Newcastle Jets
Although rumours persisted about captain Jade North and Adam Griffiths wishing to leave the club after being a part of the Socceroos squad that faced Singapore and China, both of which have chosen to remain with the Jets for the 2008-09 season. Most players who left the Jets suggested wage demands as the major issue with Jets owner Con Constantine refusing to allow players to utilise service agreements which would allow more flexibility under the salary cap. Forward Jason Naidovski was the first new player to sign on for the Jets for season 2008-09, arriving from the Australian Institute of Sport followed by right sided midfielder Shaun Ontong from Adelaide United, Defender Antun Kovacic soon followed as well as international recruits Jesper Håkansson and Edmundo Zura, who signed as the marquee player for season 2008-09. The Jets began the season with the Pre Season Cup where two draws and a loss saw them finish third in their group behind Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United. The regular season proved to be a disaster for the Jets. Newcastle were placed sixth and last in this competition, although a washed out game against Northern Spirit was never played as it did not affect the outcome of the top two. (All records as of round 14 2009-10) 1 Kennedy · 2 Costanzo · 3 D Apuzzo · 4 Topor-Stanley · 5 Miličević · 6 Kantarovski · 7 Song · 8 Thompson · 9 Petrovski · 10 de Groot · 11 Elrich · 12 Wheelhouse · 13 Ontong · 14 Bridges · 15 Rooney · 16 Hoffman · 17 Vignaroli · 18 Jesic · 19 Naidovski · 20 Young · 21 Mooy · 22 Patafta · 25 Haliti · 26 Al-Hilfi · .The alternate jersey will, however, revert to something a little more historic, in light of the club s 10th year celebrations in 2010. The Jets faced Pohang Steelers in their round of 16 fixture on June 24, crashing out of the competitioon 6-0 at the hands of the South Koreans. Preparations for the new season were thrown into turmoil when championship winning manager Gary van Egmond left the club for a lucrative job with the AIS.
Captain Paul Okon retired, fan favourite Milton Rodriguez returned to Colombia and Johnny Warren Medal winner Nick Carle moved to Turkey to link up with Gençlerbirliği S.K. Then, on May 6, the Jets grabbed two goals in the last two minutes to defeat Beijing in Newcastle 2-1.
The club competes in the A-League and plays its home games at Energy Australia Stadium (EAS). The club was renamed to project a new image and to prevent confusion with the English Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. The name Jets is a reference to RAAF Base Williamtown, located just 20 kilometres north of Newcastle.
Both the Jets and Mariners have qualified to take part in the 2009 AFC Champions League. After the success of the 2007-08 season a number of Jets players left the club including Mark Bridge and Stuart Musialik to Sydney FC and Joe Marston Medal winner Andrew Durante and Troy Hearfield to Wellington Phoenix. However this run has been ended by both clubs failure to qualify for the 2008-09 finals series. The Jets competed in the last four seasons of the National Soccer League under the name Newcastle United Brackets indicate statistics including NSL finals. † For season 2002-03 a round robin contest between the top six was undertaken to see who would be Grand Finalists.
Seven minutes into extra time Petrovski scored again to send the Mariners into their second Grand Final in three years. The Jets qualified for their first A-League Grand Final by beating Queensland Roar 3-2 after extra time in the 2008 Preliminary Final on 17 February 2008. After a heroic 1-1 draw in Japan against Nagoya Grampus, they lost 1-0 in the return fixture.
The club s logo depicts three F/A-18 Hornets, which the Royal Australian Air Force has based at Williamtown. Former England and Australia manager Terry Venables was reported as favourite to become the team s technical director, including reports from the Jets, but this was confirmed by Venables agent as a no-go . Acting on an urgent need to improve their attacking stocks, the Jets announced simultaneously the signing of Dutchman Donny de Groot from De Graafschap along with former Sydney FC and Mariners striker Sasho Petrovski. After the departure of high performance manager Ian Crook, the Jets signed former Sydney FC boss Branko Culina as their new Technical Director. The Jets got off to a bad start, losing 2-0 to Beijing Guoan in Beijing.
Wins in the last three competition rounds saw the Jets move up the ladder to equal points with the Central Coast Mariners, finishing the season in second place due to inferior goal difference. Following this victory though a run of poor results followed.
