The club almost goes down the gurgler. There are ownership changes. There are major pitch disruptions and there is political mud-slinging. The team plays only two games in 36 days. Key players are out injured. On-field players are sick or injured. Even the Captain is sidelined. There are lots of reasons you can give why the Jets form is down at the moment. And some of them are very valid.
But is that really why the Jets can't score goals?
Branko says it's all down to rustiness and players missing upfront. After the game he said: "We were also missing some personnel, which doesn't help . . . in fairness we probably struggled even when they were on board".
Those players he mentioned - Bridges, Brockie and Wheelhouse, do provide cunning, speed and steel respectively. Bridges, in particular is critical, but those other players missing, whilst they're important, aren't the reason the goals aren't going in.
The rustiness from not having played a true competitive fixture for such a long time is a valid argument. In the game against Melbourne Heart, passes were just not connecting, first touches were clumsy, combinations between players only worked every so often. It wasn't a compliment to the hard work of the team. But there must be a training ground routine that can keep these fundamentals sharp.
Certainly Ben Kennedy was very sharp, in another man of the match performance. So why is he able to keep his form? Adam D'Apuzzo also looked on form and made some nice runs forward from the back. And three cheers for Ljubo Milicevic and Ruben Zadkovich for going on under injury and illness.
To be fair, the defence didn't look particularly troubled for most of the game either, except for yet another 'wonder goal' scored against the Jets.
As an aside, why is it that other teams save up their 'wonder goal' efforts for the Jets? Marcos Flores for Adelaide, John Curtis for Gold Coast and now Nick Kalmar for Heart. Take those three wonder goals away and the Jets clean sheets record goes up. But I digress, this is about scoring goals.
I suspect the lack of goals is the current approach. Please tell me if you see anything different, but the philosophy at the moment seems to be quick release from midfield or the back, with the ball passed quickly over the heads of the defenders and the attackers relied on to run the ball down before the defender can turn and catch up.
That's why someone posted on this website that Labi and Marko Jesic looked like chickens with their heads cut off, running around after long balls. But it's not their fault if that's the job they have been given.
The ball over the midfield tactic and the long ball to the fella up front can be easy for the opposition defence to read. If the attacker gets muscled off the ball or the second ball doesn't drop kindly to another Jets player, we've lost possession and lost the attack.
By contrast, look at Brisbane Roar's tactics, and their confidence in one and two touch football around the edge of the box. That allows movement of players off the ball to confuse the defenders, wall passes and 'one-twos'. The Jets lads are taking opportunistic shots from outside the box because that's all they can do without others to work with.
When Jesic, Zadkovich or Haliti arrived in the box with the ball, they often seemed stranded or surrounded by defenders, with no-one else there to play off. The ball over the top thing might work if four or five Jets players get forward into the box, but not if there's only one or two of them.
Alternatively, just a tiny drop more composure against the Heart would have given at least two goals to the Jets. Ruben Zadkovich managed to wriggle around two or three defenders at one point and shoot, but off target. Since he had done such a great job evading the defenders, one more touch of the ball could have taken him much closer to goal and made his shot a sure thing.
These things are easy to say watching replays of course, and not when you've just danced around three defenders in the heat of the game and see the goal open up in front of you. But it's that tiny little bit of extra composure that will bring goals for the Jets. Perhaps it'll come with more frequent games.
Marko Jesic had a similar opportunity when he volleyed the ball from a cross and blasted wide of the goal. He was unmarked and had time to bring the ball under control and slot it past the keeper. He saw an opportunity to score and took it but if he is going to shoot from positions like that he needs to be more accurate.
I'm curious to know what others think about the late introduction of Kaz Patafta and Fiorentini. These are both technical, short-passing players that I think could give the Jets a different dynamic. Patafta has been out injured and it's good to see him back. Fiorentini looks like class whenever he comes on.
All the good publicity for the Jets will give the players and coaching staff a degree of comfort and we can hope that it starts translating into results. And thankfully, despite some results not going the Jets way recently, Perth are dominating the doom and gloom news due to their unbroken run of losses.
The Jets have slipped below the radar to take the underdog tag yet again, so let's hope that a run of form, the introduction of Jeffers and the return to the field of injured players leads to a huge swag of goals and a climb up the ladder.
If it's any relief, Jets play the other cellar dwellers this weekend, but it is an away game and both of those Sydney supporters might turn up to support their team if it doesn't rain, and make it a difficult away match.
The Jets are only ten games into a long season, and it will take time for injuries to heal, new players to come in and for the good news around the club to filter through. Then we will start to see the results of the players' hard work and the secure groundwork that has been laid with the club's structure. There is time to turn it around.
