Newcastle Jets forward Jason Hoffman has revealed last season’s Golden Boot winner Joel Griffiths has been giving the team’s strikers some extra training in a bid to get the goals flowing for the defending Hyundai A-League champions.
The Jets haven’t scored a goal in the league since their come-from-the-dead 3-3 draw with the Glory in Perth in Round 2 almost four weeks ago.
The team has been creating plenty of opportunities but the finesse in front of goal has been wanting and the frustration levels in the Newcastle camp have reached a point where the experienced Griffiths has taken matters into his own hands with some supplementary ‘striker boot camp’ after regular Jets training.
“Joel’s actually stood up and he’s pulled a lot of us strikers away after training and done extra finishing,” Hoffman said. “So with Joel being a little bit older he’s taken on more of a leadership role.”
“It hasn’t been any fitness work just purely concentrating on putting the ball into the net. And at training there were plenty of goals so we are feeling confident heading into Friday’s match against Queensland.”
“We’re just hoping that once a few goals are going in and other people start scoring, besides Joel, the pressure will be taken off and the goals will finally come for the team.”
The Jets have a phenomenal record against the Roar having won all four previous encounters between the two teams at Suncorp Stadium and Hoffman has warned that the renewed confidence up front is poised to reap rewards and continue the trend.
“I think we can exploit some of their weaknesses,” he said. “Especially in the final third with Joel (Griffiths) and now (Edmundo) Zura we’ve got plenty of pace that can exploit an ageing Queensland defence.”
Hoffman, who is a current member of the Qantas Young Socceroos, also said the Newcastle defence was up to the task of keeping the Roar forwards in check, in particular Queensland’s Scottish import Charlie Miller, who is aiming to become the first player in A-League history to score a goal in five consecutive games.
“We spoke a little bit about Miller and we know that he’s very good on the ball, but he’s not the quickest,” Hoffman said.
“With Adam Griffiths back in the squad now after the problems that he’s had, we’re confident that he can do a defensive job on Miller and keep him pretty quiet for the game.”
