The 16s coach wasn’t impressed with his team’s attack in their 20-6 loss to the Bidgee Bulls, but with a home crowd at Bathurst’s Carrington Park behind them Hancock is confident they can bounce back.

“Newcastle have got a lot of players who were in the extended squad for Harold Matthews, so they’ve had six weeks of training before Christmas,” Hancock said.

“I feel like we match up really well with them but it’s all about getting the right attitude for this game. We had close to 18 errors in our last match, and the two before that would have had only nine or so combined.

“Ben Glasheen has been fantastic for us at fullback when we’ve been able to get him into the game, but we couldn’t do that last weekend. Of our errors 10 or so were inside our own 30 so there’s another 60 tackles we’ve had to do close to our line.

“We hung in there for the first half but all that left us with nothing in the tank for the second half. Hopefully we get things working again this game.

“Our boys from eight through to 13 need to step up. If we don’t do that then we aren’t going to create enough opportunities.”

Bathurst have strong representation in the match through Panthers quartet Nic Barlow, Nathan Ward, Brad Fearnley and Mackenzie Atkins.

The 16s kick-off at Carrington Park at 12.50pm.