A-League: Newcastle Jets’ victory over Sydney FC proves finals will be a wild ride
Sydney FC had an air of invincibility about them pre-COVID 19 - but the return of the A-League in winter has evened the playing field to such an extent that nothing can be taken for granted, writes MARK BOSNICH.
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We’ve learned a lot from the first week of A-League since the competition restarted last Friday — but two things stand out to me.
Firstly, the shift to winter games has had a dramatic effect on the way teams can approach matches. The cooler weather makes for perfect football weather and means teams can go hard from the opening whistle.
Teams are used to conserving energy at the start in the heat, and then lifting the tempo as the game goes on.
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I can see teams in the second half going hard and thinking ‘maybe I should’ve gone harder at the start’.
But what we saw on Tuesday night from Newcastle was the first team to go out and have that incredible intensity from start to finish.
And secondly, more than any other season we’re in for a wild ride into the finals where a team can come from the clouds and cause some shocks – because there’s no doubt that metaphorically the chips have been thrown in the air.
After the Jets’ terrific victory over Sydney FC, there’s going to be a few teams looking and going ‘well, they are beatable’ whereas before I think they had that air of invincibility about them.
What we saw on Tuesday was arguably the best performance of the season from a fantastic Newcastle side that comprehensively outplayed the best team in the competition.
It’s a compliment to Sydney that a team had to play so well to beat them, and maybe the players won’t feel like that after the loss but the truth of the matter wasn’t so much what Sydney didn’t do – it was more about what Newcastle did.
But it was a super game – and, just like a bad game, it takes two to tango.
Anyone from Newcastle reading this, and I’ve had that in my career before, might say ‘he’s just trying to set us up for a fall’. But I’m just stating the truth. They were fantastic and they should be proud of it.
You could say Jets coach Carl Robinson has come up with a blueprint there for how to beat Sydney – and he did do a wonderful job, and got the plan spot on. But a blueprint all depends on how players play.
If the players don’t perform, if they don’t run, if they don’t hassle and do their jobs, both defensively and off the ball, then it doesn’t matter what blueprint you have.
And all those players did that right from the goalkeeper all the way through to the front.
They even had a bit of bad luck when Roy O’Donovan hit the post, and they also came up against a goalkeeper who has been outstanding all season in Andrew Redmayne.
But now that they’ve shown that once, the challenge for Newcastle is to prove they can do it for the rest of the season. Because there’s no reason they can’t do that for every game.
If I’m Sydney, I’m not that worried right now. They weren’t that far behind Newcastle, so Steve Corica and the team shouldn’t be too disheartened.
They’ve been fantastic all season and while they’ve not been at their pre-shutdown best in two games so far, the only concern I would have would be if they’re like this a little bit closer to the finals.
There’s still time to get everything in order for the finals.
Originally published as A-League: Newcastle Jets’ victory over Sydney FC proves finals will be a wild ride