WITH hopes of a top four finish well and truly extinguished, Lake Albert coach Anthony Gardiner has set his sights on a new target.

Football Wagga's new system has given the Sharks added incentive, with finishing top of second tier the new focus.

The competition splits in a fortnight with top four teams to play a further three rounds against each other, while the bottom five play two more games before its finals football starts.

With a five-team finals series, earning the extra week off to start is another opportunity for the wounded Sharks to recuperate.

Lake Albert needs to finish on top of the second tier to secure the extra bye.

And a win against fifth-placed Cootamundra on Sunday will go a long way towards achieving that.

"A week off would be ideal," Gardiner said.

"It will certainly help us due to the fact we are struggling with injuries, but in saying that we've got a week off next week as well."

Injuries have plagued the club all season and things didn't get any better during the team's 4-0 loss to Junee last Sunday.

Defender Nathan Downie suffered what is believed to be a season-ending knee injury in the loss to the Jaguars to compound the club's injury woes.

Skipper Hayden Callander remains in doubt with a hamstring injury, but in some good news strikers Jonathon Harris and Michael Babic are expected return to tackle the Strikers.

Cootamundra remain a chance to steal fourth from Junee and Gardiner is expecting them to come out firing.

"Knowing Cootamundra they will fight right to the end of the season that's for sure," he said.

"It's been close between us, we had a 0-all draw over in Coota so we are hoping a bit of home ground advantage will help us."

Defence has been the Sharks' biggest frailty, conceding 51 goals so far this season, five times more than ladder leaders Wagga United.

"It's quite obvious that our defence has let us down over the back end of the season," Gardiner said.

"We need to tighten that defence up as we seem to be leaking goals at the wrong time of the half.

"Going into the last 15 minutes of halves we are leaking goals and that's something we can't do."

The defensive dramas has Lake Albert's points differential well into the red, another negative as they look to close the five-point gap to Cootamundra.

THE grand final venue has been locked in, but the road to the big game isn't quite as clear.

With the rebirth of Football Wagga this season, a second tier competition has been introduced.

Following round 18 games on August 3, the top four teams will play off for the Pascoe Cup, while the bottom five will play for the Pascoe Plate.

Both competitions will culminate on grand final weekend of September 13-14.

The plate final will be held on the Saturday night and was introduced as an incentive for the competition's four new teams.

Junee, Tumut, Temora and South Wagga have all returned to first grade this year, creating a nine-team competition.

"As a collective group of clubs it was decided, as teams felt they wouldn't be competitive with the stronger clubs, they would still have something to play for," senior vice-president Ian Hardinge said.

The traditional four-team finals format will remain for the top tier, but an extra week of finals will be required for the lower tier.

The Pascoe Plate finals kick off on August 24 with the top ranked side to have a bye when the four other teams start their finals campaign.

Teams will play in its division before the finals begin, with each Pascoe Cup teams to play each other once more.

With the top four still undecided, the draw for the latter stage of the season has not been created yet.