Saturday night’s clash between the Macarthur Bulls and Newcastle Jets began at 6pm but finished at 9.59pm as wild weather forced the longest game in A-League history.
Scorching temperatures in Campbelltown saw the match delayed from 5pm to 6pm, but a rapid change in conditions as a storm front hit soon sent the players running to the sheds.
Newcastle scored in the eighth minute through fleet-footed attacker Trent Buhagiar, before intense winds – gusting up to 65km/h in the area – even blew an advertising hoarding onto the pitch near a player.
In the 14th minute, the players were forced from the field due to lightning for an expected half-hour delay. But the dangerous storm forced play to be delayed over an hour and a half.
Play eventually resumed at 7.50pm – but the teams were on the pitch for just 12 minutes before the lightning returned. The subsequent delay was 32 minutes. The match was finally concluded at 9.59pm, just one minute short of four hours.
Newcastle defender Carl Jenkinson, a former Premier League veteran, had never experienced the likes of Saturday’s record-breaking night.
“It’s crazy. Like I said, I’ve never been involved in something like that,” Jenkinson said on Paramount+ after the game.
“That actually seemed a long time ago now (the delays). I almost forgot that because the last thirty minutes was a bit long.
“It’s strange but credit to the lads because we stuck to what we were always doing. I think we started really well. I think in the second ten minutes when we came back out, we weren’t as good as what we can be.
“And then after that little break probably did us the world of good because I felt like we got going again. A very strange night but just great to come here and get the three points.”
It was Newcastle’s sixth game without defeat, while Macarthur failed to make the most of their dominance on the stats sheet.
