Our Liberty A-League side will finish off the season on Monday night when they travel to Brisbane to take on the Roar for the second time in four days.
On Friday night, the Jets struggled against Brisbane, going down by four goals and will be looking to fight back and finish off their season on a high with a revenge win.
The Roar currently sit in sixth position on the table, and while it’s unlucky we can leapfrog them in that spot, we can still overtake Canberra but a win is necessary.
While Season 2021/22 wasn’t one to remember for either side, neither will be easy to give up points in the final game of the season.
BRISBANE ROAR V NEWCASTLE JETS
Date: Monday 7 March 2022
Kick-off: 5:15pm
Venue: James Drysdale Reserve
How to Watch: Paramount+
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played: 19
Jets: 5
Draws: 3
Roar: 11
ENDING THE BRISBANE DROUGHT
It wasn’t long ago that our Jets enjoyed dominance over Brisbane having not lost to the Roar across five straight games from 2014 to 2017, but since then, it’s been all our opponents.
The last time we managed to secure a victory over our rivals from up north was back in 2017 as part of our finals-qualifying season. Brisbane have bested us four times since.
With that being said, there seems to be something about playing in Queensland for our side as the majority of our wins against the Roar have come whilst playing away from home.
The hosts have proven to be one of our ‘bogey’ sides to date, and a win across the border would go a long way to strengthening the team’s confidence as we look to make a run at finals football once more.
FINISHING ON A HIGH
As it stands, our side can realistically still finish in seventh, with our current position of eighth secure. This is the same position we finished last year, however this season we were able to secure 10 points to last year’s seven.
Interestingly enough, we also faced Brisbane in the final game of the season last campaign, but unfortunately lost that one.
In fact, since the inception of the league, we’ve only finished our regular season with a win on one occasion, coming in the 2018/19 season with a 4-1 victory over the Wanderers.
Our Women will be out to emulate that kind of performance again to put a positive cap on what’s been a tough season.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Claire Coelho (Newcastle Jets)
Goalkeeper Claire Coelho looks like she’ll finish this season with the most saves made in the competition, as she currently leads the pack with 56 made, and that’s still after missing three games throughout the campaign.
Throughout the season, she’s proved how critical she is to our success by pulling off numerous amount of vital saves in key moments.
She currently holds a save percentage of 71%, but unfortunately is still chasing her first win of the season having been injured throughout the two matches we tasted success.
She’ll be hoping her form this weekend can help secure her first clean sheet of the season and the three points.
Larissa Crummer (Brisbane Roar)
When you talk about attacking threats in the league, Larissa Crummer is always a name that is mentioned and last Friday, she proved that.
The former Newcastle Jet showcased her elite threat up front by scoring a hat-trick, and will now welcome her old teammates to her hometown and will be keen to extend her goalscoring form that’s seen her grab six this season.
To go with that, she’s also managed an assist, and made 19 key passes across her 12 games.
If our defenders aren’t switched on to locking her down, it could be a real problem for us again.
STATS & FACTS
Our Jets enter this clash in Brisbane with the ambition of achieving just our second victory when playing in the final regular season match.
If we are to do that though, we’ll need to nullify Brisbane’s attack as they have only been kept scoreless on three occasions this season.
Brisbane have also got the rub over us when looking at our history of matches too, with 43 goals to our 25.
So far this season, the Roar are one of the top teams for chances created, however they are also the top team for chances missed.
Coming into this one, Roar are still chasing their first point when playing at home, having lost all five of their matches in Brisbane. With that being said, our Jets have struggled playing away, and have only managed four points — the worst in the competition for away stats.
While defensively our opponents have leaked more goals, they have been rather industrious, scoring seven more goals than us.
