How Jets captain Cassidy Davis has achieved a record run in A-League

The Jets captain equalled the previous longest unbroken stretch of 108 A-League games in a row, shared by Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Steve Ugarkovic, against Canberra in Canberra last Friday night.

It has taken Davis a significantly longer amount of time to achieve the feat.

While the A-League men's season comprises around 26 games without finals, the women do not yet play a full home-and-away format. Until last year, women's teams played 12 games in the regular season. That has increased to 14 this campaign.

It means Topor-Stanley and Ugarkovic would have reached the mark in roughly four seasons compared to Davis' nine.

"It's a bit of a shame that it's had to take this long, but that's just the way that our seasons go," Davis told the Newcastle Herald.

"I guess that shows that I've been fit enough for every game for nine years."

Davis made her national league debut at Broadmeadow's Magic Park in the 2013-14 season and has not missed a game since.

She has also barely missed a minute of playing time.

"You could say it's a bit of luck, but I'd say hard work," Davis said.

"We go from playing local league to having to play at a higher level.

"It's all the work that you do before you get to that six-week pre-season in making sure your body is ready. I think what I've done before I start A-League has a pretty big impact on being able to play consecutive games."

Davis has juggled work and study with playing at the elite level. It has been a tough slog at times but she has never considered not playing.

"There has been its challenges, like getting paid limited money for a lot of effort, and taking eight years to do a university degree and only being able to work part-time," she said.

"There's definitely challenges and there has been struggles for sure, but I don't really think there has been a time where I've thought I want to give up.

"I guess that shows the love I have for the game. Each game, I look at my performance and make sure that the next game I'm one better. I think that's been my motivator, from my own point of view - making sure that I'm doing better each game."

She is also determined to leave the game in a better place for those who follow in her footsteps.

"Conditions are getting better for the women's game; each year there's more money or travel arrangements are better," Davis said.

"All of us that have played for so long, we're trying to get better rights for those young players coming through in years to come.

"I hope that there's a home-and-away series by the time I finish and better money. It's been good that you can see a change and hopefully there's a few more changes before I finish."

The versatile 27-year-old, who switches from midfield to centre-back as needed, hopes to mark her history-making occasion with a win against third-placed Melbourne City (27) at ABD Stadium on Tuesday night.

The match is the second of four in 10 days for Newcastle, who slipped to seventh position on 10 points after losing 3-0 to Canberra.

They finish their 2021-22 campaign with back-to-back games against eighth-placed Brisbane (10) on Friday and next Monday.

Norwegian Marie Dolvik Markussen replaces injured striker Jemma House for the Melbourne clash in the only expected change to the squad. Dolvik Markussen was a late withdrawal from the Canberra trip through illness.

House hurt her knee against Canberra and joins a growing list of players in the Jets casualty ward, including the club's all-time leading scorer Tara Andrews (calf), their long-serving player Gema Simon (calf), forward Sunny Franco (ankle) and centre-back Taren King (knee).

The game is at 7pm.

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