AFTER being left feeling rather deflated on Friday night following yet another uninspiring performance from Newcastle Jets men’s class of 08/09, the Jets W-League side of the same vintage certainly lifted my spirits on Saturday.
Okay, they lost, and the game itself never really hit any great heights, but having to stand in a reasonably long line to buy tickets for their semi-final clash against Canberra will be amongst my list of football reflections when the dust settles on 2009.This was my first live W-League experience and I’ll definitely be back for more next season. To see nearly 3,000 fans out in support of a women’s match when the game was live on the ABC was, for me, astounding. Heck, the males will probably be lucky to pull many more when they play Perth Glory on Sunday with the wooden spoon assured with two games to play.
For what it’s worth I thought our girls played the better football. I’ve heard coach Gary Phillips tries to employ an expansive passing game – which was evident in parts – however high mid-afternoon temperatures wouldn’t have helped the girls against an ugly Canberra side happy to defend, hoof it long and play on the counter. Kudos to Canberra though...it worked.
Saturday’s Herald reported national team coach Tom Sermanni was in town, keen to check the form of the likes of Emily van Egmond and Stacey Day as the Matildas look to blood new talent in 2009. Both will have done their chances no harm.
Whilst van Egmond was a wee bit wasteful in front of goal, she has amazing engines and at 15, is the Ben Kantarovski of the W-League.
Defender Day, 20, read the game well, making a number of crucial interceptions and perfectly timed tackles to stifle Canberra counterattacks. Her pitfall is a slight lack of speed which allowed defenders to get in behind her on occasion.
And what about the commitment of the girls?
Having had the good fortune to play against Australian football legend Cheryl Salisbury in a trial a couple of years ago, I can certainly confirm she is tough as nails (I had the stud marks to prove it), but Saturday showed she is not the only girl that plays, well, not like a girl at all really.
A Jets midfielder (Amber Neilson or Swede Sanna Frostevall, I think) laid a CRUNCHING (and illegal) tackle on a sorry Canberra midfielder and somehow got away with only a talking to, whilst Canberra keeper Lydia Williams bravely put her body on the line with Matildas colleague Salisbury smashing into her like a B-Double without brakes. Overall though, every Jets or Canberra player was staunch to their club's cause.
So whilst their male counterparts have had a season to forget, Jets women deserve all the acknowledgement that comes their way. Many of the girls are locals and play for absolute pennies, juggling day jobs or study for the chance to play football at a national level.
Perhaps there’s much the men’s side could learn from Jets women’s dedication and wholeheartedness before their Asian Champions League crusade?
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Respect to Spencer Prior for giving Gary van Egmond a deserved lashing on Fox Sports about his lack of man management skills.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Prior, who spent well over a decade playing professionally in England and is now a part-time TV pundit on Fox, trialled with the club two weeks ago.
He says he hasn’t heard from van Egmond since, noting the lack of professionalism from the Jets mentor is something he didn’t see throughout his whole career in England.
This after Friday’s debacle where van Egmond gave 18-year-old Jesse Pinto a debut to forget, subbing him off just 16 minutes after subbing him on. No comment.
