Newcastle Jets head coach Phil Stubbins says he is looking forward to his side’s first hit-out in an intra-club trial match at Rockwell Automation Park in Weston on Wednesday night.
The Jets’ first team squad will take on the Newcastle Jets Youth at 7pm on Wednesday night, in what will be Stubbins’ first match in charge.
“It’s a chance for us to hit the ground and take a little bit of the training that we’ve had to this point and let boys run free and I think they’ll be looking forward to that,” Stubbins said.
“It’s a chance for us to rotate the squad and have a look at a couple of the systems we want to play this season.”
Stubbins said he expected a difficult test against the Jets’ youth team, who are currently sitting in first place in the NNSW NPL competition.
“I’ve had a word to the players about their concentration levels,” Stubbins said.
“We’re playing a team that’s top of the league, albeit our youth team, but they’ve done a lot of good things that have been productive and effective for them this season.
“We’ll be coming up against a team that’s pretty organised and I’m pretty sure they will be presenting for the challenge.
“The challenge for us is that we do everything right and we’re very professional in how we go about fulfilling the job tomorrow.”
Stubbins said he was pleased with the progress the Jets had made during the pre-season to date.
“The team harmony and everything surrounding what we’re doing to date has been excellent really,” Stubbins said.
“As far as ticking the boxes off from day one until now, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the playing group.
“I think everyone is happy, but we haven’t picked a team yet, so everyone is trying their best to get in the side and from the staff’s perspective we’re really happy with everyone and everything.
“I thought we could really build a strong culture at the Club in terms of bringing some objectives to the playing group.
“We’ve got a lot of things in place now where the group is certainly focused on moving forward as one.”
