Newcastle Jets legend Jason Hoffman
Jason Hoffman reveals the grand sacrifice he made for A-League debut
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00:00It was good to see you go out and play your season with them this year as well.
00:05What did it mean to you to pull on that jersey?
00:08And do you remember the actual phone call?
00:10Or was it a meeting that you had with your father-in-law told?
00:13Yep, hearing that.
00:15Yeah, of course, you never forget it.
00:18So, obviously, yeah, growing up a local, being a Nova Castrian at heart.
00:24My dad worked for Steelworks, so it's probably as Nova Castrian as you'll ever get.
00:29Grew up in Mayfield, obviously went through the ranks,
00:33and it's actually pretty fitting that we're talking about what it's like
00:37to get that first opportunity to play professional football
00:41because in my current role, part of that is to try and help mentor
00:45some of our younger players, both men and women.
00:48And I had a few conversations recently over the last couple of weeks
00:52about often we don't pause in our journey and sort of look backwards
00:58to see how far we've actually come.
01:00Because quite often you're a talented young star, you work really hard,
01:05and then you get an opportunity to be in a first-team environment.
01:08But that is actually just the beginning of the hardest challenge you have,
01:13which is to show consistency in that a manager will trust you
01:17to give you a contract and then the opportunity to actually take the field.
01:20And that is a real struggle for a lot of players.
01:24And quite often you're recognised in the youth system
01:28and everyone tells you that you're doing a good job,
01:30but then it's the first time when you should be sky-high in that environment,
01:35but you actually get there and you realise that,
01:38oh, the journey's only just begun, you have a real role.
01:41And if I can give any type of words of advice to some of our players now
01:47and it propels them forward in their career,
01:49then hopefully that goes a long way to seeing the best local Newcastle Jets team
01:56represented in our community.
01:58My journey was one that I was extremely grateful to have,
02:03and that first opportunity to make my debut against Brisbane Royal,
02:08they were called Queensland Royal back in the day,
02:10was actually a sacrifice moment.
02:12I went through, on scholarship, like some of our young players now,
02:17went through playing for Hamilton Olympic and we had a grand final that day
02:21and the coach at the time called me up and said,
02:23OK, you're going to make your debut.
02:25So, start the grand final, you're going to make your professional debut.
02:29So, straight away it was a sacrifice I had to make
02:33because I didn't really want to let Hamilton Olympic down.
02:36There's a few people from that club here tonight,
02:38but that was a big moment for us.
02:41But for me, there was a bigger picture and I had good mentors at the time
02:45that said, you know, this is the start of the journey,
02:48take the opportunity, whatever comes your way and finish the season well.
02:52And of course, we ended up winning the championship that year,
02:55so really never look back.
02:57But I think it's just a healthy reminder that quite often
03:01we don't pause and reflect on how far we've come.
03:03Even as a football club at the moment, we're built on being resilient.
03:07And now we have independent ownership,
03:09we have the opportunity and the platform to grow again.