Brisbane look set to add to their glorious A-League history as they aim to collect yet another premiers’ plate and championship to their impressive trophy cabinet, but will have to find a way past their bogey team to do so.
For some reason that seems to fly in the face of any real rhyme or reason, the Roar have always struggled to tame the Newcastle Jets at Suncorp Stadium, a ground that has mostly been a graveyard over the years for visiting sides. Newcastle has an impressive record in the Queensland capital, winning nine out of 14 against the Roar at the venue. The Roar have only won 23.5% of matches played at the venue in the history of the league and simply have to win on Sunday afternoon if they are to have a chance to clinch this seasons premiers’ plate and the Asian Champions League place that comes with it.
The manner of some of the defeats over the years has been equally galling, too. Back in Round 11 of the 2013 season, the Jets travelled to Brisbane and were battered for the majority of the contest only for a James Donachie own goal and a late Joey Gibbs strike on the counter snatching the three points for the Novocastrians. In 2014, the Jets completed a clean sweep over the Roar as an Adam Taggart penalty in round 19 allowed them to again fly back to Newcastle with three points in their kit bag.
So far this season, the Roar have struggled to seal a result against the men from the Hunter. On the two occasions the sides have squared off this season, the points have been shared. Ben Kantarovski cancelled out a Jamie Maclaren opener in the Hunter and the Roar needed a fortunate own goal off the unlucky Enver Alivodic late on to rescue a point in yet another match the home side largely dominated.
It can be said that the Roar’s style of play often lets them down in this fixture as their ability to keep possession often works against them. John Aloisi will again send his men out with the instructions to control the majority of possession and push on against the Jets, hoping to overwhelm them. Newcastle as ever will be ready for this tactic and will look to exploit the spaces in the full-back areas on the counter, which they have done on countless occasions over the years when travelling north of the border.
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One only needs to look back at the last time these two sides clashed at Suncorp to see examples of this. Both Newcastle Jets goals came after the visitors exposed the Roar in wide areas. The first goal came through a combination of Milos Trifunovic and Alivodic, the striker this time feeding the wide man in down the Roar left. He cut in and chipped in a delightful cross to the often criticised Mitch Cooper, who scored his first goal in almost three years as he placed a header into the back of the net. Leonardo found himself in behind the right side of the Roar defence five minutes later and his cross was destined to find an unmarked Alivodic until Corey Brown illegally intervened using his hand.
Aloisi and his men simply cannot afford to concede too many this weekend as the A-League is destined for the closest premiership race in the history of the competition. Five teams are within four points of each other with two matches remaining and the Roar simply have to beat the Jets if they are to remain in the hunt for the title.
It will be interesting to see if the Brisbane boss tweaks his style slightly to ensure the men in orange get the win they need to take their premiers’ plate charge into the final round of the season. The Roar have more than enough about them to beat the Jets if they play smart and are organised at the back. They simply have to beat the only side they have failed to defeat this season on Sunday afternoon.
Newcastle as always will head north of the Tweed full of confidence knowing that they always seem to get the job done against Brisbane on their own patch and they will be looking for a reward for their positive play in the past couple of weeks, despite what their results read on paper.
The Jets were desperately unlucky against Melbourne Victory a fortnight ago as a combination of referee error and poor finishing cost them what should have been a win at AAMI Park. Newcastle again controlled most of the match last week against Perth before unluckily succumbing 2-1 at home.
Now they head north as heavy underdogs in a match that nobody really expects them to win against an opponent that is fighting for the title and looking likely to be involved on the final day of the season. The Roar will need to be careful, as history shows the Jets are likely to be ultra-competitive in this fixture, and the last thing Brisbane need is for history to repeat itself.
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