Five Jets in the swing for Socceroos' Singapore fling

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD

FIVE of Newcastle's grand final heroes, plus soon-to-be Jet Ruben Zadkovich, were named in a youthful 17-man Socceroos squad yesterday.

The Jets supplied the largest contingent of any A-League side with Ante Covic, Jade North, Adam Griffiths, James Holland and Tarek Elrich all gaining selection.

Olyroo Zadkovich, who has agreed in principle to a two-year deal with Newcastle and is expected to put pen to paper this week, was also picked in the all-A-League squad for Australia's friendly with Singapore on March 22.

The match gives the Australian-based players the chance to push for selection in the Socceroos World Cup qualifier against China in Kunming four days later.

Jets coach Gary van Egmond was understandably "very happy" with Newcastle's representation in the senior national squad and believed they could have had another player going to Singapore if Johnny Warren Medallist Joel Griffiths was not on loan to Japanese division two side Avispa Fukuoka.

"Most likely Joel would've been in there if he wasn't on loan to the Japanese club I would suggest that is a contributing factor," he said.

"It's good to have that type of representation. It's always an honour to represent your country and for these players to have got that call-up, at least they're being thought of, which is extremely important."

Van Egmond expected at least two players in shot-stopper Covic and captain North to make the squad for the World Cup qualifier.

"Being involved in the the last qualification match, I would suggest they [Covic and North] would definitely have a great chance," he said. "And I'm sure Adam Griffiths hasn't hurt his chances, especially from the grand final where he played extremely well.

"It depends a bit with the younger ones on how many players are coming back from overseas, but you would expect both Tarek and James would be enjoying the experience against Singapore. To be thrust into a World Cup qualifier so early on, you would imagine that most likely that wouldn't happen, but you never know."

Meanwhile, Elrich and Adam D'Apuzzo, who agreed in principle last week to re-sign with the Jets on two-year deals, have now made the contracts official.

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