A-League soccer: Q & A with Jets coach Arthur Papas looking towards the 2022-23 season

AP: There has been a lot of reflection and it is ongoing. It is important that the reflection period - which started well before the season ended - allows us to make progress on and off the field. Even though we have been off the field for a little while, the workload hasn't changed. There is so much to do to make sure we are in a much stronger position come the start of next pre-season.

AP: We had a really good core group of about seven players. I am trying to get us to a point where I feel, by A-League standards, we have 10 to 12 of those players. They are supplemented by really important players, but maybe younger ones or players who haven't had as much exposure yet. If you look at the top three teams in the league, they have 12 to 15 very good A-League players who would get a game in a lot of other teams. We have different constraints to those three clubs. All three are in the highest spend in the league. We need to be a bit creative. That is why there is a bit of turnover. But I think we have made some good moves to move us in that direction next season.

That proved quite pivotal in the end. We knew we were getting a player on the way up who would bring stability into the midfield, protect the back four and help us in transition. He has gone to Scotland and been instrumental for the team that finished third. We never really adequately replaced him. That is an area we are focused on and I'm convinced that the player who comes in will be one of the better players for that position in this league.

AP: Twelve months down the line, it is a lot easier to convince players to be part of the Newcastle Jets. Last year it was a hard sell. I had been away, the club had a rough season and it wasn't very optimistic around the place. The one thing we were able to do was transform the playing style. It was hit and miss at times, but overall we got some recognition for the type of football we are trying to play. It is a very attacking brand of football and positive way of playing. Talking to players about next season, a lot of it is driven by them. We haven't had to fight as hard to bring players across.

AP: We are trying everything possible to keep him. But I do understand where he has come from and the importance of setting up his family. We are still hopeful, but I have to have a back-up plan. I have a plan-A, plan-B and plan-C. There has been a lot of work done in the background. Ideally, Daniel plays for the Jets. If we can't hold on to him it will be because of finances - it will be nothing else. Whoever comes in has to make us even better. Everyone talks about Daniel now. Twelve months ago he was playing with the bottom team in the second division in Brazil and I doubt any club would have taken a punt on him. I back the way we have gone about recruiting for the most part. We look outside the box but I think we have shown we can be successful at it.

AP: It is a combination of things. We need to improve from an individual aspect. We have had discussions about that. If we do bring in an extra player in that position it has to be the right player. I think competition is important. I don't think there was enough competition in that area. The second thing is can we coach them better. There are a lot of things that I expect to see different next year. We are really advanced for next season in terms of our planning. My hope is to have 95 per cent of the squad on the track for the first session of the pre-season. Last year we started with 12 players on trial and seven players contracted. There were a lot of moving parts. Next season all the new players have almost completed their medicals and are in the process of relocating. We have done a lot of work in the background organisationally.

AP: I don't think it is something we can rely on because of the model we work from. I believe the APL will fund a certain amount of a marquee contract and the club would need to supply the rest. We are not working in that realm. The key for us is to make sure we are not relying on a situation like that. If that eventuates, it could be a big bonus. At the moment, that is not something we are working towards.

AP: I think we will end up with four. In this transition between seasons, a lot of things happen. Things that you try to make happen and things that you don't expect to happen. At the moment, I envisage we will start the season with four.

AP: We needed to be slightly more mature at times. I don't feel it was a physical issue. Our numbers were outstanding from a physical point. It is definitely a lot more to do with the mental side of the game, believing each other and making sure we stay really concentrated in the key moments. This season was always going to be hard to quantify. Craig Goodwin said after Adelaide's semi-final loss it had been tough because they played three games in seven days. It was the second time they had to do it all season. We had the longest [COVID-19] break and then had fixtures changed at the last minute. Ultimately the team that wins are the champions. But when you have one team which has played one midweek game all season and we had seven, it is a bit hard to say you are playing on a level playing field. We lost to Adelaide twice in the last minute. The first time it was our second game in four days after a seven-week break. Did we lose because we weren't concentrated or because we had no legs left. In saying that, I do think we needed a couple more mature heads on the field and stronger leaders in the change room.

AP: I learnt that there is still something special in this city. To get so much support from the fans considering the circumstances. There were some matches that you couldn't comprehend why we lost. The way the fans got around the group for the way they were trying to play convinced me that we were on the right track. We went from a team that in the previous season hardly scored any goals to be the third highest goal-scoring team. We did make a big progression in the way we are trying to play. Overall, you have to sum up the season by saying there were a lot of things we encountered that you couldn't plan for. We didn't plan from a squad point to have to deal with three games a week. That made it one step too far for us.

AP: I'm excited about who is coming in. I'm excited about who is remaining. I am excited about seeing if we can become a stronger threat going forward and if we can improve our defending in key moments. If we had done that on four occasions we were playing finals. With three games to go we still in the mix to play the finals. At the start of the season there wasn't a lot of optimism considering we bought in players from places no one would thought we would find a player. We have the nucleus of that moving into next season and there are some pretty impressive players coming in to make us go a step further.

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