Leading the Line - Marko Jesic
Since his dream debut, young Jet MARKO JESIC has faced the harsh realities of professional football - but he’s still looking up
Losing to Sydney was obviously difficult; another late loss at home. It was a bit of a heartbreaker. We were pretty confident before the game and during we had more possession - but it was lack of concentration and goals that really affected us. Newcastle seemed to have the lion-s share of possession and often looked more likely to score. We dominated the first half; we had more possession and were more creative up front. But they scored straight after us and it-s heartbreaking after doing so well early on. When it-s 1-1 it-s anyone-s game - then we lost 2-1. It-s been a strange start for you - you scored that cracker against Melbourne, but since then it-s been pretty tough for Newcastle. Yeah, so far so good. Scoring the goal against Melbourne still hasn-t sunk in. It still feels like a bit of dream. I-ll be watching that at the end of the season thinking there-s no way I-m going to do that again. But it has been a good learning experience, coming to a club that won the championship last year and this year they ain-t doing so well. But everyone still has the belief that we can win the next few games and we can have a good chance. Is a top four spot realistic? Yeah, I think we can. The last three games we should-ve won. Against Wellington, we were doing well and then Joel Griffiths got sent off, and we were still doing well with 10 men and still a strong team (Wellington scored two goals in the last 10 minutes). Against Adelaide we lost to a goal in the last minute (to draw 1-1). And even against Sydney we dominated the game and they-ve come away with the win. That would-ve been nine points but we-ve only got one. You started the season as part of the Jets National Youth League team but you-re almost a regular in the first team; it-s been a big step up for you. It has been good. I started off in the National Youth League and the standard in that was pretty high. (But) I-ve been training with the first team since I moved up to Newcastle and just training with them, it-s like we-re playing; you know the guys and it all moulds together like you-ve known each other for a while and it works so well in the game. What-s the biggest difference in your game? What have you learnt from your time so far? I would say my confidence has gone sky-high. With my career being out for a year and a half with two knee reconstructions, and now to be playing games at the highest level in Australia; my confidence has gone up for sure. Despite it being tough short-term, the future looks bright for Newcastle with some talented youngsters. Yeah, exactly. One thing Gary [van Egmond] always says is it doesn-t matter how old you are, if you-re doing well you-ll play, no matter what. It-s doesn-t matter if you-re young, if you can do the job you-re in, and you can-t ask for more than that. You-ve got a couple of tough games coming up - Queensland at Suncorp, then Melbourne at home again. How optimistic are you for these fixtures? I think we-ve shown in the past couple of weeks we can still play some good football, and if can keep doing that I reckon we can get more goals and come away with six points. Six points! There-s that confidence you were talking about… Yup! I think we can get six points. It will be tough at Suncorp but the way we-ve been playing I reckon we can get something. Going to recreate your wonder goal…? Yeah… I-m hoping… Something like that.