THE Portland Touch Football Association has returned from the Your Podiatrist Cup with its best ever result, claiming the runners-up prize in the mixed competition.

“Of all the years we have been playing in the cup, this is the first time we have made a grand final,” Portland president, and player, Ebony Braune said.

“We are absolutely stoked with how we went, we could not have hoped for a better day.

“We had a couple of players from Ballarat and Mt Gambier in our side, which really helped, but mostly it was a team made up of Portland players.

“We had a lot of subs, which is a really nice luxury to have in a tournament like this.

“We had good rotations through each game, worked really well as a team.

“I think it show the standard of our local competition is improving.”

The one-day tournament was held on Saturday at Mount Gambier with a touchdown-turnaround format allowing for a quicker flow of games during the day.

Portland got through the preliminary rounds with two wins and a draw from their five games, taking on Mt Gambier teams, RMIT University and, interestingly for a mixed division, under-14 boys teams representing Victoria Storm and South Australia Heat.

Those results placed Portland into a knockout semi-final against Mt Gambier’s Tiki Blues, which required extra time to find the winner.

Drop-off rules were in place for extra time, meaning it went from six-a-side to four-a-side to encourage more scoring.

Portland was able to score the only try of the extra period, through Jock Keiller, and that was good enough to put them into the grand final.

In what was another close contest Portland was narrowly beaten in the play-off, 2-3 to Tiki Roos, another of the Mt Gambier sides.

Standout players for Portland during the day included Cameron Gleeson, who claimed the Jim Smith Memorial Trophy for his efforts, Cecilia Eichler and Isabella Eichler.

Portland is now aiming to send teams to the Battle of the Best competition in Geelong on February 6, and to the Junior State Cup in Ballarat on February 27.