As the Newcastle Jets winless streak hits 11, coach Craig Deans says he is not happy with being competitive anymore, after his club’s 3-1 loss to premiership favourites Melbourne City.
Despite the absence of wins, the season has not been a disgrace for Newcastle. In a tightly packed league, they are yet to be embarrassed in any match throughout the season.
Conversely, Melbourne Victory have suffered soul crushing defeats that eventually ended former coach Grant Brebner’s tenure, yet they still sit higher than the Jets on the ladder.
It creates an interesting question for Deans and his team on how to properly judge the season.
With the young list profile, it’s easy to fall back on the competitive nature of their season as an overall positive, yet Deans is careful not to accept that as an excuse.
“We have to be careful about being happy to be competitive,” Deans said.
“I don’t think anyone in professional sport is happy to be competitive and say we had a crack.”
Of Newcastle’s 13 losses, just four have been by more than one goal, leaving Deans frustrated at the lack of results despite close games.
“There’s literally not an easy game in this competition,” he said.
“The overwhelming feeling is that we got outplayed by a better team and sometimes that’s sport. Sometime’s you’re not good enough.
“For long periods of time we defender quite well as a group, but its those where Nabbout gets half a metre more space and it’s a goal.
The season gets no easier for Newcastle in the coming weeks, with two of the top four teams in Sydney FC and the Central Coast Mariners to come.
Yet despite the tough slog and the likely reality of 13 matches without a win, Deans does understand where the club is at.
“We’re not happy to be competitive but that’s where we’re at at the moment, we need to do more,” Deans said.
“We tried our best to keep them quiet, but there’s only an amount of time you can keep players that good quiet for.”
While Deans was not happy with the result, it appears he still finds it difficult to go one step further and criticise the players.
Feature image credit: Newcastle Jets
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