In 2006 Money was replaced with Nick Theodorakopoulos after Money returned to England to take the manager s job at Walsall. A few minutes into extra time the Jets were awarded a penalty as well, as Song Jin-Hyung was brought down in the box.
The Jets have won one A-League championship, defeating arch rivals the Central Coast Mariners 1 - 0 in the 2007-08 Grand Final. Throughout the season star striker Joel Griffiths broke the record for most goals in a regular season by scoring 12 in 21 rounds. The Jets started the season well without losing in their first 5 matches.
Although the Roar received another late penalty it was too late to stop the Jets march into the Grand Final. The Jets defeated the Central Coast Mariners in the 2007-08 A-League Grand Final, becoming A-League Champions for the first time. The game was sealed with a solitary Mark Bridge strike early in the second half. The Jets were able to dominate large portions of matches but were unable to translate that dominance to the scoreboard. Newcastle United s jersey for the 2009-10 season will retain the gold colour jersey, with navy socks and shorts and red trimming.
Instead, the club signed Richard Money for the 2005-2006 season. Standard songs/chants include, “We go by land and sea”, “The Newy Boys go one by one” and “When The Jets Go Flying In”.
Joel Griffiths was successful from the spot to restore the 1-goal advantage and a few moments later Tarek Elrich sealed passage into the Grand Final with a well timed shot to score his first A-League goal. The FFA are currently conducting a probe into the incident, although regardless of the outcome it seems that relationships between management and fans was at an all time low by the end of the season. In order to rebuild the team for the Champions League the Jets, very much in need of several new players, signed Perth defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley in early January 2008.
His assistant Gary Van Egmond was the caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2006-7 season, but has recently signed a contract establishing him as the coach of the Jets for the next three years. The club surprised many observers in the Australian game by signing Ned Zelic, a player who was seen to have severed connections with Australia after being dropped from the national team. Reports suggested the Jets were attempting to bring ex Liverpool and England striker Stan Collymore out of retirement. Under the leadership of Gary Van Egmond Newcastle has achieved the highest amount of points out of all clubs in their last fourteen games and have also scored the most goals. New recruits included Joel Griffiths twin brother Adam and previous European Golden Boot winner Mario Jardel.
The first ten days of February saw the Jets engage in a surprisingly successful flurry of transfer activity to bolster their squad for the impending Champions League before the February 11 date by which clubs are required to submit their squad lists. The Jets won the first leg at home 2-0 thanks to a first-half header from Adam Griffiths and a late penalty from his brother Joel.
Vaughan Coveny and Stuart Musialik missed their attempts in a shoot-out that ended up at 4-3 in favour of Adelaide, costing Newcastle their place in the grand final and a berth in the Asian Champions League. Version 3 of the A-League saw a number of Newcastle s biggest stars of the previous season leave the club. Although significant excitement surrounded the capture of Jardel, as time went by it was obvious he was well past his prime and received little game time.
The Squadron have also started a new tradition of singing the chorus to the INXS song “Never Tear Us Apart” before the start of the game and second half. In October 2006 after recording no wins during the Pre-Season Cup and during the first seven rounds of A-League matches, Theodorakopoulos became the first coach to be sacked in the club s A-League s history.
Prior to that game the football attendance record for a match in Newcastle stood for 52 years, set when Australia played Rapid Vienna. In the next few years, EAS will be turned into a modern, state-of-the-art 33,000-seat ground. At the formation of Newcastle United the home ground was moved back to where Newcastle KB United played, now known as EnergyAustralia Stadium. The Newcastle United club were reasonably successful, competing in two of the last three Final Series and finishing 2nd in the League behind Perth Glory in the 2001-02 season.
In response Constatine ordered five of the senior members of the Squadron up to his private box and verbally abused them, even threatening to throw Squadron president, Tim Verschelden off the balcony and banning him and others from future Jets games. This has subsequently created a public refit between the club and FFA over the possible FFA s involvement in inducing Van Egmond to break his contract to take up the new position.
