Jason Hoffman has begun contract discussions with the Newcastle Jets for next season and credits the team's exciting brand of football as motivation to keep playing.
The long-serving Jets defender is one of several players off contract at the end of this A-League campaign and the 33-year-old said on Thursday he was keen to play on for a few seasons yet.
Hoffman has made 264 appearances in 15 A-League seasons. This campaign is his 10th with Newcastle and the hard-working, home-grown talent wants to add another championship to the one from his debut season in 2007-08 before he retires.
"I still feel like I have plenty to give, physically and mentally, and it's no secret the pride I have in playing football for the club," Hoffman said.
"It's a place that I want to contribute to for the next few years and, as any player will tell you, they want to play as long as they can.
"I'd love to be around and we've had initial conversations about the fact I want to stay and the club would like me to stay, which is pleasing, and hopefully that will be sorted out very soon."
The Jets' 2021-22 season appears over with three games remaining but Hoffman was confident the Jets, under coach Arthur Papas, are building something special for years to come.
"Right now for me, it's the biggest driving force for wanting to continue with the path that we're on," Hoffman said. "The football we've played at times has been some of the best in the league and it's a style and it's an aggressiveness with the ball that I certainly haven't been a part of before.
"I believe that long term it can bring us success. It can bring us a championship, and for me next season is a hugely exciting prospect because we will learn from this season into next season.
"We will finetune areas we need to and I'd love to be a part of that for many years. But first and foremost, I'm looking forward to the next few games because for me they're not throwaways. They're games we need to perform in and we need to win."
The Jets' finals hopes took a huge hit with losses in their past three outings. They are in ninth position on 25 points with three games remaining, six behind Sydney (31) in eighth and eight points adrift of the top six.
Newcastle travel to Campbelltown Stadium on Sunday to play seventh-placed Macarthur (32) in the first game of three in the space of a week. They host second-placed Western United (44) at McDonald Jones Stadium on Wednesday night then play Central Coast three days later in their final game of the season.
"From my point of view, we would probably be a team that plays arguably some of the best football in the league, and over the history of the competition we're probably one of the best teams in my opinion to maybe miss out on finals, so that is extremely disappointing," Hoffman said.
"As a group we have plenty to play for. Finals is going to be very difficult. Whilst still mathematically possible we will go into every match giving the best performance we possibly can.
"There's plenty of opportunities for players as well within the squad to fight for something. So for us, the next three matches are critical and we want to end the season on the best possible note we can and obviously avoid an [Australia] Cup play-off match as well."
