Why Gema Simon's 150th A-League appearance 'feels pretty good'

The home-grown 33-year-old played in the Newcastle Jets' first ever game in 2008 as a fresh-faced 18-year-old.

Simon is playing her 14^th season with the Jets and 16^th A-League campaign, a testament to her talent, strength and determination.

She overcame a string of injury setbacks to reach the milestone in Newcastle's 3-1 defeat of Adelaide at No.2 Sportsground in front of 1763 fans.

In doing so, the 11-times-capped Matildas left-back became just the sixth person to achieve the mark behind Michelle Heyman, Kim Carroll, Teresa Polias, Clare Polkinghorne and Caitlin Cooper.

"It feels pretty good," Simon told the Newcastle Herald.

"I feel like I've been chasing it for a pretty long time. I'm not usually big on individual honours but this was something I wanted, just to show the commitment to get to this point because not a lot of players have done it. It's a credit to the ones that have.

"I'm kind of relieved to get it out of the way and now I can focus on getting back, getting fit and just playing the rest of the season, getting some minutes and just building on where I'm on at the moment.

"I've just had a few setbacks, a couple of contact injuries which I couldn't do much about and just a soft tissue one coming back. Hopefully, I can build from here because I'm sick of sitting on the sideline."

It was just Simon's third outing of 2023-24 after returning to where it all began following last season at Victory.

But there have been times when she thought she wouldn't reach 150 games.

"It's definitely crossed my mind, moreso the last couple of years with a few injuries," Simon said.

"I think I've had more setbacks in the last three seasons than I did in my entire career.

"I've always had little niggles and injuries but I've always been able to play with them, so I definitely thought about it.

"I'm pretty confident this will be my last season, so I'm just enjoying, I guess, my last season with the girls then looking forward to what's next with life because I've been playing soccer for a long time.

"I'm really happy with everything I've done with my career so I'm not really chasing anything. I'm just content with enjoying football and just pushing my body and seeing what's left."

The Jets were well in control after a mostly dogged and mostly dominant display when Simon took the field in the 85^th minute.

After bursting out of the blocks with a strong opening five minutes in which Sarina Bolden, Emma Dundas and Sophie Hoban all produced shots on goal, Adelaide took a 1-0 lead through Dylan Holmes in the 10^th minute after a quick play that caught the Jets napping.

But Libby Copus-Brown equalised in the 15^th minute after a sublime ball over the top of the Reds defence from Lorena Baumann then centre-back Tash Prior made it 2-1 with a close-range effort off a corner.

Bolden sealed the result in the 50^th minute after Lauren Allan played her into a one-on-one situation with Reds shot-stopper Annalee Grove.

The result elevated Newcastle to seventh position on 13 points, just one point below Western United in fourth place as they eye another home game next Saturday with Canberra (five points).

Simon has been with the Jets for both of their two finals appearances in the competition - in 2008-09 and 2017-18.

Making another is "the dream".

"That's the plan," Simon said.

"That's the end goal with the team, to make finals this season and I think we've definitely got the squad to do it.

"We've just got to get a bit of consistency but we're definitely heading in the right direction. We're building and if we keep winning games then we should be able to achieve what we set out to."

Cassidy Davis passed on the captain's armband to her long-serving Jets teammate in touching tribute as Simon took the field.