Football Season Guide

Finishing in last place last season was a humiliating experience for Jets and in search of first play-off appearance in nearly a decade the first ever champions of the A-League appointed in charge Ernie Merrick, the coach with most wins under his belt as an A-League manager. The Scottish specialist quickly started reshaping the squad and with 11 players leaving and 10 new arriving Jets are hoping for much better things this term. Merrick discredited himself a bit in recent years with his naïve tactics while in charge of a talented Phoenix squad that underperformed constantly, but his experience is unquestionable and he will be looking to prove himself. Losing five regulars and both foreign centre forwards in the transfer window had to be addressed and despite shopping well Merrick still has limited options for certain positions and keeping the players healthy will be vital if Jets are to succeed. O’Donovan was signed to lead the attack in every game but, as the only other striker in the books at the minute is the young and inexperienced Kosta Petratos Jets are seen as an incomplete work in progress up front. At least the supporting act of O’Donovan should be good with Dimi Petratos returning to the A-League to claim the number ten role. Nabbout was Jets’ best player last season and he hopes to continue his strong displays down the wings, while two more new signings make it for an impressive trio behind O’Donovan. Vargas and Champness are both seen as great additions and the main issue with the former is his long history of serious injury, while Champness might have scored 4 goals in his first 3 appearances for the club in pre-season, but he is yet to play at A-League level and this campaign will be a learning curve for him. In past years Merrick was constantly criticised for his open and naïve approach to games, he always urges his teams to push forward in numbers, and despite the fact that Jets will most likely be doing the same the gaffer tried to bring in some stability at the back with the signing of Topor-Stanley, Georgievsky and goalkeeper Moss. Ugarkovic and Brown will be the pair trusted to provide protection for the back four, with Kantarovski and Koutroumbis waiting in the wings as a support.