W-League: Jets recruit Herald WPL player of the year Jemma House

Now the 24-year-old is out to make the most of a debut W-League season.

House was part of the Emerging Jets program but instead of following the football pathway in Australia, she headed overseas and spent four years playing in the United States college system.

On return she joined Newcastle Olympic and scored 33 goals in 16 appearances to inspire the WPL newcomers to a premiership-championship double this year. House nabbed the leading goalscorer title and was named player of the year.

"Having W-League in the back of my mind in every game helped me achieve what I did this year," House said. "This has just topped off a pretty good year.

"I went through the academy and playing for the Jets was something you always look toward at a young age. So to leave and come back and be able to achieve that is pretty surreal."

The Jets' loss of attacking players Jenna Kingsley, Nicki Flannery and Teigan Collister has opened up opportunities for the likes of House.

"I'm going to training, working hard and doing what I know that I can do," House said.

"If I control what I can control, show up to training every day with a mindset that I want that starting position, train hard and do the things that she asks, I can't really do much more than that. Hopefully when the season starts I get a few minutes under my belt."

Wilson said House had been showing promising signs at training and in trial matches.

"Jem has an eye for goal and that's been seen in her record in WPL," Wilson said.

"She's an instinctive player that can make some decent runs. She shows good awareness up there. It's been positive to see how she's adapted to this training environment, the jump in the level.

"Her work-rate is quite good and, when you have those instincts towards goal, sometimes you can't coach that. You just have to be able to put them into an environment and work them to a point where they can consistently perform at the level that's required."

The Jets W-League squad will be unveiled to members on Saturday.

Newcastle open their season with back-to-back home games at No.2 Sportsground. They host Brisbane on December 28 and Adelaide on New Year's Day.