Mark Sean Jones (born 5 June 1966) is a former Australian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. He last served as manager of the

Newcastle Jets 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 ...

Playing career

Jones began his career with Newcastle Rosebud in 1985 before joining Sydney Croatia in 1987, where he enjoyed the most success including winning the NSL Cup in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

and made the NSL Grand Final in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

. He joined Marconi Fairfield in 1990 and spent two seasons at

Bossley Park Bossley Park is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bossley Park is located 36 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Fairfield. Bossley Park is part of the ...

before finishing his career in his hometown with Newcastle Breakers in the 1993/1994 season. Playing as a midfielder and as a defender, Jones concluded his NSL career with over 200 NSL games to his name. He represented the Australia U-20 team at the

1985 Fifa World Youth Championship The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, where he played all three games.

Managerial career

Jones possesses an FFA A Licence, an AFC Pro Licence, is a certified Asian Football Confederation elite conditioning instructor and is one of only 12 accredited FIFA fitness instructors. Jones' status as one of only twelve FIFA Fitness Instructors has allowed him to be an instructor at a number of FIFA Football Fitness courses in Bahrain, North Korea, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Jones began his managerial career at the N.S.W. Institute of Sport in 2000 where he was head coach of the women program before taking up an assistant coach role at Newcastle Jets in 2006. Following the takeover by

Nathan Tinkler Nathan Tinkler (born 1 February 1976) is an Australian mining industry executive and was previously the principal shareholder of Aston Resources and Whitehaven Coal. He started out as a mining apprentice in the Hunter Valley, in New South Wale ...

in late 2010, Mark Jones left his post, as the assistant coach to

Branko Culina Branko Culina (; born 1 October 1957 in Zadar, Socialist Republic of Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a football (soccer) coach and former player. He previously managed Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets in the A-League. Club career Culina was born i ...

, in a mutual-termination. Jones had made a recognizable contribution to the club, aiding Newcastle in their first

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Jones worked as an assistant coach for 5 months with

Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () is a defunct Chinese football club. The team was based in Chongqing. The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league syst ...

, before departing in May 2012. He was subsequently appointed as an assistant coach with

Perth Glory FC Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 199 ...

, where he was charged with overseeing technique, conditioning and video analysis. After departing from his role with Perth Glory in December 2012, In 2013, Jones was appointed as manager of the

Central Coast Mariners Academy The Central Coast Mariners Academy (CCMA) is the youth system of Central Coast Mariners FC based in , Australia. The academy teams play the Y-League and the National Premier Leagues, the highest level of youth football in Australia. Senior p ...

. In early 2015, following major staff and player changes by

owner and chairman,

, Jones was appointed assistant to Phil Stubbins with the first team. Jones also took on the role of Strength and Conditioning Coach at the club. In January 2016, Jones joined

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

to coach their

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future i ...

. 8 months later he was appointed to coach Adelaide United's women's side. However, in September 2016, Jones was named as coach of

with

Clayton Zane Clayton Zane (born 12 July 1977) is an Australian association football coach and former player, who played as a striker. In the 2001 season, he was the top scorer and awarded the Kniksen award as Striker of the Year in Norway. He earned 14 cap ...

as his assistant. On 16 April 2017, Jones was sacked as manager of Newcastle, after the team finished last in the A-League. Jones was appointed Technical Director of

Football West State League Division 1 The Football West State League Division 1 is a regional Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from Western Australia. The league sits at Level 2 on the Western Australian league system (Level 3 of the overal ...

team Murdoch University Melville FC in February 2018. Since his departure from the Jets, Jones has also served as a university lecturer at Edith Cowan University and as a strength and conditioning educator at FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. In 2021 Mark helped MUMFC to promotion to Football West State League Division 1

Managerial statistics

Honours

With Sydney Croatia: * NSL Cup: 1987

References

External links

Coach profile at newcastlejets.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Mark 1966 births Living people Australian soccer players National Soccer League (Australia) players Marconi Stallions FC players Sydney United 58 FC players Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales Newcastle Jets FC managers Men's association football defenders Australian soccer managers Newcastle Breakers FC players