HE spent all but two games of last A-League season warming the bench, and Ben Kennedy could again be watching from the sideline as Newcastle’s 2016-17 campaign kicks off.
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New recruit Jack Duncan has started in Newcastle’s past two trial games, keeping clean sheets in wins against Melbourne City (4-0) and Western Sydney Wanderers (2-0), and appears to have the inside running for selection in Sunday week’s season-opener against defending champions Adelaide at Hunter Stadium.
Duncan produced a fine reflex save in the opening minutes against the Wanderers at Cessnock on Saturday, and while new coach Mark Jones preferred not “to rank them at this point”, he said both were neck-and-neck in the race to start the season.
“They’re both fighting for the No.1 spot, and Jack stuck his hand up [against the Wanderers], so it’s game on for the goalkeeping spot,’’ Jones said.
Newcastle’s new coach will back the judgement of his specialist goalkeeping mentor Jess Vanstrattan to determine who starts between the posts.
“The goalkeeping coach gets to choose that,’’ Jones said. “Jess will decide on who plays, and like I said, it’s a battle between the two of them and with anything, the person that stands up the most gets the gig.’’
Kennedy, who debuted for his home-town club a decade ago and has played in 114 A-League games, had been hoping to reclaim a starting berth after the departure of Mark Birighitti to English Premier League club Swansea.
But Duncan is clearly not content to settle for the role of deputy. The 23-year-old, who debuted in the A-League for Newcastle in 2011, has rejoined the Jets on a two-season contract.
Since he was last at Newcastle, Duncan played seven A-League for Perth Glory before signing a two-season deal with Danish club Randers FC, only to return to Australia after playing just one game in their first XI.
Meanwhile, the Jets are expected to confirm Chinese triallist Ma Leilei will fill the club’s last remaining visa spot. Leilei played three games for the Jets on their recent tour of China and has since been waiting in his homeland for visa approval.
“We’ve got one visa spot left, for a Chinese player,’’ Jets chief executive Lawrie McKinna said.
“The Chinese player will be the boy who played with us in China … the boy was decent.
“He hadn’t played for two months after coming back from Portugal, but he played 20 minutes in two games and he’s a tidy player.’’
McKinna said a Chinese import “ticks all the boxes” for new owner Martin Lee.
