As the Newcastle Jets prepare to launch a new era, with a new team playing under a new coach, veteran Jason Hoffman is intent on ensuring they do not lose touch with their past.
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After the departures at the end of last season of Nigel Boogaard, Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Roy O'Donovan, 32-year-old Hoffman finds himself as the club's senior statesman.
And while he is embracing the raft of changes under rookie coach Arthur Papas and his staff, Hoffman understands the importance of staying connected with the values and traditions that have been passed down from one generation of players to the next, since the A-League's 2005-06 foundation season.
As a born-and-bred Novocastrian, and the last remaining player from Newcastle's 2007-08 grand final triumph, Hoffman would appear the ideal conduit.
"Often the culture comes from having a consistent group together, and I guess a consistent brand within an organisation," Hoffman said.
"Whilst there has obviously been a huge amount of change, I think my role can be to carry on a bit of the legacy of the club, along with some supporters.
"Obviously as a Newcastle boy, I'm fully aware of what Newcastle is like to live in and what Newcastle means as a football club.
"So I can help them [teammates] adjust, whether it's a young player or a foreign player coming in."
Hoffman has told his teammates, many of whom are new to the city, that Newcastle is "a hard-working town" and ideally that work ethic would be reflected in its A-League team.
"We're a club that has a standard of a hard-working mentality, and that's no different this year," he said.
"We want to make sure that we work harder than anyone else.
"My role, being someone who has been around the club, I understand what the expectation is from the local area.
"I try to instill that every single moment at training and help boys push the boundary.
"It all comes down to one thing, and that's being successful."
A veteran of 242 games in the A-League, Hoffman's first task will be to educate his new teammates about the traditional rivalry with Central Coast Mariners, who the Jets will host in their season-opener at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday, November 21.
