Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) (formerly under licence from Football Australia). The club was formed in 2000 when it joined the National Soccer League (NSL) and was one of only three former NSL clubs to join in the formation of the A-League.
Newcastle Jets have won one A-League championship, after defeating rivals Central Coast Mariners 1–0 in the 2008 A-League Grand Final. In 2009, Newcastle competed in the AFC Champions League for the first time, reaching the Round of 16. In May 2015, FFA revoked Newcastle's licence after owner Nathan Tinkler placed the club into voluntary administration. A new A-League club was formed for the 2015–16 season, under the same name and colours.
In October 2025, the Jets defeated Heidelberg United 3–1 to win the Australia Cup for the first time.
The club plays home games at McDonald Jones Stadium. An affiliated youth team competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW competition. A women's team competes in the A-League Women. The youth team's matches are played at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility. The Women's team play at McDonald Jones Stadium and No. 2 Sportsground
History
Early years Newcastle United was formed in 2000 by Cypriot-Australian businessman Con Constantine from the remnants of the Newcastle Breakers. The Breakers were dissolved when Soccer Australia revoked its NSL license at the conclusion of the 1999–2000 season. After the formation of Newcastle United, the home ground was moved back to McDonald Jones Stadium.
Newcastle United competed in the NSL Final Series of 2001-02 and 2002-03 and finished second in the League behind Perth Glory in the 2001–02 NSL season.
The club renamed itself to the Newcastle United Jets Football Club and launched a new badge at the start of the new national league, the A-League. This was done in an attempt to project a new image of the club and avoid confusion with the English club Newcastle United. The name "Jets" is a reference to RAAF Base Williamtown, located just 20 kilometres north of Newcastle. The club's logo depicts three F/A-18 Hornets, which the Royal Australian Air Force has based in Williamtown.
Former England and Australia manager Terry Venables was reported as the favourite to become the team's technical director, including reports from the Jets, but declined the role. Instead, the club signed Richard Money for the 2005–2006 season. In 2006, Money was replaced with Nick Theodorakopoulos after Money returned to England to take the manager's job at Walsall. In October 2006, after recording no wins during the Pre-Season Cup and the first seven rounds of A-League matches, Theodorakopoulos became the first coach to be sacked in the club's A-League history. His assistant Gary van Egmond was the caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2005–06 season, and later signed a contract to remain as the coach of the Jets for the next three years.
The club surprised many observers in the Australian game by signing Ned Zelic, the second big name signing of the inaugural A-League, signing a two year contract as the clubs marquee player and the Jets inaugural club captain.
The Jets attempted to bring former Liverpool and England striker Stan Collymore out of retirement for a four-match guest stint; however, the move broke down within 24 hours of it being made public.
With the leadership of Gary van Egmond, crowds in Newcastle reached all time highs, culminating in a crowd of over 24,000 for their home final against Sydney FC on 2 February 2007.
Newcastle were eliminated in penalties in the preliminary final by Adelaide. Vaughan Coveny and Stuart Musialik missed their attempts in a shoot-out that ended up at 4–3 in favour of Adelaide, costing Newcastle their place in the grand final and a berth in the Asian Champions League.
Champions of Australia (2008)
Season 3 of the A-League saw a number of Newcastle's biggest stars of the previous season leave the club. Captain Paul Okon retired, fan favourite Milton Rodriguez returned to Colombia and Johnny Warren Medal winner Nick Carle moved to Turkey to join with Gençlerbirliği S.K. New recruits included Joel Griffiths' twin brother Adam and previous European Golden Boot winner Mario Jardel. Throughout the season, star striker Joel Griffiths broke the record for most goals in a regular season by scoring 12 in 21 rounds.
The Jets started the season 5-0 but struggled for consistency until the end of the season. Wins in the last three competition rounds saw the Jets move up the ladder to equal points with the Central Coast Mariners, finishing the season in second place due to inferior goal difference. The Jets went on to play the Mariners in the two legged Major Semi Final. The Jets won the first leg at home 2–0 thanks to a first-half header from Adam Griffiths and a late penalty from his brother Joel. The game was controversial as Mariners striker John Aloisi had a seemingly legitimate goal disallowed and also missed a penalty. Steeled by the defeat in the first leg, the Mariners overturned the 2–0 deficit and won to advance to their second Grand Final in three years.
The Jets qualified for their first A-League Grand Final by beating the Queensland Roar 3–2 in the 2008 Preliminary Final on 17 February 2008.
The Jets defeated the Central Coast Mariners in the 2007–08 A-League Grand Final, in front of 36,354 fans, becoming A-League Champions for the first time.
The game was sealed with a solitary Mark Bridge strike in the 63rd minute after an error from Tony Vidmar. The game was marred by a late penalty appeal for a handball. Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic had come up for the corner and was so infuriated by referee Mark Shield's decision that he slapped his hand away, earning a lengthy ban and ruling himself out of the early rounds of the next season. Both the Jets and Mariners qualified to take part in the 2009 AFC Champions League.
