THE HANGAR | You Just Got To Believe

Here we are again in 2015. In an eerily similar spot to 2014. New coach, roster overhaul, experts downplaying any chance of success. So how do Jets fans hold any speck of optimism that this season won’t be a carbon copy of last year?

You just got to believe.

Simplistic idea, and one you probably wouldn’t accept normally if the team was a normal team, but this is no normal football side and last year was no normal year.

And in a year that would appear to be so similar to last, in many ways it’s not.

Scott Miller might have a smaller tenure than Phil Stubbins(who from here on in will be referred to as HWSNBN or He Who Shall Not Be Named) but has inarguably better experience. Miller was first team Assistant Manager at Fulham and also Manager of their U/21 side last season. Miller also has experience with the Socceroos. He comes with a resume you’d be proud of and not including Police United and Bangkok Glass.

Miller’s right hand man in Jean-Paul de Marigny comes with the most recent A-League title to his name, as he assisted Kevin Muscat. The Mauritius-born(yes, you read right, the man to potential help resurrect the dumpster fire that was the Newcastle Jets is from the tiny Indian Ocean island of Mauritius) assistant manager will begin his second stint in the Hunter, after he partnered Richard Money in the first season of the A-League.

Together the Miller-de Marigny brains trust will look to make Fortress Novacastria a thing again. But before they go about that, there’s a small matter of the little Wellington hoodoo that exists. One win in their last five visits is not a ledger that leaves the Jets on their own in the league, but it certainly points to a short-term history of mediocrity and failure that needs overturning if the Jets are to move forward from a nightmare.

Massive turnover in the off-season has seen nearly an entirely new XI come in. Acquisitions of Nigel Boogaard, Leonardo Santiago, Milos Trifunovic, Mateo Poljak and the return of Mark Birighitti strengthen the Jets for 2015 and actually provide a side which could compete in matches and not roll over like a domesticated family dog.

It will take a lot of hard work to win over the people of Newcastle again, but Miller and co can do this, all they need to do is make the people believe again.

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