Defending Hyundai A-League champions the Newcastle Jets are quietly confident of becoming the first team to win back-to-back championships ahead of the start of the 2008/09 season.
The Jets officially launched their title defence with a corporate luncheon in Newcastle on Friday afternoon with Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley the guest speaker at the event.
And while Buckley believes it is always difficult for any team to win back-to-back titles, Jets CEO John Tsatsimas was looking forward to breaking more records in the coming season.
"We are highly optimistic in terms of the playing personnel we already have in place at the moment," he told Sportal.
"We have a couple of new additions who I think will be very competitive and certainly we expect to be in the mix come the business end of the season."
"Ultimately it is not an easy thing to do to win two titles in a row but we intend to become the first club to go back-to-back. It was a rollercoaster season last year and we expect a similar thing this year, but as the highs outweigh the lows then it will be fine."
Buckley echoed Tsatsimas' views regarding claiming consecutive championships and believes it will be 'extremely hard to defend a title'.
"Every team gets psyched up to play you, they analyse you to a high degree of scrutiny and they build themselves up when they get ready to play you," said Buckley.
"It will be tough to go back-to-back, but who knows? They still have a very strong team with a strong core that was there last year so they will be tough to beat."
Tsatsimas agreed that every club would be out to try to knock the defending champs off their perch but said the Jets would be trying to counter the 'X factor' of an underdog's enthusiasm by maintaining the confident 'aura' that accompanies a championship team.
"When you develop an aura in any great side it is always worth half a goal headstart," he said.
"But auras only last for a certain period of time, if you don't perform they dissipate very quickly."
"But as long as we perform on the field that aura will be maintained and that is up to the boys on the field."
"Hopefully we will have something to celebrate come March next year."
The Jets continue their warm-up for the 2008/09 Hyundai A-League season when they take on Adelaide in Cessnock in the second round of the Pre-Season Cup on Saturday night.
Newcastle played out a 1-1 draw against Perth in Mandurah in the opening match of the Pre-Season Cup, while Adelaide comes into the match off the back of a confident 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory.