Ernie Merrick joked that all coaches had an expiry date after the Jets crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Melbourne Victory on January 5.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The heavy loss was the Jets' fourth in the five games and left them propping up the ladder with 15 games remaining.
"I've never felt pressure, really, because I know I'm only a caretaker coach," Merrick said. "I know I'm going to go sooner or later. I won't change the way I coach .... I think with the quality and the culture we have at the club, we have the players to turn it around."
Chief executive Lawrie McKinna didn't share that optimism and Merrick's two and a half year ride at the Jets was over.
"It's not easy telling your mate that he's not got a job anymore," McKinna said. "After that second [Victory] goal, you could see there was no fight there. We've still got a chance for the finals, we're six points off the top six and we've still got enough games to turn things around."
There was no doubt the working relationship between McKinna, Merrick and football operations manager Joel Griffiths had waned.
The veteran Scotsman, who was e paid out the remaining five months of his contract, was shocked by the axing.
When he arrived at Newcastle in May, 2017, Merrick took charge of a club in turmoil.
The Jets finished the previous season with the wooden spoon and had sacked two coaches, Scott Miller and Mark Jones, in the space of seven months.
Merrick, the A-League's most experienced tactician provided stability and immediate success.
While Jones was responsible for recruiting influential imports Roy O'Donovan, Dimi Petratos and Daniel Georgievski, he never had a chance to coach them. Merrick added the likes of Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Glen Moss and Ronny Vargas and steered Newcastle into the finals for the first time in eight years. His debut season ended on the most bittersweet of notes - a home grand final in front of almost 30,000 fans, but a 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory that will forever be remembered for a video referee malfunction.
While the 2007-08 championship team deservedly rate as Newcastle's finest, Merrick's men scored more goals and won more games.
Unfortunately, the roller coaster tipped over the top and the ride had been down hill.
In 2018-19, the Jets slid from runners-up to seventh, five points adrift to the top six.
This season the spiral continued and a run of four losses in five games - during which time 17 goals were conceded - sealed Merrick's fate.
In August, he had labelled the roster, which included new buys Nick Fitzgerald, Abdiel Arroyo, Wes Hoolahan, Matt Millar and Bobby Burns, "probably the strongest squad since I've been at the club".
Long-term injuries to Hoolahan, Arroyo and captain Nigel Boogaard tested the Jets' depth as did the shock exit by Joe Champness to pursue a rap music career in the US.
The so experts certainly didn't agree with Merrick's assessment, with most predicting the Jets to finish among the also-rans.
A long term ankle injury to Hoolahan in the loss to Adelaide in the FFA Cup quarter-final wasn't the ideal springboard. Known as the Irish Messi, Hoolahan played a decade at Norwich and had 43 international for his country, and although in the twilight of his career,the No.10 had added a new dimension to the attack.
"He's a bit special as a player, especially as a creative player," Merrick said. "I'm not sure that we've got anyone that creative, but we've certainly got goalscorers up front that can play that role."
The opening four rounds produced two draws and two losses and four goals - one from general play.
"We're just struggling to score a goal during open play and we've done so much work on it all pre-season and we've been doing it last year as well," Merrick said.
A hamstring injury to Abdiel Arroyoin December further depleted the Jets' already thin attacking stocks.
"We have done more than enough to win games but we just don't finish things off," a frustrated Merrick said after the Jets fired 31 shots to Adelaide's 13 in a 2-1 loss at Coopers Stadium in round nine.
"To be perfectly honest we just need a goal-scorer, a finisher during open play."
By Chistmas, the season was in freefall.
A week after surrendering 4-0 to Melbourne City, the Jets were demolished 6-2 by a rampant Perth Glory in the west. On the edge of the top four a fortnight earlier, the Jets slumped to last place.
Funds were made available to bring in a player during the January transfer window but the players on offer were deemed unsuitable by Merrick.
Instead, Merrick opted to blood fringe players Angus Thurgate and Pat Langlois.
Two more games, a 1-all draw with Brisbane and 2-0 loss to Victory, failed to produce a turnaround and Merrick was shown the door. W-League coach Craig Deans was brought across in a caretaker role.
Boogaard insisted that Merrick hadn't "lost" the dressing room.
"Everyone's entitled to their opinion but he [Merrick] definitely didn't lose the group. People may say that during games, when we conceded goals, the lack of effort or trying wasn't there. That wasn't true.
"As a collective, it was disappointing, and obviously as a playing group you feel responsible, partly, when a coach goes, because you feel like you've let them down,"
Former Wales midfielder and successful US Major League Soccer coach Carl Robinson emerged as the front runner despite interest from the likes of Sven-Goran Eriksson and Harry Kewell.
The former Vancouver boss paid his own way out to Australia to meet with McKinna and inspect facilities.
The 43-year-old, who has 52 caps for Wales and played in the English Premier League at Portsmouth and Sunderland before a stint in the US, had spent five years at the helm of the Whitecaps, guiding them to three play-off appearances.
A month after Merrick's shock exit, Robinson inked a three and a half year deal to coach the Jets - the biggest in the club's history.
"We felt he was the outstanding candidate from the start among hundreds of CVs that we received," McKinna said. "He's an experienced coach with a good understanding of the A-League, and he knows how to work within a salary cap due to his MLS experience, which is crucial for us."
On day one, Robinson revealed he was a "hands-on" coach who would "push" and "test" the players and believed they could "quickly climb" up the A-League table.
"I know people will say the standings don't lie, but they are a good squad of players," Robinson said. "They can quickly climb up the table. I wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't believe that."
After the arrival of Roy O'Donovan on the last day of the transfer window, Robinson added former Welsh international Joe Ledley and Bernie Ibini on short-term deals.
The revolution had begun. Six games had produced three wins, two draws and a loss when COVID-19 shut down the league on March 24.
