Forum topic

Yeah, it's a big accomplishment to make it onto the vflw list after taking up the sport later in life (I don't know at what age she started, but 17 is the minimum age to play in the AFL London league - no junior comp) and coming from overseas. It clearly is incredibly difficult to come from one sport and then pick up the skills of another one well enough to play the second sport at a high level. For that matter Hird, coming back to footy after a few years of playing soccer, looked at first like he didn't always quite remember how to use his hands (that was when he was at Essendon - by his first year with us he'd improved tremendously). That is impressive as well that Hird's played in the 2nd best competition in both soccer and footy - I knew a bit about his soccer background but hadn't recalled his level. Glad he ultimately chose footy! He is the only player in the side who I ever want to see kick the ball directly off the ground - for most it's a bad idea, but he can do it and actually direct the ball where he wants it to go. He can also juggle the footy with his feet like soccer players do with a soccer ball, although that has no particular in-game application!

The women's team did just sign another ruck in Maya Crestani - hope the men's team follows suit. At this point I wonder if we'll have to wait until the squad is named for the first practice game and see if there are any names listed there that haven't been announced, but it would be great to hear some news before then. 

I suspect we'll see Josh Tovey get some time as a backup ruck and perhaps as a key forward as well, given his height and McCartney's tendency to try players in different positions. He's described a midfielder but is listed as 195 cm, and when I was looking him up a while ago, I did read that he's sometimes played as a backup ruck or as a forward in local footy. That of course does not make our need for rucks and key forwards any less serious, so fingers crossed for some good list updates.

Rumours on Bay St are that some big news is about to be made public from the Borough.  Paul Amy has apparently gone to tonight's training.

Dyson heppel retired big hit for port this year 

Well, that's very disappointing news. I suppose that reaction may seem to be somewhat in contradiction to my earlier comments about not liking that he was coaching Collingwood while playing for us, but the idea was that I'd wanted him to fulfill his 2-year contract with us before signing with another club. Besides, this seems like very strange timing considering how many promotional videos on our social media he's appeared in over recent weeks; if the club didn't think him also being at Collingwood was a problem weeks ago, why should that change now when to all appearances he was committed to playing for us next season? Perhaps his departure has nothing to do with the Collingwood situation at all, although if it does that whole situation has been handled very oddly. In any case that's 3 of the top 5 from our best and fairest who have now departed, not to mention how beneficial Heppell's experience surely was to the rest of the playing group. To be clear this reaction is not meant as a critique of Heppell personally; I've never heard a bad word about him.

Well, updating list numbers: we're at 39 list spots filled (composed of 29 players retained and 10 new signings), with 10 confirmed departures (clearly the final number will be higher). So, assuming list sizes of 44, we've got 5 spots left open. No need to point out again what sorts of players we all hope will fill those spots!

This is all speculation so not to be taken as fact- my guess would be that they wanted to speak to Heppell in person which was not possible until the first training of this year as he didn't train last year with being on the I'm a .celebrity show, coaching and training at Collingwood etc etc  Once he appeared at the club I'm.guessing he would have been told have a few weeks to think if it's us or them and get back to us -  we never stood a chance if this was the scenario as we were going up against Australia's biggest sporting club who most likely have invested financially greater amounts than us... 

As I say this is all a guess but if this was the way it played out then I'm glad the.club made a stand and i would have been deeply disappointed if they allowed any player or coach no matter who they were to have divided loyalties. 

That would make sense for why it's taken so long. Yeah, no one should work for two clubs. Not sure why that was ever presented as a possibility. It would have been better for the story about the Collingwood job not to get out until he'd decided between the clubs, to prevent the inaccurate reports about him being at both, but on the other hand inaccurate reporting (supposing it was indeed inaccurate and that your thought that Port Melbourne told him to choose is correct) is hardly a surprise. Disappointing to lose him after only one year, but then again given his age he likely wouldn't have been playing long, so we may as well replace him now. If your speculation is correct, then hopefully the coaches have been preparing the game plan / team structure with the idea of losing him in mind so that we don't have to make too many adjustments this close to the start of the season.

May I ad that although he was good it was fair to say he was slowing and certainly wouldn't get any faster - we saw him caught out on tackles several times and this likely would have been a more.prevelant issue this season. 

In other news the rumours are true Tom Mitchel.has signed for the Borough - that being Greensborough !!.

Yeah, that's a fair point. It's been a while since contracts have meant a great deal anyway. I wonder if Riley Polkinghorne could spend some time at halfback. I really think he's got something, but it's almost certainly too much to expect for him to play mostly midfield for a whole season right now when he didn't play a full season at all last year, and he didn't have as much impact at half forward. Leaving aside the new recruits since I haven't seen them, our strongest options for halfback are Tom Hird and Lachie Rankin, and I'd like to see Hird spend a lot of time in the midfield again. My preference had been for Rankin to play primarily on a wing with some rotations as an inside mid, but he and/or Hird may spend more time at halfback now. Stubbings may also be able to go to halfback, and Sparkman showed some signs there, although neither is at the level of Hird or Rankin.

Ned Hawkins has re signed - theirs a list of some of the resigning players with a brief description of season 2025 which can be found on the Port melbourne website (needs updating). So including Ned I think we have space for 4 more players.