JETS COACH GETS TASTE OF FUTURE
FOOTBALL: With nothing left to play for, Ernie Merrick threw in the kids – and the results gave Newcastle Jets a taste of a bright future.
The Jets boss hailed the performances of a tyro squad shorn of most of his experienced names, after putting six goals past a shell-shocked Brisbane Roar team at Suncorp Stadium.
With half a dozen of his squad aged 21 or below, Merrick picked out the performance of 19-year-old midfielder Angus Thurgate as a coming-of-age moment.
Thurgate and 20-year-old winger Joey Champness ran riot at Suncorp, and Merrick promised that more youth team graduates would feature in the first XI next season.
“Angus and Joey were our two best players, Angus was not only winning the ball, he was setting up all our plays and rarely gave it away,” Merrick said.
“He gets embarrassed because of where he’s from, they call him the Port Macquarie Pele, which is a slight exaggeration.
“But he looked like a senior player, a regular, and he’ll feature a lot next season the way he’s playing.
“I’ve seen it in training and when I’ve brought him off the bench he’s always done a job, but here I thought he ran the show.”
Merrick said he would look to promote more graduates of the club’s academy next season, with several senior stars coming off contract in coming weeks.
“I talked about rebuilding our team and there were six players under–21 in the squad,” Merrick said.
“It’s a good sign, and we played the sort of football we did regularly last year.”