The Lowedown: The odds are stacked against the Newcastle Jets

Unfortunately I can't at this stage, and that is about the saddest thing I've had to write as a columnist in 30 years.

The players deserve better, the fans deserve better, and the youth of tomorrow deserve better. However, after just one play-off experience in the past decade and a bit, there aren't too many signs of a turnaround.

The club will again face a season where their finances, their ambition, indeed their very existence, will be reliant on a small group of owners from other participants in the league whose only real interest in the Jets is to keep them afloat to attend to TV-rights requirements, and the number of teams in the competition. The negotiations with prospective new owners (which group are we up to now?) have made Julian Assange's trials and tribulations seem expedient, and nothing seems likely to change. Ask Ange if you like!

Rob Stanton seems like a very likeable, practical coach but forget last Saturday, a true Everest awaits him and his team in the coming months. I'm sure there is a squad of young men full of hope and enthusiasm dying to prove me wrong, and I will salute you if you do, but in my eyes they have been set up to fail. Yet again.

Certainly there are talented players in Rene Piscopo and Jason Berthomier, whose resume reads very respectably, but in the myriad of players who exited the club in the close season, there were Angus Thurgate and Beka Mikeltadze, who were clearly their best performers.

We can hope that some of the relatively unknown youngsters will provide optimism, energy and entertainment this season, but it's too much to expect half a dozen to make a breakthrough.

There is enough pace in the team to be an awkward proposition for opponents on the counter, and Stanton will want that function of the team working productively.

At this time of year, I always remember the wise words of a former coach of mine, who steadfastly maintains that you need close to 50 goals a season to be challenging. Where are they going to come from?

Newcastle, I sense, will need to be very frugal at the other end to compete.

There may be a sense that the overall standard of the competition will provide some respite, as it's hardly gone forward in leaps and bounds in recent years. I'm expecting Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory to improve after stuttering form for most of last season, but given the recruitment to this point, any ascent may not necessarily be rapid.

Melbourne City have lost some key personnel. Their grand final opponents, the Mariners, have lost the boss Nick Montgomery and many of their coaching staff, so it will be interesting to see if they retain their personality.

Adelaide will likely provide vigour, thrills and spills, and entertainment, but need to address their defensive record, and cut out the 4-4 thrillers. Brisbane will play good football, but may be short of a cutting edge.

To me, the team best equipped to seriously challenge this year should be the Wanderers. They were excellent last year, until Sydney stung them in the finals, and they have made a couple of key local additions. If their international recruitment is spot on, they will be very hard to beat.

I really do hope the Jets surprise me, but history suggests a familiar narrative. Until there is money for players, a clear plan, and home-grown players emerging from a glacial production line, it will be a battle. We should be accustomed to that, and the fight continues.

Have an enjoyable season everyone.

IN THE NEWS: