Newcastle Jets players prepared to help teammates out

Newcastle Jets players will come to the aid of their teammates who are experiencing financial difficulty.

The A-League is struggling to keep it with all player wages at the moment but head coach Branko Culina said the group was banding together to help each other out.

“We have already experienced a couple of players who are finding it financially tough because they rely on that income,” Culina told the Newcastle Herald. “We might have to do a bit of a whip around ourselves to help out some of the guys who are not as fortunate as the rest of us.

“Everyone has different financial responsibilities, and it is fair to say that those responsibilities are planned according to what you expect, and hope to get, on a weekly basis from your employment.

“When that stops it throws everything out a bit.”

The Jets’ situation is being investigated by both the A-League and Football Federation Australia meaning it is out of the players’ hands which captain Michael Bridges believes is a good thing.

What is going on behind the scenes, we will let the staff get on with that,” he said.

“We have a game against the Roar on Sunday and the best way to answer everybody is to get a result.

“What John passed on to us, it wasn’t anything different to what we knew. We haven’t been paid this week.

“But we just have to get on with it. We want to put it to rest until Monday. Get the game out of the way and then see what happens next week.

“It has given us an easy excuse, but we don’t want that.

“If we start making excuses and get down and depressed, you may as well give the Roar three points already.”