THE Newcastle Jets’ season is not dead, yet.
Just when it seemed the Jets were facing a loser-takes-all stoush with Gold Coast for the wooden spoon, a gutsy draw and a victory – both away from home, believe it or not – have provided Newcastle’s campaign with much-needed CPR.
A win in Sydney on Sunday and, for what it is worth, the Jets could be back in the top six with seven preliminary rounds to play.
And while ever the Jets remain contenders for the play-offs, and thereby an unlikely premiership, there has to be some obligation on the club to maximise their chances of success.
They owe their fans, season ticket-holders and sponsors that much.
All of which brings us to the issue of Kasey Wehrman, who at the start of the season was widely regarded as one of the A-League’s most respected and influential players.
Wehrman has been sidelined for the past five games, uninjured, after falling out with Gary van Egmond for publicly questioning the coach’s tactics.
There was speculation Wehrman would be traded for a player from a rival A-League club when the January transfer window opened.
That now appears unlikely.
Wehrman has indicated his preference is to return to Norway, where he played professionally for almost a decade, but the Norwegian league does not kick off until March, so he is happy to sit tight in Newcastle until the A-League season is done.
Until then, he continues to train with the Jets and the club is still paying his wage.
Yet there is a strong suspicion Wehrman will never play for Newcastle again.
What a waste of a resource.
To exacerbate this futility, Newcastle will be without teenager Ben Kantarovski for the next four games because of Olyroos commitments.
Van Egmond thus faces a dilemma in patching up a depleted midfield.
Skipper Jobe Wheelhouse has struck some goal-scoring form playing higher up the pitch, but he shapes as a likely replacement for defensive midfielder Kantarovski, alongside Jacob Pepper and Ruben Zadkovich.
The other option for van Egmond is to reinstate Wehrman.
The 34-year-old veteran is a proud man who has forged close bonds with his teammates during his two years as a Novocastrian.
He accepts he will not be at the club next season but would like nothing more than to leave on a positive note.
Van Egmond, meanwhile, is clearly looking towards the future, which is fair enough.
But as he builds a squad for next season, the coach should not take his eye off the ball.
There is still a chance his team can reach the play-offs, perhaps leaving the Novocastrian faithful with reason to remember this campaign as something other than as an anti-climactic waste of time and effort.
Wehrman, admittedly, is no miracle worker.
But he has plenty to offer – experience, toughness, a touch of class and a desire to contribute.
To ignore all that, especially in the absence of Kantarovski at a crucial stage of the season, seems counter-productive.
The phrase ‘‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’’ springs to mind.
Even worse, it short-changes all those people who have parted with their hard-earned this season in the hope that the Jets would be title challengers.
No such guarantees can ever be made, but at the very least fans are entitled to presume the club they support will choose the best available players each week.
That is a fundamental concept, especially if the season is still alive.
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