Port Melbourne season preview

vfl.com.au recently chatted to Port Melbourne senior coach Gary Ayres about what could lie in store for the club on the field in 2017.

FACT FILE:

2016 FINISH: 8th (11-8)

2016 BEST AND FAIREST: 1. Brody Mihocek / 2. Toby Pinwill / =3. Khan Haretuku and Damian Mascitti

2016 TEAM OF THE YEAR: Khan Haretuku / Damian Mascitti / Tom O’Sullivan

FORMER PLAYERS CURRENTLY ON AFL LISTS:
- Selected in 2004: Josh Gibson* (North Melbourne/Hawthorn)

2017 INS & OUTS:
- In: Anthony Anastasio (Williamstown) / Dylan Atkins (Dandenong Stingrays) / Chris Carey (Warragul) / Dylan Conway (Williamstown) / Isaac Conway (Werribee) / Jeremy Gleeson (Frankston) / Will Goss (Oakleigh Chargers) / Ethan Hanley (Oakleigh Chargers) / James Harrison (Deer Park) / Yarran Jaffer-Williams (Casey Demons) / Hugh Johnson (Sandringham Dragons) / Jesse Johnson (Devonport, TAS) / Charlie Kelso (Sandringham) / Ash Krakauer (Sandringham Dragons) / Sam Michael (Oakleigh Chargers) / Brodie Murdoch (St Kilda AFL) / Robin Nahas (North Melbourne AFL) / Jake O’Brien (Seymour) / Sam Pickess (Frankston) / James Pullan (Oakleigh Chargers) / Kade Renooy (Gippsland Power) / Jesse Smith (Sandringham Dragons) / Eli Templeton (St Kilda AFL) / Lachlan Treverton (Old Haileybury) / Shane Valenti (Old Haileybury) / Anthony Vella (Cranbourne) / Dillon Viojo-Rainbow (Carlton AFL) / Aaron Wilson (Frankston) / Mitch Wooffindin (Knox)
- Out (selected): Sam Crocker (Old Carey) / Guy Dickson / Nick Dixon (Collegians) / Dalton Graham / Matt Lee / Jarrad Matheson / Jake McKenzie (Deer Park) / Alex Mioni (Coburg) / Malcolm Neiwand / Nick Parthenopoulos / Fraser Pearce (Northern Blues) / Josh Purcell (Inverloch) / Josh Scipione / Alex Spencer / Dan Toman / Jason Williams

DEPARTED PLAYERS WHO’LL BE MISSED:

Josh Scipione: “Josh would be the big loss from a ‘team fit’ perspective, being a forward. We certainly felt we were pretty average as a forward unit last year.”

Dan Toman: “Dan would be another loss from a consistency point of view. He and Josh are guys that would have been pretty much ‘ready-made’ for us this year.”

Guy Dickson: “Guy’s departure was something we didn’t envisage happening; he decided to move interstate for his career and that didn’t happen until fairly recently. Guy has that swing-man ability to go from back to forward. Last year was probably his break-out year and we certainly thought he’d have another good year in 2017.”

RECRUITS WHO COULD MAKE AN IMPACT:

Experienced forwards: “Anthony Anastasio will certainly fit straight into our forward line with the high work rate and finishing ability we’re after inside 50. He and Dylan Conway will bring experience and the success of both having won a premiership with Williamstown in 2015. Robin Nahas will certainly add his experience and star qualities as well, so we think we’ll hit the scoreboard more with those three inside 50.”

Big-bodied midfielders: “We’ve improved our depth in the midfield with bigger-bodied players, which is important to match the AFL-aligned teams. We’d say Isaac Conway would come in and make an impact straight away. Eli Templeton is another one and so is Brodie Murdoch. With Shane Valenti and Mitch Wooffindin as well, it’ll be pretty hard come selection time because we envisage all those guys will play some pretty serious senior footy.”

Charlie Kelso: “We identified that we needed a bigger-sized ruckman and at 208cm, Charlie will hopefully give us a little bit of an edge there. We’ve always been a bit under-sized over the years as far as the big players go. I think we really need guys who are just able to go into battle, hold their own in the ruck and give our midfield first look at the ball.”

Anthony Vella: “Anthony’s a young boy from Cranbourne who won a premiership in the South East league last year. He’s a running defender who’s got some really good speed and understands the game. I’d like to think he could add something in relation to our pace through the defensive area.”

BEST-AND-FAIREST CONTENDERS:

“We’d like to think we have some pretty good depth in the midfield. You think about Chris Cain, Toby Pinwill, Shane Valenti and Mitch Wooffindin, and the other we can’t forget is Sam Dwyer who missed most of last year and has had a solid pre-season. Tom O’Sullivan has had a really good pre-season, Nathan Batsanis is another one and Matt Arnot another one.

“Mitch Golby was recruited last year as a midfielder/defender and once he got over his shoulder operation he’s had a pretty good pre-season too. Shannen Lange had a terrific season last year. We want Damian Mascitti to continue playing some really good footy for us across half back.

“And that’s not even mentioning Brody Mihocek (pictured), who won our best-and-fairest last year in his first season at the club.”

BREAK-OUT CANDIDATES:

Tom Hobbs: “I’m really keen to see how some of our younger guys who have been around for a little while will go in the coming months. I’m talking about guys like Tom who was a first-year player last year and had a pretty good season (six goals in nine senior games). He’s a medium-sized hit-up forward.”

David Iaccarino: “David’s been here for 12 months and he’s one we’d like to take another step forward. He came out of Footscray’s VFL environment and they’ve been pretty successful, so we certainly think Dave has the talent to play some dual roles for us. He’s had a pretty solid pre-season this side of Christmas.”

Lachlan Waddell: “Lachie’s a young ruckman/forward who’s been around for three years now. It’s going to be important for him to step up because, while we’re always looking at our core group of guys who play consistently each week, we’ll only improve through guys like Lachie who’ll no doubt come into the team through the course of the season.”

BIGGEST TEAM STRENGTHS:

“We adjusted our defensive mechanisms in a very effective way last year and I think outside probably the last two games (a 35-point loss to Geelong in Round 21 and a 45-point loss to Sandringham in an elimination final), our defensive performances were pretty good.

“Midfield depth is a traditional strength of ours. You’ve really got to be aiming to win more than 50 per cent of the clearances (Port Melbourne was ranked third for clearances per game during the 2016 H&A season), but it’s also about what our midfielders are doing to assist our forwards and our defenders. Each line has to be connected and know what the other line is doing.”

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT FROM 2016:

“We certainly felt we needed to get some goalkickers to the club this year. We were pretty good defensively last year but what happened in the forward half was really disappointing – just not being able to kick a lot of goals. We only averaged 77 points per game (ranked 11th during the H&A season) and you’ll never win a premiership if you’re doing that.

“I’d like to think it’s going to be a big improvement area this year. If we can get a better year out of the likes of Jordan Lisle and with Anthony Anastasio, Dylan Conway and Robin Nahas coming in, I certainly hope we can keep the opposition under pressure.”

COACHING PANEL CHANGES:

“There have been some coaches who have left and we’ve probably streamlined our coaching group this year. Robin Nahas has come in as a player but he wants to dabble in coaching as well so he’ll be our offensive coach. Ryan James, who did a really good job with our defensive line last year, will come in as our defensive coach. Trent McMicking, who was our head of development last year, has taken over the Development League coaching role from Lee Rowe.”

Next preview: Geelong

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Port Melbourne season preview

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