JASON Hoffman and his Jets teammates have shifted the club's ownership and coaching situation to the back of their minds as they get down to the serious business of preparing for the start of the A-League.
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The A-League draw will be released on Tuesday, with the 26-round season to kick-off on December 27.
While the transfer of ownership from Martin Lee to a new consortium edges closer to finality, the players are focused on one thing - being ready for round one.
"Once it ticks over to December, that is the month we start playing," Hoffman said. "The start of the season is creeping up, so all the talk about ownership and coaches we are trying to put to the back of our mind and make sure, as a playing group, we are prepared as best we can.
"Craig Deans and Daniel McBreen and the coaching staff are preparing us extremely well. We will be ready regardless of what happens between now and round one."
The next step in that process is a friendly against A-League new boys Macarthur FC at Maitland Sportsground on Thursday evening.
"We know a little bit about Macarthur just by the signings they have made," Hoffman said. "We need to focus on us, which we did really well at the back end of last season. We have taken that into this pre-season. It is about us and can we improve and can we challenge ourselves every session and every game to take the next step?"
The Jets were the form team under former coach Carl Robinson at the end of last season. They carved out six wins, three draws and a loss in the final 10 games to finish just outside the top six.
Deans, who was caretaker coach before Robinson arrived, switched from a back four to a back three with two wingbacks. Robinson followed suit. Now under Deans again, the Jets have continued with the same formation and playing style.
"If a new coach comes in, he'll have his own little tweaks," Hoffman said. "But a lot of the positive football that we played at the back end of last season needs to be built upon.
"As a playing group, we need to focus on what's in front of us and that is Macarthur on Thursday,"
The Jets trained at Maitland Sports Ground on Monday and the 2500 seats in the grand stand have sold out.
"To come out here to Maitland and see the pitch we can play on is absolutely fantastic," Hoffman said.
The friendly will also be another opportunity for trialists Valentino Yuel, Ali Abbas, Antony Burke, Jack Armson and Jack Duncan.
"These guys have come in and given themselves the best opportunity to stick around," Hoffman said. "They have performed really well at training and in the couple of games we have had. When you have good players involved in culture that we are building it is easy to adjust with players coming in and out of the squad."
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