Jets get high five But J-League keeps Joel out of picture from Verbeek

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD
By ROBERT DILLON


FIVE of the Newcastle Jets' grand final heroes will be named next week in the Socceroos squad for a friendly clash with Singapore on March 22 but matchwinner Joel Griffiths is not among them.

The Herald understands that Jets skipper Jade North, goalkeeper Ante Covic, midfield enforcer Adam Griffiths, defender Tarek Elrich and teenager James Holland will all be included in national coach Pim Verbeek's squad, which will be chosen mostly from within the A-League.

Joel Griffiths was not considered, having left last weekend to start his loan stint with Japanese second-division club Avispa Fukuoka.

It remains to be seen whether he is subsequently included in Verbeek's full-strength squad for the World Cup qualifier against China in Kunming, four days after the Singapore fixture.

Verbeek is yet to finalise his squad for the China match, but it is expected that players who perform well against Singapore will come into contention especially if the high-profile stars based in Europe are unavailable.

"This match will give valuable experience to Hyundai A-League players and will be another important part of our program to keep them fit during the off-season," Verbeek said in a media release yesterday.

"Once the match is over I will then decide who will make the final squad for the trip to China."

Football Federation Australia will announce both squads next week, and the line-up to face Singapore will spend five days in camp before the match.

If Adam Griffiths, Elrich and Holland will be making national debuts if they play Singapore.



Joel Griffiths could hardly have presented stronger claims for inclusion in Verbeek's No.1 squad during the past A-League season, when he won the golden boot for most goals and Johnny Warren Medal as player of the year.

But Verbeek told The Herald last month that the 28-year-old striker had "weaknesses" he needed to remedy if he wanted to add to his two Socceroos appearances.

"He's quite an all-round striker, but I still think for international football he has to work harder," Verbeek said.

"He knows that, but I told him.

"Here, he can conserve his energy for scoring goals, because the rest of the team does a lot of defensive work for him.

"But in international football, that's different.

"Every player should work harder and do his job in defence.

"That's what he has to improve."

Griffiths is set to make his Japanese debut on March 16 against Mito Hollyhock.

Meanwhile, Jets coach Gary van Egmond says his club has "only three, possibly four places to fill" on their roster for next season.

"We're still looking to what we do with regards to a marquee player, whether we bring a new person in or make Joel our marquee player," he said.

"We also need another central defender, we need a wide player either left or right and then we'll be pretty much done.

"I'm hoping the club will announce the signings of Tarek, Adam D'Apuzzo and [Sydney FC's] Ruben Zadkovich fairly soon.

"We'll go with a very small squad in terms of numbers probably 20 players and we'll make sure we work very hard on prevention of injuries, as we did last year."

Van Egmond says he plans to stick to the same off-season formula as last year after his players resumed training this week.

The Jets enjoyed a 10-day break after their grand final success and will get a month or five weeks off later to break up the off-season.

"Because of what we did last year, with regard to the season proper and season we had, it's a little bit easier this time for the boys to understand that, if they want to be there on the last day, it's about hard work," he said.

"It's just my way of doing things. They'll have a good break later in the piece to freshen up mentally and physically, and I think that pays dividends towards the latter stages of the season."