Newcastle Jets winger Jeremy Brockie has attributed his sparkling start to the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League to a rigorous fitness regime.
Newcastle Jets winger Jeremy Brockie has attributed his sparkling start to the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League to a rigorous fitness regime.
The Kiwi international has been a player of enormous potential since he burst on the scene as a teenager with four goals in 12 games for the now defunct New Zealand Knights in the inaugural Hyundai A-League season in 2005/06.
But by his own admission the 24-year-old has failed to live up to those expectations after a disappointing stint with Sydney FC and a luke warm season with the North Queensland Fury.
However, with three goals under his belt this season, including a dazzling double in the 2-0 win over Perth and the winner in the F3 derby against the Mariners, Brockie is putting his form down to fitness.
“It is the best pre-season I have had,” he said. “I had a little blip just before the season started but until then I had laid a good foundation and worked hard with the fitness trainer.”
“I’ve lost four kilograms from my playing weight from last year, so I feel like I can move round the pitch much better and things have just seemed to have fallen into place.”
Brockie has been predominantly used as a right winger this season and has formed a formidable partnership with right back Tarek Elrich down the flank.
“We didn’t get to play together too much last season but we’ve worked well together this year,” Brockie said.
“He knows that I want the ball early to feet and he has got an engine that sees him keep overlapping all day so that also gives me an option to play him back in or cut inside it is only going to improve with time.”
Brockie’s second goal against the Glory was one of the highlights of the season so far after he followed a deft lob into the box from Kasey Wehrman before turning defender Seb van der Brink inside out with a sublime chip before firing a sweetly timed volley into the goals.
“Kasey and I looked at each other just before he played that ball and I read where he was going to put it. He has great vision and I knew from that angle it was going to be tight to volley on the turn so I had to come up with something so I doinked it back over his head and came up with the volley,” Brockie said of the goal before admitting he still needs to finish off every chance he gets.
“I guess it is good to be able to score goals like that and keep scoring ones like that, but I also had a couple of other chances that night that were easier than the two I scored so I should have put them away.”
