Newcastle Jets strip colours
Newcastle Jets fans are angry that their new owner Nathan Tinkler wants to change their jersey colours without consulting them. Sounds fair to me: off with his head then? Well, no, leave it on thanks. It’s quite good.
If Tinkler had come along and wanted to change a classically beautiful jersey, one that a whole geographical region strongly identified with, one with a long history – not six years, born from a more or less fabricated franchise – and then wanted to change to some bold new-age design of odd colours and lightning bolts all over it, sure, hang him.
If Tinkler wanted to disrupt a fine working club, with robust full stands and a pumping economy, to fulfill some selfish desire, I’d cheer as he dropped.
However, this is not the situation.
Far from it.
The current Newcastle jersey is simply foul, more repellent than insecticide – a subjective call, perhaps, but true.
Tinkler wants to change from an odd meaningless jersey to a classic meaningful football design, not the other way around.
Newcastle has huge potential but is not achieving it.
It must grow into a strong regional product, or die. To achieve growth you must entice, and you must have meaning.
Sport is largely a tribal matter.
Both proposed jerseys, home and away, are very attractive items, which is rare for the oddly attired A-League. Judging by the released pictures, they will be the best jerseys in the league, full stop, you don’t need an art degree to determine that.
They are representative of the region.
The black and white away strip derived from the tradition of the north coast representative teams is a nice historical touch – I used to play in that jersey as a 12-year-old.
Very nice. Meaningfulness.
Style and meaning in the jersey, offers great opportunity to reach out to those on the fringes who are potential supporters, but currently are not supporters possibly because it all means nothing to them, the current odd colours don’t connect the synapses.
The only thing I know about the current jersey is it surely was born from the shallows of some lunatics mind.
Adrian Musolino of The Roar joined the chorus implying Tinkler doesn’t understand football culture and the fans. Really?
A good classical meaningful jersey is incredibly powerful and has been wildly overlooked by the A-League. Now, that comrades, that, is not understanding football culture and fans.
I propose that Tinkler actually does understand football culture. Very well, in fact.
Classic sexy jerseys, that is football culture.
Tinkler has invested a lot of money into this club, largely a philanthropic endeavour. But he won’t fork out forever just to pay football players and keep an economically unsustainable fan base happy.
Who would?
Newcastle has already lost one rich chap because he was losing too much money. You can’t afford to lose this guy – it will be your end.
Newcastle football fans, you should embrace this change. You are the ones, with your funny jumping and passion, that will entertain the new arrivals to your club.
The new arrivals, enticed by identity with a meaningful and good looking jersey, one that actually matches the colour schemed seats of your ground, too – rather than the current clash of colour stating this is a secondary team in the main regional teams stadium, as it currently does.
Don’t make Tinkler feel bad. He’s trying very hard to help you.
The move to this new jersey and colour scheme is the best decision any club has made in six years, applaud it. It suits you, Sir.
greg
Guest
Agree totally. The new jumper looks great...a classic design and with colours locals can identify with. The old colours were too similar to Central Coast, as well.
Johnno
Guest
Barcelona F.C and Newcastle in England.
True Fan
Guest
It is a great new strip we got!...Also the Alternate strip looks the part too... Only the nay sayers think it's not good! For F*** sake!... Our shirt clashed with the Central Coast Mariners... for a team 1 hour down the road this is not good! I'm all for the change!.... GO THE JETS!!!
Joshua Lloyd
Guest
Ok - your question in this reply casts a lot of doubt on your qualifications to write about Newcastle. OF COURSE IT BLOODY WAS - we have coal, they have coal. The main point your article misses (and the word is not used once) is KNIGHTS. A lot of people identify and support the Jets in gold, particularly families, largely because they are NOT the Knights. Families, and a much younger crowd, love the Jets because the players (and also the fans) don't have the same bad reputation as Knights players/fans (GET 'EM ONSIDE!) Making our Jets jerseys pretty much a shinier version of the Knights 1997 grand final winning jersey will not keep that feeling going.
Jon
Guest
"Funktapuss said | February 14th 2011 @ 7:56am (2 days ago) | Report comment Agree 100 %. The goldish coloured Jets strip is a shocker. The Port Melbourne style blue and red vertical stripes is lovely. It’ll sell well and looks good on the tele." Ohh yeah, Port Melbourne is exactly what I thought of first. Not the fact that it looks exactly like Barcelona's current jersey, even the yellow collar FFS
Dain Whitelaw
Guest
As a Sunderland fan living in Newcastle (Aus), you can forget my one-time support! Hell will freeze over before I cheer for a team called Newcastle who play in Black and White stripes. Go the Mariners!
