The Newcastle Jets have named a 17-man squad to take on Wellington Phoenix at Hunter Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets have named a 17-man squad to take on Wellington Phoenix at Hunter Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Absent from the squad is Ben Kantarovski who had arthoscopic surgery to repair a small meniscus tear in his right knee on Tuesday. He is expected to be sidelined for a minimum of six weeks.
Jacob Pepper and Taylor Regan were also unavailable for selection due to suspension.
Pepper was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in the Jets- 2-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday, while Regan was given a straight red card in the Jets- 3-1 National Youth League win over Sydney FC.
While Josh Brillante, Connor Chapman, Jack Duncan, Mitch Oxborrow and Adam Taggart, who have been on Young Socceroos duties, will return to Australia on Friday and meet with the coaching staff to determine if they will be added to the squad.
Jets assistant coach Craig Deans said the Jets have a number of options to fill the vacant positions in their squad.
“Obviously there are a couple of suspensions from last weekend with Jacob Pepper and Taylor Regan, who got a red card in the youth team, both unavailable,” he said.
“We-ve got plenty of options that haven-t played much time in the last few weeks in Bernardo Ribeiro and Marko Jesic. We-ve got two more days of training and we-ll have a good look at it.”
Both Ribeiro and Michael Bridges scored goals for the Jets youth team last weekend and Deans believe that will give both players confidence if called upon at A-League level.
“The game on the weekend was good for them. They haven-t had the chance to play a lot lately, so to have a game with the youth team was good. Obviously they both scored goals and had a good performance,” Deans said.
Dominik Ritter and Craig Goodwin didn-t complete the full training session on Wednesday, but Deans said neither was in doubt for Sunday-s match.
“Dom is still a little bit sore through his quad, we didn-t really expect him to get through 90 minutes on the weekend so it-s probably just take a little bit longer to settle down. Come Friday and Saturday he should be fine,” Deans said.
“Craig just keeps getting kicked on the same spot, he wore a shin pad today to protect it but got another kick on it.
“It-s not something that-s going to stop you playing but when you get a kick on the shinbone it can be pretty sore, so we-re just making sure he-s OK.”
James Brown has been named in the squad and is likely to make his third consecutive appearance for Newcastle after missing the early part of the season through injury.
Deans said that Jets Members and supporters can expect to see the best of Brown in the coming weeks.
“On the weekend Browny started a bit rusty, but towards the middle part of the game he started to show the quality that he-s got and the reason why we brought him here in the first place,” Deans said.
“He-s had two decent hit-outs, with a couple more weeks of good training and a couple more games, he-ll start to really come through.”
Newcastle Jets squad: 2. Scott Neville, 3. Tiago Calvano, 4. Josh Mitchell, 5. Dominik Ritter, 7. James Brown, 8. Ruben Zadkovich, 9. Emile Heskey, 10. Bernardo Ribeiro, 13. Sam Gallaway, 15. Craig Goodwin, 16. Jobe Wheelhouse (C), 17. James Virgili, 19. Michael Bridges, 20. Mark Birighitti (Gk) 21. Marko Jesic, 23. Ryan Griffiths, 33. Matt Nash (Gk)
Ins: Bernardo Ribeiro, Sam Gallaway and Marko Jesic (promoted)
Outs: Jacob Pepper (suspended), Taylor Regan (suspended)
Unavailable: Josh Brillante, Connor Chapman, Jack Duncan, Mitch Oxborrow and Adam Taggart (all on Young Socceroos duty), Ben Kennedy (knee), Ben Kantarovski (knee)
Match details:
Newcastle Jets v Wellington Phoenix
Hunter Stadium
Sunday, November 18
Kick-off 3pm (Gates open 2pm)
Tickets available from PROticket
Following the conclusion of Sunday-s fixture, children will have the opportunity to have a kick-around on the Hunter Stadium turf.