After the departure of high performance manager Ian Crook, the Jets signed former Sydney FC boss Branko Culina as their new Technical Director.
After the success of the 2007–08 season, a number of Jets players left the club, including Mark Bridge and Stuart Musialik to Sydney FC and Joe Marston Medal winner Andrew Durante and Troy Hearfield to Wellington Phoenix. Although rumours persisted about captain Jade North and Adam Griffiths wishing to leave the club after being a part of the Socceroos squad that faced Singapore and China, both chose to remain with the Jets for the 2008–09 season. The regular season proved to be a disaster for the Jets. The team won only four out of twenty-one matches and were rooted to the bottom of the ladder, missing the finals for the first time, and collecting their first wooden spoon.
Branko Culina reigns (2009–2011) Preparations for the following season were thrown into turmoil when championship-winning manager Gary van Egmond left the club for a lucrative job with the Australian Institute of Sport. That created a public rift between the club and FFA over FFA's possible involvement in inducing van Egmond to break his contract by taking up the new position. The relationship between owner and FFA fell to the point where the club has threatened legal action against both the FFA and van Egmond for breach of contract. Former club technical director, Branko Culina, was named as his replacement on 30 June 2009.
AFC Champions League debut In order to rebuild the team for the 2009 AFC Champions League, the Jets signed Perth defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley in early January 2008. But the signing of Topor-Stanley would prove to be the Jets' sole gain on the transfer market for several weeks, and fans grew even more disgruntled as the Jets were confirmed as the 2009 A-League "Wooden Spooners" with a 2–0 loss to Adelaide United in mid-January. An encouraging 2–1 win over Perth Glory in the Jets' final home game of the A-League 2008-09 season lightened the mood somewhat, but when the Jets crashed in a 4–0 capitulation at the Sydney Football Stadium the following week, things were looking grim. And the picture only grew bleaker as the notorious player exodus continued and the club lost Socceroos defender Mark Milligan to Shanghai Shenhua, along with Jesper Hakansson, who left the club after agreeing to a mutual termination. Talisman and captain Joel Griffiths also agreed to move to Asia, although only on a one-year loan to Beijing Guoan.
The Jets got off to a bad start, losing 2–0 to Beijing Guoan in Beijing. However, they rebounded with a 2–0 defeat of Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i back in Newcastle. After a heroic 1–1 draw in Japan against Nagoya Grampus, they lost 1–0 in the return fixture. Then, on 6 May, the Jets grabbed two goals in the last two minutes to defeat Beijing in Newcastle 2–1. The Jets qualified for the last 16 by defeating Ulsan Hyundai 1–0 away from home with Jason Hoffman scoring his debut goal to seal the win. The Jets faced Pohang Steelers in their round of 16 fixture on 24 June, crashing out of the competition 6–0 to the hands of the South Koreans.
The first ten days of league season saw the Jets engage in a surprisingly successful flurry of transfer activity to bolster their squad for the impending Champions League before 11 February date by which clubs are required to submit their squad lists. Acting on an urgent need to improve their attacking stocks, the Jets announced simultaneously the signing of Dutchman Donny de Groot from De Graafschap along with former Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners striker Sasho Petrovski. Next, the Jets reinforced their shaky defence by obtaining the signatures of talented former FC Thun and Melbourne Victory defender Ljubo Miličević, who had been battling depression since being released by the Victory, veteran centre-back Angelo Costanzo from Adelaide United, and young Sydney FC left-back Nikolas Tsattalios. These signings were followed by the surprise announcement that the Jets had secured the services of former S.S. Lazio forward Fabio Vignaroli on a six-month contract. In a further boost for the depth of its squad, the club signed three local players on six-month deals with the option for an extension into the 2009–10 A-League season: former Newcastle United midfielder Mitchell Johnson and strikers Peter Haynes and Joel Wood.
In the 2009–10 Season, the Jets qualified for the finals series after coming sixth in the regular season. In the first week of the finals the Jets unexpectedly defeated Gold Coast in a penalty shoot-out 6 goals to 5, after the full time score had been 0–0. In the second week, they played Wellington Phoenix. The full time score was 1–1, but in extra time, Paul Ifill scored the match winner for Wellington followed by a goal from Eugène Dadi, putting the Jets out of the competition.
Prior to Newcastle's round 4 game against Brisbane Roar, it was revealed that the club was under significant financial stress and was unable to pay staff and player wages on time. That resulted in the club seeking either a loan or an advance on their quarterly share of the A-League television deal. It was announced by the club and Football Federation Australia that the governing body would provide a short-term assistance package, making sure the club made it through their next few games and back into financial viability.