Jeb
Guest
both the home and away shirts look great. Definately agree that they'll be the benchmark for the league. now just to alter the strips and names of all other clubs! Kidding, kidding - there's a couple of ok ones in there. But some absolute stinkers. Unfortunate that the best team ever in the a-league are dressed like high-viz clowns rather than footballers.
Phil
Guest
The Jersey's look great and I'm an Adelaide United supporter. Can't wait to see it next year, well done Mr Tinkler.
sydboz
Guest
Exactly, both clubs run by one owner, makes a whole lot of marketing and economic sense. I think Newcastle fans should remember without Tinkler, they probably wouldn't even have a club to support.
sydboz
Guest
agreed but that's not the issue of the club, that's an issue with Ben Buckley and his idiotic policies. I think the Newcastle jerseys look fantastic. On another issue I'm still waiting for the western sydney jerseys to come out, oh wait, we don't even have a club yet. Another Ben Buckley moronic policy.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
Manchester United played in green and gold for a few years
Roddster
Guest
I very much doubt the fans voted in the Gold Jersey did they !!!??? The new ones look great and have a very newcastle look about them. We'rent the breaker in the same colours...why does it matter about the design. Clubs around the world change their strip every year. I might even buy one of the new strips. I would never have bought a Gold one. We used to say that the Blue Away strip should have been the home strip.
tom brewther
Guest
and they need to put the a-leage logo on the sleeve like every other leage does
tom brewther
Guest
the strip looks good.... way beter than that wu tang shiny looking gold strip, i dont wanna se michael owen running around in that the a-leauge hasnt got many good strips. the only good strips in my opinion are the heart, victory, wellington, central coast, and adelaide (except needs to be a darker red) while perths strip is average the likes of brisbane, with their morone shoulder bits with orange base and marrone shorts looks hideous... only roma can pull those kind of colours off with their marrone kit, north queenslands kit look like warm up shirts, while sydneys blue is boring, jets shiny gold is looks stupid, gold coasts bright yellow strip with those blue shorts aint good either. i suggest that the writer of this coulmn is just too tight to afford a new strip.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Good point Phil,democracy does not meen the popular vote is beneficial . Voting on popular orf party lines is essentially a non-thinking vote. Some of the best decisions are made by strong leaders who go against popular sentiment. Firstly you want a strong,financially viable club. Good players that can win a premiership and a coaching structure that builds bench strength. Tinkler may well turn around and say i didn't promise you a rose garden. Let him decide the jersey and get behind him. There are not too many Knights in shining armour roaming around.
jamesb
Guest
I don't know why Newcastle jets fans should be angry with the design change of their jersey. Some jets fans say "gold forever", yet you look at the newcastle jets logo, it has blue and red anyway. So really tinkler and his crew ain't changing colours, their just following whats on the logo. Currently, the newcastle strip along with the fury are the worst in the A-league. Yet this new jersey, I reckon is the best in the A-league, its beautiful, better than the knights jersey. I remember 20 odd years ago, the Penrith Panthers in the NRL had a brown jersey, which was nicknamed the "chocolate soldiers". That was awful. Since then the panthers have had a couple of changes in design, now its a predominant black jersey. Panthers fans don't seem to mind with their jersey changes, so why should jets fans.
bergkamp
Guest
Which is a fair point. It differentiates the Jets supporters from the Knights supporters - the fact they are primarily Football fans not NRL. Now they just merge into one. I personally like the new kits, but certainly understand their position.
macavity
Guest
Correct. The original settlement (c1801) at the mouth of the Hunter was called "Kings Town" (or alternatively, "Coal River") Name changed in 1804 in honour of the great coal port of the North East, Newcastle upon Tyne. There are also a lot of suburb names that hark back to Newcastle upon Tyne - Hexham, Jesmond, Wallsend, Wickham, Gateshead. /end history lesson.
phil osopher
Roar Guru
I did originally actually write that 'some' fans are upset, but it sounds less dramatic. The ones who weren't upset weren't making noise either, it was 100% saturation of angry comments all over the web. No, the gold strip should be destroyed totally, not an away shirt. It's not a matter of following one or the other, a club or shirt. Its not an either or. They are closely linked like identical twins. The shirt is extremely important. It is like a flag. Especially to football, there is nothing more important.
phil osopher
Roar Guru
I can sympatise with the desire to be consulted like in a democracy. But we're all brainwashed with democracy, the system has many flaws but we're not allowed to say that. Government can be democratic because the public is the only stakeholder. If I had invested that much money into a football club, I would be primarily concerned about the success of my investment. Inhereting a jersey like that, I wouldn't dare risk a vote on a jersey choice. What if they voted to keep the gold one, what would you do then? You would look pretty bad if you then insisted on changing it. Sometimes, dictators make some fine decisions, we're just bred to believe it is evil. No, not always.