‘Focusing on winning’: Jets determined for final four games of the season

After arriving at the Newcastle Jets from Macarthur in the off-season, Lachie Rose spent a bit of time injured at the start of the season, but has since hit career-best form in the Hunter.

Despite the setbacks, Rose tries to turn every negative into a positive, and wanted to capitalise on the remainder of the season once he returned. He has scored seven goals with one assist, beating his previous best of four goals and one assist twice at Macarthur (league play only).

“[Turning negatives into positives has] helped me a lot. For me, every time I get an injury I go ‘ok, I can’t change it now. That’s just the way it’s going to be. How can I come back stronger or better than I was before?’,” Rose said.

“That’s what I try to achieve now every time there’s a little setback.”

Despite the change in team, Rose is constantly reminded of the good times he had in Sydney’s South-West, with a number of Macarthur fans supporting his move to the Jets and regularly wishing him the best, with Rose saying the support means the world to him.

“Any fan that’s stuck by me through thick and thin, hats off to them because it does mean a lot to me as a person,” he said.

“It really helps me with my football. I can’t be more thankful for that and hopefully it can keep going and keeps growing, especially the Newcastle fanbase.”

The Newcastle Jets are excited to announce a partnership with charity M-Brace and today launched the ’20 for 20’ Charity Walk.#BondedByGoldhttps://t.co/oU1uaMhCc3

— NEWCASTLE JETS FC ✈️ (@NewcastleJetsFC) April 8, 2025

Rob Stanton, who will leave as Jets coach at the end of the season, garnered headlines for all the wrong reasons in March, where he called players selfish in post-game remarks to Paramount+ and that the players should be worried about their future rather than his.

Rose said that as players, nothing changes for them because things like this are just part of football and that sometimes players do indeed need to be selfish and focus on themselves.

“But for us, that’s not how we are always. For us, we just want to make sure we’re focusing on winning games as a collective, and Rob knows that,” Rose said.

“At the end of the day for us, Rob is our coach, and we do everything for him. We want to make sure we leave everything out on the field for him when we go on that field because he’s putting in a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

“We don’t let anything faze us. We’ve just got to make sure we go out there and perform as a squad and try to get the results.”

With four games remaining in the Jets season, barring an unlikely finals appearance, and Rose said that he is not too concerned with the remaining four games in terms of impressing whoever the new coach might be.

He said that the way he plays is that he does everything for the team and that if he keeps doing what he’s doing and the team does the same, whatever is happening behind the scenes will be nothing to worry about because next season is next season and it’s all about the final four games.

The first of those is the final Men’s F3 Derby of the season, where the club has partnered with ProCare Mental Health Services to highlight the M-Brace initiative.

As part of the partnership, a limited edition Newcastle Jets themed bracelet has been designed, with all proceeds going to the charity, and will be available for purchase on Saturday night at the Derby.

Rose, who is an ambassador for M-Brace, said that he wants to do whatever he can to support the campaign.

“We all have friends and family members that need mental health support so I want to promote M-Brace as much as I can so everyone can access support whenever they need it,” he said.

“M-Brace reached out to me about being an ambassador. I looked into it a lot more and spoke to them about it, and it was a no-brainer.

“The initiative that they’re going after is a very positive one. For a lot of people, I feel like mental health is one of those things where it is overlooked.

“In reality, it’s ok not to be fine. It’s ok to speak up and I feel like what M-Brace does is very important in that regard.

“I just thought I need to be a part of this to promote it a lot more, not just in the everyday world but also in sport as well because I feel like it is overlooked for athletes at times, so if I can play my part with that and also off-the-field for everyday people as well, as I said, one big goal [and] everyone’s just joining together and helping each other.”