Dear Con, Bad luck about Sunday. Your players (you own them right?) stuck it out til the death and performed admirably, if a little ugly.
You, and it’s all you, can give yourself a pat on the back for the season just completed. Your team has exceeded expectations and then some.
The problems for the Jets in season 09/10 were many.
There was your championship-winning coach, Gary Van Egmond, leaving weeks before season’s kickoff.
You had a marquee player in Fabio Vignaroli who promised much, occasionally delivered, and then busted his knee halfway through the season.
Joel Griffiths, a former (and what you hoped would be future) marquee player acrimoniously split from the club. He even threw in a childish tantrum in refusing to turn up to training which, amazingly, allowed you to claim the moral high-ground.
The Jets’ run of injuries forced supercoach Branko Culina to rely on weekend-scrappers (at best) such as Ben Kennedy and Jobe Wheelhouse.
These are all situations that would be legitimate excuses for not performing as well as the team did, so a few pats on the back to you Con.
The players and particularly the coach probably had something to do with it too – if you’ve got time, see if you can congratulate and thank them.
You could maybe pay them on time as a reward for their efforts – but don’t put yourself out.
Now the off-season starts.
You’re going to lose your captain in Thompson, your creative and unpredictable spark in Song, and probably a few more (Milicevic?, Abbas?, Vignaroli?, Costanzo? Others?).
You’re going to need to replace these quality players.
So this is what we, the loyal fans of Newcastle want you to do: We want an atmosphere at home games. We want people in the street to be talking about Song’s trickery, why Patafta should get more game time, Kennedy’s hair, and Petrovski’s usefulness as a poacher off the bench.
Ask any Novocastrain without one red and one blue eye and they’ll tell you the local sports fan is fickle.
The Knights’ crowds swell when they’re winning, they diminish quickly when they’re not. It’s the same with the Jets.
And there’s no better time to try to claim some Knights’ fans as your own.
This season crowd figures have dropped dramatically.
The A-League officials have said this was a “plateau” season. You’ve said you didn’t want Sunday games, and the stadium reconstruction has played its part.
All good excuses; but if the team wins the city will be struck down with gold-fever like it was in 07-08, and the turnstiles will keep rolling.
And in order to win we need quality recruitment which hasn’t been the club’s strong point in its short history.
We want, and the team needs, a striker that scores.
Jesic will be back and has potential, but it’s yet to be proven he can carry an attack. Basically, we miss Griffiths, but since you two have are on the speaking terms of Wayne Bridge and John Terry, we’ll do with someone similar.
Get out the chequebook, big fella.
With Song going, we’ll need a magician in midfield. Patafta, maybe, can fill this role, but while he is improving, we need more. Abbas played a beautiful through-ball for Elrich to stuff-up on Sunday – if he can do this regularly then he can, along with Patafta, fill the creative void.
Milicevic has been just about your best player all year. He’s as solid as Topor-Stanley, without the glaring mistakes the mop-haired fool often makes. If you lose him, you’ll have a hard time replacing him.
A like-for-like swap may not be necessary – a speedy, skilled defender could help compliment Topor-Stanley’s occasional bumbling, but you will need quality.
You have the formations of a good team. Your coach is one of the best in the A-League in terms of creativity and an attacking, attractive mode of play. You’ve got some good and some solid players.
To win the A-League, and win back the fickle fans of Newcastle, you’ll need one or two great players.
Congratulations on finishing fourth in the season gone, Con. But please, help Culina do better next year.
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