Zane believes the combination of Merrick, CEO Lawrie McKinna and football operations manager Joel Griffiths has proved crucial in restoring the club.

The trio has recruited smartly and effectively without spending millions.

"I don’t think we’ve spent crazy amounts, we’d still be in the bottom half of spend across all the clubs," the former Lillestrom centre forward said.

"But we have someone there who hopefully now will put a little more into it and we have that ownership where it’s not on shakey ground anymore. He lets Lawrie do this thing, Lawrie lets Ernie do his thing.

"It’s really good having football people involved in the club like Joel and Lawrie who let Ernie do what he needs to do and give him what he needs to get the job done. Lawrie’s realized that we don’t have crazy amounts of money to go and waste.


"So what he’s done is done the opposite – he’s totally engaged the community and used his biggest strength, which is his charm. He’s worked hard to make sure people at least give us another chance and I think, at the same time, the players have helped him get his message across because we’re playing great football."

Zane said the target now for the Jets is to make sure the club are continual A-League title challengers in the years to come, and not revert to the lean seasons of the past.

"People have said to me the result on Saturday doesn’t matter, what the club has done this season is bring an attacking style of football and get people back attending games again," he said.

"It’s one season as well, the big thing now is we’ve got a solid owner, we’ve got management in place, the results to sustain them over the next five years will be a massive challenge."