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- For the English club, see Newcastle United F.C.
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For current sports news on this topic, see Newcastle United Jets FC season 2007-08 |
| Newcastle United Jets FC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Newcastle United Jets Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | Jets | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle (Capacity 26,000) |
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| Chairman |  Con Constantine |
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| Manager | Gary van Egmond |
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| League | A-League | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006-07 | 3rd, Regular Season 3rd, Finals Series |
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Newcastle United Jets are an Australian professional football (soccer) club based in Newcastle, a city on the coast of New South Wales. The club currently competes in the A-League and plays its home games at Energy Australia Stadium. The club was formed in 2000 when it joined the National Soccer League as Newcastle United.[1]
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History
The first Newcastle based team to play in a national league was Newcastle KB United which was formed in 1978, one year after the inception of the National Soccer League (NSL). KB United's NSL licence was taken over by Adamstown Rosebuds in 1984 after the collapse of Newcastle KB United. Rosebuds renamed themselves Newcastle Rosebud United while they played in the NSL.
Newcastle Breakers
The licence was then taken over in 1991 by Newcastle Breakers which was formed out of NSW state league club Newcastle Australs. The Newcastle Australs were formed in 1952 by members of Gretna Austral. Newcastle Austral joined the state league in 1988. Gretna Austral's initial colours were violet and white.
Newcastle United
Newcastle United was formed in 2000 by Con Constantine from the remnants of the Newcastle Breakers club.[2] The Breakers was dissolved when Soccer Australia revoked its NSL license at the conclusion of the 1999/2000 season. At the formation of Newcastle United the home ground was moved back to where Newcastle KB United played, now known as Energy Australia Stadium.
Newcastle United Jets
Newcastle United was renamed as Newcastle United Jets when it joined the A-League in its inaugral 2005-06 season. 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. The club's logo depicts three F/A-18 Hornets, which the Royal Australian Air Force has based at Williamtown.
A-League
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.[3] Instead, the club signed Richard Money for the 2005-2006 season. In 2006 Money was replaced with Nick Theodorakopoulos after Money returned to England to take the manager's job at Walsall. 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. 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.[4] Director of Football Remo Nogarotto confirmed the club had made a bid to lure Collymore to the A-League for a four-match guest stint; however, the move had broken down within 24 hours of it being made public.[5] 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. 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 2nd, 2007. Newcastle were eventually eliminated in the preliminary final by Adelaide, the game going to penalties after finishing at 1 all. 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.
Colours and badge
Newcastle Jets plays in a gold top with navy and red trim and navy blue shorts and socks. The away top, like all A-League teams with the exception of Melbourne Victory, is white. The top has gold sleeves (a common A-League trait is to have the home colours on the sleeves of the away kit), with gold shorts and white socks to complete the change kit.
Stadium
Energy Australia Stadium is the home ground of the Newcastle United Jets and the Newcastle Knights. It has a capacity of 26,100. 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.[6] This broke a 52 year old record for a match in Newcastle, set when Australia played Rapid Vienna. It also broke the record set against the same club earlier in the season on New Years Day, where a crowd of 20,980 turned up to see a 2-0 loss.[7]. In the next few years, EAS will be turned into a modern, state-of-the-art 42,000-seat ground. This upgrade is as a result of plans to hold the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Australia. Newcastle would be one of the venues for this event, and minimum standards set by FIFA mean EAS is insufficient. This upgrade, though, means the Jets can grow immensely, as currently the poor viewer quality offered by EAS restricts attendances.
Supporters
The club's biggest supporters group is known as the Squadron which was formed in anticipation of the first ever a-league game between Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory. The squadron begun standing behind the goals on the southern hill however because of the layout of the stadium moved to Bay 2 of the Eastern Grandstand at EnergyAustralia Stadium, in a successful attempt to increase group coordination and noise level. As the club's performances improved throughout the 2006-07 season the Squadron's numbers grew rapidly and have continued to grow throughout the 2007-08 season. Plans are now being made to expand the group further left into bay 1 to decrease the severe overcrowding. This season also saw a small split in the group with some fans making the switch to the southern hill to join the Southern Hill Wingmen, however virtually all fans generally maintain a mutual respect and friendship. Other organized supporter groups exist both inside the squadron and independent of it. These groups include the Kamikaze Krew, the RSR and the Southern Hill Wingmen.
