game. There were some really big efforts across the park."

Thomas said they were likely to stick with starting Pat Robards at inside centre again this week.

The move allowed for skipper Carl Manu to switch to outside centre and Chris Logan to go to fullback

"It gave Loges more time and space which is his game, it gives Carl exactly the same," Thomas said.

"But the reason the backline looked so good last weekend was the work our forwards did all game.

"This is the combination between forwards and backs that we need to keep going if we are going to beat Wanderers. We need to play as a squad for us to win."

Thomas said the commitment need to succeed was exemplified by the performances last week by Marcus Christensen, whose nose was broken in the first play, and Nick Davidson, who played 80 minutes suffering from gastro

"Marcus has his nose across his face. He is a very tough man, he is an old school player in the modern age. There are not a lot of players like Marcus," he said.

"Davo was asleep, vomitting in the change rooms, really struggling and than come out and played 80 minutes of high intensity, quality rugby against a very good opposition and it didn't show.

"He didn't want to tell me, but the cat come out among the pigeons and I asked him how he was feeling and he said 'I'm not going to let you down' and he certainly didn't. He was outstanding again."

1.30pm - 2nd Grade v Hamilton

3.15pm - 1st Grade v Wanderers

4.30pm - Lady Blacks v Waratah in the Women's Grand Final.