History will be made at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday night when the first grand final of any national sporting code is held in Newcastle. Australia’s seventh largest city will see its flagship side, the Jets, come up against the A-League’s biggest and most successful club, Melbourne Victory. It’s David v Goliath.
But it’s a storyline the Novocastrian community is distinctly familiar with. Competing with the big boys and fighting against richer opposition is part of the area’s sporting DNA. For decades long-suffering Hunter football fans have been used to mediocrity and disappointment. For years their best players, from Ray Baartz to Craig Johnston, were snapped up by cashed-up rivals or lost overseas. The introduction of the National Soccer League in 1977 did little to stop that trend.
Despite a promising early start KB United collapsed in 1984. The NSL licence was taken over by local side Adamstown Rosebud but they only lasted two years. The Newcastle Breakers sprung to life in 1991, they but went under in 2000 after failing to reach a single finals series.
Clayton Zane knows the boom-bust cycle better than most. A local junior, he played for the Breakers before going on to a career in Europe and for the Socceroos. Since 2011 he has been part of the Jets’ coaching staff. “The clubs have yo-yoed. We’ve had clubs in, they’ve fallen out of the league. No one’s ever doubted the community, the problem’s been the sustainability of the clubs and building a future so that we can stay in the league.”
The Breakers were reborn as Newcastle United, under eccentric owner Con Constantine, and in the 2001-2002 season United amazingly finished second, and the following campaign they finished fourth. When the A-League was launched in 2005 they renamed themselves the Jets and were one of only three NSL clubs to survive through to the new competition.
Newcastle’s early A-League years were promising – second in the debut season, third in 2007 and then culminating in fourth place in 2008 and a maiden grand final appearance. After 23 years of trying, and failing, a national football club from the Hunter had reached a major final and they didn’t waste the chance – upsetting Central Coast 1-0 at the Sydney Football Stadium.
However, that breakthrough was short-lived and they soon reverted to type. The squad was picked apart and the club finished with the wooden spoon the following season. A year later Constantine was stripped of the club’s licence and mining magnate Nathan Tinkler took control.
“We just never recovered,” Jets fan Todd Blackwell says. “They ran out of money and all the drama involved with that. Then trying to talk Tinkler to getting involved, which was good for a while because of the low ticket prices. But he never even wanted the Jets. He wanted to get to the Knights.”
The Tinkler era started promisingly – as history shows in all of the billionaire’s acquisitions – but eventually ended in debt-laden disaster. In five controversy-filled years the Jets churned through five coaches, numerous officials, and too many players, including marquees, to count. The club never finished higher than seventh and eventually Tinker’s turbulent rein ended in May 2015.
“There was a lot of wasted money,” Zane says. “I’m sure if they had their time again they would do things differently. There was a lot of excitement in what they were trying to do, but they never fulfilled their ambition.” The trust of the community and the fanbase had almost completely eroded under Tinkler and the average attendance dropped by almost 4,000. They had finally hit rock bottom.
The Jets were on FFA-administered life support for a season until Chinese businessman Martin Lee took over in 2016. However, that first season ended in failure, with another wooden spoon collected and another coach in Mark Jones sacked. Some local supporters wondered if the club and region was cursed.
But a fairytale began on 7 October, 2017 with a 5-1 round one demolition of the Mariners. A combination of canny recruitment, a revitalised roster, community engagement and brilliant coaching by veteran Ernie Merrick led the Jets to second place in the regular season and an unlikely spot in the grand final. One way or another, that fairytale will reach its conclusion on Saturday.
But regardless of the result, Newcastle has a team it can be proud of once more. No longer is the club the laughing stock of the A-League. Plans are already in place to make sure the Jets’ turnaround is not a flash in the plan like a decade ago. For once the club is on firm footing heading into the future.
“Everyone wants the fairytale to end with us winning the game, but I think it’s bigger than that,” Zane says. “The club’s turned its fortunes around. We’ve hopefully learnt our lesson from the Tinkler era. The support base is back on board again and this season can be a major catalyst for us moving forward. Players want to come and play for the club now.
“Everything’s shaping up beautifully but we can’t let this season go to waste, we need to build on it.”
