Athletic-Marist is hoping to turn a fighting win into a launching pad.
The club registered its first win in the Citizen Shield this season with a 31-29 win against Kurow at the weekend.
Athies had trailed 21-14 at halftime but rallied.
Manager Graham Pitches said he was pleased for the players, who had been putting in a lot of hard work without reward.
"We started [the season] off pretty well but then sort of let ourselves down," Pitches said.
The 40-14 loss to Old Boys earlier this month was not the greatest outing.
But there are good team numbers and the morale is high.
And the win at the weekend has helped keep its playoff prospects alive.
"That’s definitely that goal."
The team is in fifth place on eight points.
Valley leads the competition standings with 23 points from Old Boys (20 points), Maheno (15) and Kurow, while Excelsior is in last place with six points.
The top four progress through to the playoffs, and that is very much the goal for Athies.
It will be leaning on the likes of talented first five-eighth Abel Magalogo to help it get there.
He has made his way south from Auckland and has had a big impact.
He is the team’s top try-scorer with six and has been slotting goals at a reasonable success rate.
Magalogo found willing support last week from the versatile Mosese Aho. He has been packing down at No8 but impressed at centre in the win against Kurow.
He runs hard and straight and that is exactly what the side needed. He is very solid defensively as well.
Athies plays Valley this week and the competition frontrunners are likely to use their set piece and rolling maul to apply pressure.
Prop Lisivaini Tu’ifua will enjoy the challenge. He has been powerful for Athies up front and has carried strongly.
He is also keeping up his side in the scrum and his muscle will be needed when the team is called on to repel those beloved rolling mauls.
