Rob Stanton coaching on the sidelines for the Newcastle Jets at an away game against the Western Sydney Wanderers. Photo Credit: Texi Smith

Rob Stanton coaching on the sidelines for the Newcastle Jets at an away game against the Western Sydney Wanderers. Photo Credit: Texi Smith

Less than a week after guiding the Newcastle Jets to a record equalling seven-games unbeaten, the talk once again heated up on the coach following his side’s 6-2 loss to Western United.

Stanton, nearing the end of his second season with the Jets, offered up little in the way of excuses for the performance, instead choosing to praise Western United, saying it would be disrespectful to offer up fatigue as an excuse for the loss.

On the Paramount+ broadcast post-game, Stanton was asked about his future at the club by Daniel McBreen, who noted there was a report last week with conjecture about whether Stanton had signed a new deal and whether or not he had told the players he would be leaving.

The Jets coach responded by calling the discussion on it irrelevant.

“Players are selfish. You’ve [Daniel McBreen] been a player, I’ve been a player. If you’re playing, you’re happy. If you’re not, you’re not,” Stanton said.

“For a coach, you’ve got one task. Keep all your players happy. Do you know how hard that is?

“If you can put 22 [players] into [a starting] 11, you’re going to make a great coach. I haven’t met a coach who can do that.

“For me, in regards to my future, it’s irrelevant. Like I said, players are selfish. They’ll do what they need to do to play, and I wouldn’t expect anything different.

“What I expect [is] to make sure you have the mentality to back it up. Not talk about it, actually do it. I don’t care if you’re worried about my future. I don’t think they’re worried about my future. I don’t think too many people are worried about my future, because I’m not worried about my future.”

At Unite Round, following a 2-1 loss to the Central Coast Mariners, Stanton said he wasn’t sure how long he would get to make his squad top players, but he also said he doesn’t worry about it.

It was something he was quick to re-emphasise and make known when pressed on it in the post-game press conference following the 6-2 loss to Western United, where the phrase “it’s irrelevant” also made multiple appearances (six to be exact).

If the discussion is as irrelevant as Stanton says that it is, then surely it has to go away right?

But perhaps it actually is rather relevant to the future of the Jets, with Stanton quick to heap further praise on Western United, whilst also lobbying some factual criticism of the Jets after he was asked whether the loss tarnished the history-making seven straight games without a loss.

“They’ve built a good club there. They have good people that do things properly and I go, that’s what you get when you do that, you build something, and it becomes sustainable,” Stanton said.

“They’re building a facility. You go down there. So let’s first and foremost make sure we say the right thing, which is genuine. I genuinely say that to John and his players, they were excellent.

“We haven’t done nothing in the last 20 years, mate. So I don’t think so. I think enjoy that moment, because it can turn very quickly. You have to appreciate that moment.

“It’s a good moment. Players deserve credit for that. But okay, when it doesn’t happen, you have to own it, or we have to own it as a as a group. It’s a good moment, mate. It’s good when you write a little bit of history, it’s there until someone else rewrites it for you.

“The fans have suffered a lot in years, and a lot that’s down to a lot of things, things I can’t control. When I arrived here, I had to solve a lot of problems, and I still have to solve problems. Is it part of my job to solve problems? I’d like to think there’s more people around to help me solve some of the issues, but the reality is, it’s not.

“The club is not set up to be in that position. It’s going to take time. So the new owners, that’s their task will be to fix that.

“But it’s good to know that when you haven’t got a big budget or the lowest budget, and you don’t have all the tools, and you don’t have this that you can still break a 20-year record and get seven results. There’s some good things happening at the same time, but there’s a lot of better things that happen too.”

Whether the discussion over Stanton’s future is relevant or irrelevant, one thing was made perfectly clear following Sunday’s game.

Rob Stanton knows that it does not matter whether he is there to lead the club or not, because the fans attachment to the club goes beyond who is in the coaches chair, as he explained in a monologue that was more reminiscent of a wrestling promo from The Rock than an answer at a press conference.

“I’m not concerned with my future. If you’re always concerned with your future, then you’re an insecure person. I’m not an insecure person,” he said.

“The fans are attached to a club, they’re not attached to Rob Stanton. They’re attached to a club.

“Rob Stanton works for a club to make more fans come in, because he’s got to get his team to perform right, and when he doesn’t, Rob Stanton will be out the door, right? So that’s where it is, and if you don’t accept that as a coach, you’re in trouble.”

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