JUST a year after he arrived at the club, Portland Football Club’s senior assistant coach Cameron Brown is already making his presence felt at Hanlon Park, as he has been announced as co-coach of the Tigers’ under-18.5s for season 2023.
Brown, who will coach alongside last year’s under-16s co-coach Mark Finck, says the decision for the club to move on from long-time coach Tony Jackson was purely a matter of bringing some continuity into the more senior teams.
“It was about helping our under-18s program translate over to the more senior teams… we want to make that transition from junior footy into the seniors as easy as possible,” Brown said.
“I’ve done a similar role at previous clubs in the past and it’s worked really well… and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Brown heaped praise on the job that Jackson has done over the years, adding that himself and Finck could bring a new perspective to the team and the club as a whole.
“I think Tony has done an amazing job over a number of years in the role… he’s a stalwart of the club,” Brown said.
“Fincky and I can bring a fresh set of eyes to the role and a new way of going about things which is sometimes what’s needed.
“There’s going to be a real sense of cohesion between the seniors, reserves and under-18s going forward.
“A target that I’ve set for myself and the club is to see five under-18s boys play senior footy next year.”
Jackson will remain involved with the club in other capacities.
The Tigers endured a tough season results-wise in the eldest junior division, finishing 2022 in seventh place with six wins and 12 losses.
Brown said that apart from the aforementioned goals of getting young players into the seniors, he wants to see the team be as competitive as possible.
“That’s the main goal for us is to be competitive… if you look around at the Hampden league it’s incredibly strong,” he said.
“We’re losing a number of players from this year as they’ll be too old… it’s going to be a very young team.
“But in saying that it’s also incredibly exciting and it’ll give the side a new dimension.”
The Tigers also confirmed the rest of their football coaching group for 2023, with Jarrod Holt to continue as senior coach, Brown as assistant coach and Will Oakley to again coach the reserves.
Vaughan Hockley (under-16), Alex Sealey (under-14) and Justin Impey (under-12) have all been reappointed to the positions they held last season.