GROWING up in the Illawarra, Jets co-captain Matt Jurman adored the Wollongong Wolves.
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It was a golden period for the Wolves, winning consecutive National Soccer League titles in 1999-2000 and boasting stars Scott Chipperfield, Matt Horsley, Scott Miller and Sasho Petrovski.
"I remember one presentation night, we had to dress up as one of the first-team players," Jurman said. "We drew the players' names from a hat and I ended up getting David Cervinski. I got a fake ponytail and wore his jersey. I remember looking up to that team."
Jurman, 33, hopes to have similar success in Newcastle and inspire the next generation of Jets players. First there is the matter of extending his contract.
The co-captain is among nine players off contract and facing an uncertain future after the Jets finished 10th.
"I didn't want to focus on it during the season," Jurman said. "If I am playing good football, the contract stuff will take care of itself. Hopefully in the next few weeks, it can get sorted and we can have a big year next year, and do a lot more than we have in terms of making the finals."
Jurman collected the Craig Johnston Medal at the Jets' awards night on Wednesday. The medal is judged on how a player conducts himself on and off the field, their involvement in the community and contribution on the pitch.
"Being a Liverpool fan as well it was a surprise and great honour to get that award from Craig Johnston," Jurman said. "It is always nice to win something. It would be better obviously to win something as a team and be in the finals."
Jurman admitted it will be "difficult to watch" the A-League finals this weekend.
"It is hard to swallow," Jurman said. "It was another season that could have been. Good luck to the rest of the teams, but it's disappointing. When you look at the whole season, there were times when we didn't capitalise on where we were in the table. That hurts because there were games where, had we won, we would have moved up to third and things like that. There were a few games where copping last-minute goals cost us points and moving up the ladder. There were some positives but for me it is a disappointing season because we didn't make the finals. That is where I want to be playing."