Rivalries
Due to its geographical proximity, Newcastle shares a strong rivalry with both NSW A-League clubs.
- Central Coast Mariners- Newcastle's biggest rival, the two teams fought out a tough semi-final tie in the inaugural A-League season's Finals competition. Also, star Mariners striker Nik Mrdja broke the leg of Newcastle defender Andrew Durante,[8] earning him a tag as Newcastle's "hate-boy". Newcastle broke their crowd record against the Mariners with more than 14,000 turning up to see a comfortable 3-1 victory, although this has since been overtaken.
- Sydney FC- Originally only considered rivals due to their locations, the two clubs are now bitter competitors. The Jets set their all-time record attendance of more than 24,000 at the home leg of the semi-final tie between the two in the competition's second season. Many of Newcastle's best were of Sydney origins.
Squad Composition
Newcastle's current team is made up of diverse groups of players. After the successes of South American players in previous seasons such as Fred for Melbourne and Milton Rodriguez for the Jets, the club has looked in predominantly this region of the world for its overseas players. After failed attempts to sign little known but promising players such as Flavio Barros and Livio Prieto, the Jets were successful in attracting Mário Jardel,[9] Jorge Drovandi and Denni. With 3 of the allowed 4 foreign players in the squad all South Americans, it makes Newcastle the second biggest recruiter of South Americans in the A-League behind Wellington. Along with this South American element Newcastle's squad also consists of a large amount of local players. These players have usually risen through the ranks of the local NBN League. This includes notable players such as Stuart Musialik, Ben Kennedy and Jobe Wheelhouse as well as rising youth players Jason Hoffman and Ben McNamara. A number of Newcastle Jets players have played for the Australian national team. New coach Pim Verbeek named six Jets players (more than any other A-League team) for a training camp ahead of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.[10]
Current squad
- As of 28 October 2007
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Notable Former Players
- Ante Milicic
Labinot Haliti
Mateo Corbo
Milton Rodriguez- Ned Zelic
- Nick Carle
- Paul Okon
Vaughan Coveny
Managers
Ian Crook (2001–2004)- Richard Money (2005–2006)
- Nick Theodorakopoulos (2006)
- Gary van Egmond (2006–present)
Honours
- A-League Championship:
- Semi-Finalists: 2005–06
- Preliminary Finalists: 2006–07
Top Goal Scorers
A-League regular season and finals goals.
Last updated 16 December 2007
| Name | Goals | Games | Average | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joel Griffiths |
16 | 37 | 0.43 | 2006-present |
| 2 | Mark Bridge |
10 | 42 | 0.24 | 2005-present |
| 3 | Vaughan Coveny |
9 | 31 | 0.29 | 2005-2007 |
| 4 | Ante Miličić |
7 | 20 | 0.35 | 2005-2006 |
| 5 | Milton Rodriguez |
7 | 21 | 0.33 | 2006-2007 |
| 6 | Nick Carle |
7 | 43 | 0.16 | 2005-2007 |
| 7 | Matt Thompson |
6 | 63 | 0.10 | 2005-present |
Women's Team
This is the team selected for the first womens series against Sydney FC womens before the Central Coast Mariners derby.
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References
- ^ Newcastle Jets History. Newcastle United Jets FC. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Cockerill, Michael. "Con's old style autocracy the wind beneath Jets' wings", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2007-11-02. Retrieved on 2007-11-02.
- ^ Hall, Matthew. "No Venables for A-League", The Age, 2004-11-28. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Goffet, Neil. "Jets swoop for English bad boy Collymore", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-19. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Cockerill, Michael. "One-night Stan: Newcastle's courtship of Collymore dies with the dawn", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Minor Semi Final - 2nd Leg - 2 February 2007. Football Federation Australia (2007-02-02). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Newcastle Jets V Sydney - 1 January 2007. Football Federation Australia (2007-01-01). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ "Nick sick over tackle", Fox Sports, 2005-05-10. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ "Jets sign Brazilian Jardel", Fox Sports, 2007-08-14. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Gardiner, James. "Six of the best in Socceroo squad", The Herald, 2008-01-03. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
External links
- Official club website
- Official A-League website
- Unofficial supporters website
- Official Squadron website
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