One of the real strengths for the Magpies this season, they will be without arguably their most lethal attacker in Tevita Pecili Lagimiri, five-eighth Livinia Tuicakau and inside centre Scott Blanch for the sudden death encounter.

The latter has a hamstring injury, while Lagimiri and Tuicakau are both out through suspension as a result of incidents in the major semi-final loss to Walcha.

READ ALSO:

Lagimiri received a red card in the final seconds of the game and won't play again this season but Tuicakau will be right to play should the Magpies get through. He is serving an automatic one match ban after picking up his third yellow card of the season.

It has forced a major reshuffle. Coach Peter Burke said Harry Snook will steer the ship at five-eighth, while Jeremy York will push in to partner a returning Richard Clegg in the centres. Kabati Matanakilagi comes onto the wing while Connor Robinson will wear the 15.

Far from an ideal situation, Burke spruiked their depth.

"We've still got a very strong team, very competitive team," he said.

"That's been the good thing about this particular year is that we've been able to call on some good depth within the club, it's just a pity we've had to call upon it in this particular game."

Love sport? Subscribe today and receive a sports fan discount.

On the flip side he is really happy with the forwards, which is where, from what he has seen of the Knights, he believes the game will be won and lost.

"We've got to meet the physicality of the Coffs Habour side," he said.

"And we've got a couple of little things up our sleeve that we'll be using to try and get over them."

The Magpies did get the win when they met during the round games but Burke isn't putting any weight on that result. The Knights side he saw play in the minor semi-final on Sunday was a "very different looking team" to the one they played.

One thing he did take away is that they will have "to be going from the whistle". The students conceded 14 points early and that pretty much proved the difference.

The Magpies had much the same issue against the Rams and with no second chance this time, know they can't afford a repeat.

In the same position last season and losing both of their finals games to miss the grand final, Burke made the comment post-match last week that they needed to learn about the intensity of finals and "how to lift ourselves".

From what he has seen this week, he expects them to be in a "much better frame of mind".

"The boys trained the house down on Thursday, there was marked change of attitude so here's hoping they understand from the last game what needs to be done," he said.

"It really is about the mental game.

"You can go out there and play a normal game of football but it's not a normal game because the result means so much more."