Due in part to a crippling injury crisis, Port Melbourne looks set to miss the Legendairy VFL Finals Series for the first time in coach Gary Ayres’ eight-year reign, but there are still positives to come out of 2015 at North Port Oval.
The Borough’s heartbreaking three-point loss to Footscray at VU Whitten Oval on Saturday consigned it to a 6-10 record, and its percentage relative to the eighth-placed Casey Scorpions (8-8) has effectively eliminated it from finals contention with two rounds to play.
Coach Gary Ayres lamented his team's injury toll, but said he had been able to expose several talented youngsters to senior action earlier than expected.
“We’ve probably had some guys who are getting a taste of senior footy a bit before their time and you’d like to be bringing them in when you have a healthy nucleus of your side, but we haven’t had that,” the 2011 premiership coach said.
“It’s good in that they get exposure, but they also need that experience around them to make their transition a bit easier.”
After starting 2015 brightly with a record of 6-4, an 11-point loss to Essendon at North Port Oval started the Borough’s current chain of seven consecutive defeats.
Ayres said 20-year-old small forward Blake Pearson had been a “shining light” in the early part of the season, kicking 20 goals in his first nine games.
22-year-old Sam Gilmore is another youngster who Ayres said had stepped up, with the third-year ruckman sitting ninth in the league for total hitouts despite playing five games in the Development League.
Others have performed admirably after coming to the club during the off-season, such as key forwards Jordan Lisle (ex-Hawthorn and Brisbane) and Khan Haretuku (ex-Casey and Frankston), as well as key defender Lucas Cook (ex-Melbourne and North Ballarat).
But there’s no denying the club’s worrying record during its seven-match losing streak of conceding 33 goals in fourth quarters while scoring only 11 itself is due in part to missing hardened, experienced bodies on the field.
“We haven’t had a great run with our injury count,” Ayres said.
“Some of them are unlucky – as we know, this game is about collisions and we’ve had ligaments in the wrists requiring operations, broken bones, ACLs.
“You do come back to the field as a standalone VFL club when you’ve got six or seven of your best 12 not playing.”
Among the bigger names to have missed chunks of the season are Chris Cain (eight games played), James Magner (two), Shannen Lange (two), Hugh Sandilands (11), Josh Scipione (five) and AFL recruits Leigh Osborne (10) and Dylan Van Unen (13).
Considering the off-season exodus of veterans John Baird, Sam Pleming, Shane Valenti and Marcus Marigliani, in addition to leading goalkickers Julian Rowe and Daniel Connors, 2015 was always going to be a year of transition.
But with an eye to the future, Ayres is remaining philosophical.
“There’s a few things we really need to take stock of once the season’s finished, because a VFL standalone team cannot have upwards of 20-odd players missing on a regular basis – it just cruels your chances,” he said.
“We probably used all our luck up over the last eight years.”
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Last Modified on 21/08/2015 09:19