The Football Tragic

From the solid South Australians to the A-League club that has made the news for all the wrong reasons over the past month.

Newcastle Jets

It has been, to put it euphemistically, an interesting off-season up the Hunter. A new coach, a number of changes in personnel, a couple of highly-publicized ego clashes, and a poor start to the Pre-Season Cup.

One player will be missed particularly from last season. Ante Milicic, perhaps the most accomplished finisher still plying his trade in Australia, has departed for Queensland after having his thoughtful style subordinated to the dreary long-ball tactics of Richard Money for much of last season. Vaughan Coveny, the recipient of many of those long balls, has come back to the club, but there has been no proper replacement for Milicic as yet.

Mark Bridge partnered Coveny in the Jets’ most recent hitout against Sydney. Bridge’s form in the state league has been ordinary, however, and one would think that Tolgay Ozbey, a pacy, energetic young attacker who has come off a substantial season with Blacktown, should be given a try as a partner for Coveny before long.

Paul Okon’s return to Australian football, in his preferred sweeper role, will be fascinating to watch. Most of the reports of his performances so far have been cautiously positive; despite his seemingly endless run of injuries, Okon is very much a class act, and could prove even more influential than the increasingly moody Ned Zelic.

If Okon has arrived in Newcastle after a wearisome journey through the leagues of Europe, Tony Faria and Adam D’Apuzzo, like Ozbey, have stepped up from the anonymity of the state league. Faria, a former Northern Spirit player and a star for Marconi in the early part of the winter, has pace, but, in the opinion of his critics, little else. From the little I’ve seen of him, he appears to operate best with a target-man type in the centre, allowing him to do his work on the flanks. In the centre, he is far less effective.

D’Apuzzo, who, like Faria, favors a position on the left, is a graceful and skilful player, but appears vulnerable to pace and strength. I was there to see him being relentlessly out-muscled by the Sydney United midfield in the state league minor semi-final, and he apparently experienced similar troubles against Sydney FC’s speedy Robbie Middleby in the recent match in Canberra.

One piece of good news has been the return of Andrew Durante after his horrific injury at the hands - or rather the feet - of Nick Mrdja in the Jets’ first competitive game last year. He will add experience and class in defence, although it may be a while before he recovers full match-fitness; against Sydney, it seems, he was still slightly off the pace.

Liam Reddy’s departure has meant an opportunity for local boy Ben Kennedy. Although the signing from Broadmeadow has made a bright enough beginning for the Jets, Nick Theodorakopoulos will surely want to add an established ’keeper to the squad before the A-League begins.

And so to the new Jets manager. He has clearly (in fact, somewhat blatantly) been angling for an A-League job for some time, and now he has his chance. But the beginning of his reign has not been altogether sure-footed; clashes with first Ned Zelic, then new club captain Okon - the latter apparently arising, in part, from some loose-tongued discussion of Okon’s remuneration by Theodorakopoulos - have not exactly enhanced his reputation. Nor, to be frank, did his appearances on SBS’s World Cup studio panel. His pronouncements were often ill-considered and bizarre, in my opinion.

Life is never boring at Newcastle Jets FC, but one wonders if they will be finals material this time around. There appears to be a lot still to sort out.