They have one fixture remaining, and despite continued optimism, there is every likelihood semi-final football will be out of range by the time that rescheduled match takes place, never mind when the rest of the regular-season fixtures are completed.

It would be far too complicated to even calculate how results would have to fall for the Jets' season to extend, but suffice to say it's hard for all the top-six hopefuls to lose every game when they are opponents in quite a few of the remaining matches!

Perhaps I can rely on those niggardly types at the TAB to summarise.

They had no market available for top-six qualification when I checked yesterday, but are still taking bets on the title winners.

The second-longest price available was around the $34 mark. The Jets were listed at $1001.

No more speculation should be needed.

Of course, the Jets have little concern with that, and went about the business of providing another methodical, consistent performance.

They were clearly the dominant team on the night. Western United have some good players, and in the right shape of game can be very effective, but they don't have the overall mobility to win games that get stretched for long periods with any sort of consistency.

Jets coach Carl Robinson picked what he currently perceives to be his most effective starting line-up, and for the third game in succession Dimi Petratos was surprisingly consigned to the bench.

Just how that scenario plays out long term will be an interesting side story, but much will be determined by who stays under a revised playing budget next season.

Speaking of side stories, there were quite a few sub-plots to examine on Sunday night, none more engaging than the one between Newcastle skipper Nigel Boogaard and long-time rival Besart Berisha.

Their head-to-head battle bubbled along, just under the surface, for the entire 90 minutes.

There is no clearly love lost between the pair.

Berisha is quite obviously one of the league's best-ever goalscorers, and boasts a record career tally of 131 goals from 207 games.

But he has never been prolific in the Hunter, and Boogaard takes obvious pleasure in reminding him about that.

Boogaard takes a deal of pride in his record against Berisha, and unfortunately for the Albanian striker so does Boogaard's partner Nikolai Topor-Stanley, in a slightly different style, so he can't drift away to the other side for an easier time of it.

In fact, I'm more convinced than ever that the Wanderers would have beaten Brisbane in the 2014 grand final - which they led until late on - if Topor-Stanley hadn't succumbed to a serious knee injury, shortly before Berisha sparked the late comeback.

You can't rewrite history, but you can take it as read that Newcastle is not Berisha's favourite away trip by a long chalk, and Boogaard and Topor-Stanley can take great pride in that, over many years.

There may be changes for the Wellington fixture, yet one game may not reveal too much.

It's about next season for Newcastle right now, but circumstances are making planning ahead very difficult.

The ownership speculation, combined with doubts over the contribution of Foxtel, and the resultant grants to the respective franchises, make recruitment and retention almost impossible to plan, and a second wave of COVID could cloud matters further.

All of which is hard to swallow, given that the players and coaching staff have done their bit to spark optimism for the future with a very respectable run of results and performances over the final third of the season.

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