It has a capacity of 26,164. The record crowd for a football match in Newcastle was set at EnergyAustralia Stadium on February 2, 2007 in the second leg of the A-League 2006-07 minor semi final against Sydney FC, in front of 24,338 people. The clubs colours were Blue and Red, somewhat traditional colours of the region also worn by the Newcastle Knights Rugby League team. Newcastle United was renamed as Newcastle United Jets when it joined the A-League in its inaugral 2005-06 season.
In December 2008, the Jets announced they had signed the 37-year old Spencer Prior for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season. Despite the Jets winning their last home game against Perth Glory a number of fans were involved in an ugly incident with club chairman Con Constantine who took offense to two actions from fans. The Squadron begun standing behind the goals on the Southern Hill, however because of the layout of the stadium, they moved to Bay 2 of the Eastern Grandstand at EnergyAustralia Stadium, in a successful attempt to increase group co-ordination and noise level.
The relationship between owner and FFA fell to the point where the club has threatened legal action against both Van Egmond and the FFA for breach of contract. The club began the season with a victory for the first time, downing Wellington Phoenix at home, followed by string of good results including being the first team to defeat A-League newcomers Gold Coast United. However, they rebounded with a 2-0 defeat of Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i back in Newcastle.
Newcastle United Jets FC is a professional football (soccer) club based in Newcastle, Australia. As a result of their good form under Van Egmond, crowds in Newcastle have reached all time highs for football - culminating in a crowd of over 24,000 for their home final against Sydney FC on February 2, 2007. Newcastle were eventually eliminated in the preliminary final by Adelaide, the game going to penalties after finishing at 1 all.
Firstly, the Squadron fan group hung their banners upside down as a silent protest of the poor season, and secondly, an unaffiliated fan had a banner stating Newcastle Jets: We ve been Conned , insinuating that the club s poor performances on the field are a direct result of the chairman s management of the club. The Breakers were dissolved when Soccer Australia revoked its NSL license at the conclusion of the 1999/2000 season.
The clash jersey will feature blue and red, with white and blue shorts and socks, in line with the old Newcastle United strips. EnergyAustralia Stadium is the home ground of the Newcastle United Jets and the Newcastle Knights. The Jets went on to play the Mariners in the two legged Major Semi Final.
Following this good start the Jets struggled for consistency until the end of the season, often winning against quality opposition but losing some vital home games. As the club s performances improved throughout the 2006-07 season the Squadron grew rapidly and continued to grow throughout the 2007-08 season. Due to its geographical proximity, Newcastle shares a strong rivalry with both NSW A-League clubs. See also:List of Newcastle United Jets FC players Australia Brazil Colombia Denmark Ecuador New Zealand Uruguay Brackets indicate statistics including A-League finals. Newcastle Jets along with Sydney FC, were the only clubs to qualify for every finals series in the first three seasons of the A-League.
The Jets led 1-0 until deep into injury time when the Roar were awarded a penalty which Reinaldo successfully converted, sending the match into extra time. The Jets qualified for the last 16 by defeating Ulsan Hyundai 1-0 away from home with Jason Hoffman scoring his debut goal to seal the win.
The game had its fair share of controversy as Mariners striker John Aloisi had a seemingly legitimate goal dissallowed and also missed a penalty. Steeled by the defeat in the first leg, the Mariners overturned the 2-0 deficit and led 2–0 at the end of 90 minutes of the second leg thanks to goals from Sasho Petrovski and Adam Kwasnik. Adding to this were Gary van Egmond s touchline ban after storming on to the pitch following a 2 – 2 draw with Perth.
In 2009 Newcastle Jets played in the AFC Champions League for the first time, reaching the Round of 16. The club was formed in 2000 when it joined the National Soccer League (NSL) as Newcastle United, and is one of only three former NSL clubs to appear in the A-League. Newcastle United was formed in 2000 by Cypriot-Australian businessman Con Constantine from the remnants of the Newcastle Breakers club. This upgrade means the Jets attendance figures can grow immensely, and will also qualify the Jets to host any Grand Finals they reach in the future. The main supporter base of the Newcastle Jets is known as the Squadron, which was formed in anticipation of the first ever A-League game between Newcastle and Adelaide United.
The Jets won only four out of twenty one matches and were rooted to the bottom of the ladder, missing the finals for the first time and collecting their first wooden spoon.
