To see Newcastle Jets' latest training session...

The talisman of the Championship-winning side has vowed to bounce back from last weekend's 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Melbourne Victory.

And a key part of the future success of the Jets depends on the club getting the most out of Ecuadorian marquee signing Zura.

But Griffiths admitted it's been hard yakka getting a partnership built up with his new team-mate.

"It's hard - we've still got a lot to learn," he admitted to au.fourfourtwo.com. "It's difficult to understand someone's game so quickly.

"We have to try to get a few combinations going together. If we don't do that, it's going to be very frustrating in front of goals."

He added: "He doesn't speak the best of English - in fact he doesn't speak any English at all.

"He has to do all the basics right. If you do all the basics like hold the ball up and make good runs, you will score a lot of goals. It will come.

"He has to involve not just himself but all the other players around him upfront."

At training yesterday, Zura was put through extra fitness work and had an injury scare midway through the session with a stubbed toe but returned to action quickly.

"I think he'll be all right," said Joel. "He needs a little bit of fitness - he's way off the mark in that department.

"The sooner he gets fitter, the better he'll be for it. It just needs some hard work."

But Griffiths admits current league leaders Melbourne Victory have set a new benchmark in the A-League - and are quite simply the team to beat for anyone looking for success this season.

Now Joel and his side are focussing on rebuilding their confidence after their dismal thrashing.

"It's the defeat we needed to have," he said. "We've got something to prove now. We were too relaxed towards ourselves and more importantly towards the fans.

"We're champions for one reason - because we work harder, and we have to do that and do it better. If we do that, then I think we'll be all right.

"It's been a wake-up call."

Griffiths conceded the massive changes to all the clubs since the grand final had made their hopes of retaining the trophy this year all the more difficult.

"Every game in the A-League is so hard now. The teams are so good," he said.

"It's going to be a lot tougher than last year because there's a lot of new fresh faces that have come in.

"If we turn up half-hearted as we did against Melbourne, we're just going to get mauled."

He added: "When you look at Victory with the likes of Tom Pondeljak and Nick Ward on the bench - they just have so much depth. They are the team to beat.

"If we can keep up with them then we're doing a good job."

To see Newcastle Jets' latest training session...