PORT Fairy will resume its pre-season training routine tonight, despite the recent COVID outbreak around the town.

The Seagulls had plenty of sessions pre-Christmas and senior football coach, Winis Imbi said the club would need to be flexible during the next little while with plenty of cases around.

“We are supposed to gear up today, but it is not a happy place at the moment in terms of COVID,” he said.

“Even though we want to get things started, we are really mindful of the community and what is best for Port Fairy.

“We have pencilled that in and we are going to train Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“We are going to try something different; Tuesday will be boxing with Adrian Hearn, one of the things we are trying to improve at the club is the training levels.”

Port Fairy’s pre-season ahead of the 2021 season prompted concerns from many including Imbi, but the club’s buy-in has been a lot more positive ahead of the 2022 Hampden Football Netball League campaign.

There has also been a couple of key changes to the list with Josh Dwyer moving to the Geelong Football League, while the Seagulls will welcome back Kaine Mercovich after a season in the SANFL.

The club is also talking to some other key position players with Imbi confirming some discussions have taken place between the Seagulls and Levi Dare, along with Lachie Waddell.

“We have spoken to them since the end of last season, but to this point we haven’t heard any confirmation from either of them,” Imbi said.

“We respect where they are at, Levi is going to have his second child and his brothers are down near Colac, and Lachie is a young man and may have aspirations to move back down Melbourne way.

“We have been talking to other people and we will continue those discussions along the way.”

As the Seagulls look to bounce back from a disappointing season last year, Imbi said the group had learnt plenty, which will help the squad grow ahead of the upcoming season.

“The boys had a really enlightening year in terms of the struggles we went through, there were a lot of positive things about how we finished the season, despite the early finish to the season,” he said.

“There was some good momentum that we built, which we brought into the pre-season.

“We just need to grow and build together as a group and hopefully the boys can honour their commitment and if they do, we can achieve a lot more.

“We had a very unhealthy list during last season, we had between 8-12 players out on a regular basis, but we’ve had guys like Matt Sully right from the first session of pre-season, and we had some boys who were injured during the season out on the track early for these sessions as well.”

Port Fairy is also looking to bolster its list, as evidenced by the discussions with Dare and Waddell, but Imbi is also confident there is plenty of growth in the existing group of players.

The club has been a lot more proactive in terms of recruiting, and yes those two would be handy in terms of this year, but we will make do with what we have got if they don’t eventuate,” Imbi said.

“We are looking for key position players, but we have also got some really good local players as well.”

The Seagulls have already pencilled in a practice match against the Ararat Rats prior to the Hampden league season getting underway.