Joel tells Con: Make me a Jet for life

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD

By James Gardiner

A-LEAGUE player of the year Joel Griffiths has thrown out a challenge to club owner Con Constantine: make me a Jet for life.

Griffiths, 28, has a year to run on his contract at the Jets but is keen to settle his long-term future sooner rather than later.

The star striker wants to finish his career in Newcastle and is aiming for a four-year extension.

"I want to make Newcastle my home and don't really want to play for any other A-League club," Griffiths told The Herald yesterday from Japan, where he is on loan at division-two club Avispa Fukuoka.

"But if you get pushed . . ."

Keen to accelerate talks, Griffiths, in consultation with financial adviser Luke Torossian, sent the Jets a formal letter outlining his plans but was disappointed at the club's initial offer of two extra years.

"They harp on about being loyal to the club, but they have to be loyal to the player as well," Griffiths said.

"I think I have been pretty loyal to the club.

"I have come back from Europe and cut my salary. I did not even talk to any other A-League club.

"The club has to come to the party to an extent.

"The money was not what I expected."

As well as the A-League player of the year, Griffiths won the Golden Boot setting a new goalscoring record and made a clean sweep of the Jets' major club awards.

In the process he has become the face of the Jets, and his influence at club level has been compared with that once held by league great Andrew Johns at the Knights.

"I am not going to sell myself short," Griffiths said.

"Without being big-headed or cocky, I know what I am worth on the field and off the field."

The Jets hinted at making Griffiths, who is on $170,000 a season, their marquee player, whose contract is not included in the $1.8 million salary cap.

But they appear to have moved away from that and are now looking at an Italian-based player for that role.

The Jets have already lost Stuart Musialik, Mark Bridge and Andrew Durante since beating Central Coast 1-0 in the grand final to win their maiden championship.

Any decision by Griffiths to leave is likely to influence the future of twin brother Adam, who also has a year to run on his contract but has an exit.

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