Speaking at the FFA’s Coaching Conference in Sydney, guest speaker Van Egmond gave an insight into his tactics and team preparation ahead of Newcastle’s historic Grand Final win.

One important signpost was a meeting the night before the grand final between the Jets players at their hotel in Sydney's Coogee.

The meeting was inspired by Newcastle rugby league player Adam McDougall – who had spoken to the group in the weeks leading into the grand final.

“Adam still believes to this day that two questions his team asked won them the grand final [in 1997 with the Knights]. The players asked: ‘What does tomorrow mean to you and how are you going to win it.’ And everyone had to say their piece.

“And the report I got back from Jade North the following morning was that it was an extremely emotional meeting. Older players knew they were running out of chances to win a grand final.

“It was an informative meeting and it brought the players even closer, and they were a very close knit bunch as it was.

"And they said that no matter what happens, they’ll all get back together in five or ten years and say, ‘we were the first team ever to win a grand final for Newcastle'.”

As the players entered the SFS arena, another significant event unfolded, literally, in front of the players eyes. It was the giant banner that the Jets fans had made.

“It was like those South American fans,” said Van Egmond. “The players saw it and just lifted … they realized how much trouble and effort had gone into it.

"Then you looked across to the Mariners and they had this little piece of tarpaulin they were waving around,” he said.

As for the game, and he said his players knew exactly what their roles were and what they had to do defensively and when they had the ball. Van Egmond said the tactical set up of the two teams also differed.

He said the Mariners’ tactical inflexibility played into the Jets’ hands: “We knew they’d play a 4-4-2.

“And if they were chasing the game they’d go to a 3-4-3. That we knew. And it helped me in my planning and preparation of this game,” he said.

“They were very focused on Stuey Musialik. But what we looked to do was other options.

“We played a 3-4-3. The reason is that when we played a 4-4-2 against the Central Coast, they didn’t allow us to play. They pushed on. They didn’t allow our two central defenders to get on the ball. We couldn’t play out.

“It’s a fairly stringent 4-4-2 diamond in the middle of the park that they play. And when they played with three up front late in the game, we went with an extra defender.

“We also looked at Mile Jedinak. He’s a good player, big and strong and wins everything. We really wanted to get Mile in one-on-ones with Joel Griffiths, not the ideal person to be chasing around all day with his speed.

“Mile had to track Joel who was also making a lot of lateral movements pulling him out of the centre. The one thing that Central Coast didn’t do was pass players on. They wanted to match up.”

Van Egmond added that the cornerstone of the grand final – and the season – was keeping hold of the football.

“Our game is based around possession. We didn’t have the capacity to hold the ball up, up front, as Joel isn’t that type of player.

“We needed to keep the ball because we didn’t have someone who we could knock the ball long to. And the Mariners had Jedinak, Wilkinson and others who are big boys who could cope with that.

“So we had to make sure we had possession. And that our three played against their two at the back.

“We pushed Stuart Musialik up high, we pushed our two wide midfielders up high and Song and [Matt] Thompson too, so there was plenty of space for a three v two at the back.”

The Mariners threats were also nullified, said Van Egmond. “We looked to play the game more so in their half. And when Owens and Kwasnik were giving D’Apuzzo and Elrich a tough time, we pushed our two boys higher to drag them back.

“And Petrovski and Aloisi are not the type of players to close down players. The more they expended their energy on that, which they did to a degree, the more energy they used up for when they did gain possession.”

The tactics worked a treat and the Jets won, famously, 1-0. But Van Egmond said the week in Newcastle leading into the game also helped.

“We put a media ban on the players on the Thursday but the Daily Telegraph kept pumping up the Mariners which was great. We kept getting all the information we needed [on them].

“The amount of training and type of training was important. We didn’t train a great deal. We still had work to do but we didn’t want to over-train them after two 120 minute finals matches.”

With pressure an issue, an unusual contest was devised.

“We wanted the players to have a smile on their faces and to enjoy the week. We didn’t want them to have pressure. I mean, there was pressure enough with the fact that we were the first team from Newcastle to play in a grand final.

“That enjoyment started on the Tuesday morning with an egg throwing competition. Who could throw the eggs the furthest without breaking the eggs. And the boys had a smile on their faces."

However, a week or two earlier, there were no smiles in camp after the Mariners rolled the Jets at Bluetongue. It was a blessing in disguise, says the Newcastle boss.

“We played against the Central Coast in the [major semi] second leg and lost 3-0. It was a good wake up call but fairly demoralising.

“I had a phone call from Arnie and we started to talk about the game in terms of what Central Coast did to us in their system, and maybe how our defensive midfielders were maybe too far from our central defenders.

“I said I felt we could turn it around but I felt I needed something else. And he’d told me he’d brought in a person to talk to the Olyroos prior to the Iraq game [at Bluetongue last November].

“And I felt the Jets boys needed that and to have someone who was really ‘Newcastle’. Most people think of Andrew Johns, but Adam McDougall came in and spoke about being involved with the 1997 Rugby League grand final winning side.

“That was the inspiration for the team meeting the night before the grand final.”

Outside of the A-League, Van Egmond also praised French coach Aime Jacquet, who visited Australia around two years ago for a coaching seminar.

The Jets boss says he gleaned many of his core coaching ideas from the 1998 French World Cup winner. “He spoke about analysing individual players based on technical, tactical, physical and mental attributes.

“And I thought, if it’s good for an individual, it’s not a bad thing for a football team too. Are they technically proficient, tactically aware, physically prepared and mentally prepared?

“And it’s probably been the thing I’ve looked at with Newcastle Jets.”