THE Jets might have been grounded by the Central Coast Mariners in Saturday’s A-League trial, but that hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm to return, maybe to take on the best the region has to offer.
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Both coach Scott Miller and Chief Executive Officer Lawrie McKinna expressed their desire to come back and play in Tamworth again.
“We want to come back next year,” McKinna said.
“I’d love to come back and play a representative team.”
And maybe an A-League trial as well.
Miller said the local community had to be commended for the support they’ve shown.
“The way Tamworth has accepted us and looked after us has been great,” Miller said.
The game concluded a tour that boasted school visits and clinics in both Tamworth, Gunnedah and Muswellbrook, and drew over 2150 supporters, which Miller said was positive for the A-League.
“It was great to see so many kids out supporting the Jets,” he said.
Scully Park also drew a lot of positive feedback.
“The facility is just amazing,” McKinna said.
“Scott Miller’s first comment when they trained here on Thursday was he couldn’t believe how good it was.”
Northern Inland Football general manager Gavin Flanagan also deemed the tour, and game, a success.
“The attendance was 2154 which we were really happy with,” he said.
“It would be the biggest A-League attendance here for a few years.”
The game itself was a good spectacle for the code, and like Miller, Flanagan was encouraged by the number of young kids in the crowd.
“We as a board at NIF made a decision to play all games tomorrow (Sunday). That paid off with a lot of the football community turning out,” he said
Miller was satisfied with what he saw from his side in the 2-1 loss, noting that they were missing three or four key players.
“In context we worked very hard very hard through the week, physically. To have such a performance is pleasing,” he said.
“It's pleasing to a degree to be very dominant in the first half. Hitting the crossbar and post is obviously very hard to take.”
But when he looked at the physical output over the week and the conditions, he was pleased, adding that they are ”on the right path”.
They now head over to China to play a series of games over there.