Newcastle skipper Nigel Boogard hopes he has seen the face of a future Jet after getting a great response to the A-League sqaud’s open sessions and clinics in the region this week as the team prepares for Saturday’s match at Scully Park.
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It wouldn’t surprise the central defender if he has, after all Boogard is a former North Companions star and North West representative.
“I have great memories of living here and playing with North Companions,” Boogard said.
“We moved here for about three years when I was 10.”
“I showed the boys my primary school on the way in.”
The Jets tour kicked off with a clinic at Newcastle University earlier in the week, before calling into Muswellbrook on the way through for an open training session and Jets Play clinic, before moving through to Tamworth for two days of the same thing at Scully Park and Gipps St, as well as some school and other visits.
“It has been a great tour so far,” Boogard said.
“There has been lots of kids and it is great to see their faces. We need to start getting them to games and hopefully get a future Jet.”
The second part of that recruitment plan is for the Jets to fight their way back to the top of the A-League after six lean years of no finals, and that starts this weekend with the local derby against the Central Coast Mariners at Scully Park.
While the skipper is unlikely to play as he recovers from injury, he does believe that the second season of Scott Miller’s reign as coach will show some good results after the club made some wholesale player changes in April.
Miller has had the Jets blowing a fair bit this pre-season with a real emphasis on the players being stronger both physically and mentally for the upcoming season.
“We have had a good pre-season and have been pushed hard,” Boogard said.
“It is his (Miller) and my second year at the Jets so we are starting to get used to the coaching sessions.”
Fitness might be Miller’s forte, formally serving as the Australian trainer alongside coach Ange Postecoglou, as well as spending time as a trainer and assistant coach with clubs in England, most notably Premier League side Fulham.
The match will kick-off at 4pm, after Northern Inland Premier League champions Oxley Vale take on current leaders North Armidale in a top-of-the-table curtain-raiser.
The other four games will be played on Sunday with Inverell at home to East Armidale, Namoi United hosting Tamworth FC, North Companions taking on Demon Knights in Tamworth and Moree facing South Armidale in Armidale.
