Van Egmond says coaching award a real team effort

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD

JETS mentor Gary van Egmond dedicated his coach of the year win at yesterday's A-League awards to his players and coaching staff.

Van Egmond capped an amazing 18-month rise in the A-League coaching ranks to lead the Newcastle Jets to championship glory this year then pick up the prized award which was voted on by his peers.

"It's been a phenomenal year for the Newcastle Jets and one which we've obviously worked extremely hard to achieve," van Egmond said.

"There are people here who are getting individual recognition, but there's a lot of people behind the scenes who deserve a big thankyou as well in regards to my backroom staff headed by [assistant coach] Mark Jones and, as I've stated before, he's been the best signing I've made, player or staff.

"That goes all the way down to our kit man. They want to be the best they can at their individual jobs and it shows.

"Everything is done extremely professionally and extremely well and obviously ably backed up by the administration through the club.

"It's just been a wonderful year and one which we'll now enjoy and look back on with really fond memories and get ourselves ready for next year."

Van Egmond is in the process of working with owner Con Constantine, chief executive John Tsatsimas and director of football Remo Nogarotto on finalising the squad for next season.

"We don't want to lose anyone but, at the end of the day, you've got the salary cap in place, and that's something you have to abide by," van Egmond said.

"All teams are going to be losing players.

"If we can ensure that we don't lose many players, then it would be fantastic.

"The more players we can hold onto the better in regards to ensuring we keep the nucleus of this very good and very young squad.

"Con's listened all of the time. He's got a few views on certain ways on how he wants to do things, which is fair enough.

"He's the one who signs the cheques at the end of the day.

"Myself, Remo and John Tsatsimas have been in discussions with him this week, and hopefully we can have some news on some players by the end of it."

Van Egmond expected teams to be gunning for the Jets next season after their remarkable year.

"That's another mind-set, another mentality you've got to be able to cope with and, for us, we're in a situation where everyone's going to be wanting to knock us off because we're the reigning premiers," van Egmond said.

"And we've got to have that aura about us that, when we do go and play teams, that they feel slightly in awe of that team as do the best teams in the world in their respective leagues.

"I mean the Barcelonas, the Real Madrids, the Manchester Uniteds, the Arsenals no matter where they play, there's a real aura about these teams, and that's only made up by the players.

"We've got to create that for next year and we've got a good chance of creating that, and the best way to do it obviously is to keep as much stability with the group as we most possibly can and ensure that the people coming in again will add something more to the squad."

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