The Jets youth team will commence their 2013/14 Foxtel National Youth League campaign against the AIS in Canberra on Saturday.
The Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets youth team will commence their 2013/14 Foxtel National Youth League campaign against the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra on Saturday.
The Jets secured their best ever result in National Youth League last season, finish third on the competition ladder.
Jets youth team coach Clayton Zane said the challenge for the Jets was to improve on that performance while using a much younger squad this campaign.
“It-s a two or three year plan with these boys, so this season it may be a little bit harder from a physical point of view for some of the younger players,” Zane said.
“We-re still hoping to be very competitive and hopefully a top four team and we-ll look to try and build on what we did the previous season.”
Zane said he was happy with the youth team squad the Jets have assembled for the upcoming season.
“We-ve picked a good bunch of kids and we-ve gone with a bit of a younger team this year,” Zane said.
“I think the trend in the NYL now is that a lot of teams are going young and we-ve certainly followed suit there.
“We also have a few of the first team squad who qualify, so we-re very happy with the make-up of the squad and hopefully some of those younger players can get some game time and make an impact throughout the season.”
Zane said it was particularly pleasing that the squad was made up of predominantly locally-based players.
“There-s a couple of Sydney-based players, but apart from that, the rest of the squad is made up of young local players from the Hunter region, which is something that is very important to the Club,” Zane said.
The Jets take on the Australian Institute of Sport at the AIS Athletics Track on Saturday. Kick-of is scheduled for 3pm.
Newcastle Jets 2013/14 Foxtel National Youth League squad:
Adam Pearce
Willis Nadfalusi
Nick Cowburn
Tom Whiteside
Matthew Bilic
Brandon Lundy
Michael Finlayson
Radovan Pavicevic
Kale Bradbery
Andrew Pawiak
Tom Waller
Reece Papas
Josh Murray
Michael Kantarovski
