AFTER losing nearly two full years of football due to the coronavirus pandemic, Portland key defender Jake Wilson is ready for a huge 2022 campaign within the Hampden Football League.

Wilson recently signed a new 12-month contract with the Tigers and has been one of many hard at work since preseason began on November 22.

Portland finished inside the top five for the first time since joining the league in 2013, qualifying for finals shortly before the season was abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

If Portland is to return to finals contention in 2022, Wilson – who spent nearly a decade within the Victorian Football League (Werribee and Williamstown) and South Australian National Football League (West Adelaide) – is likely to be an important piece of the puzzle.

“I’m really looking forward to what’s to come with this group, I think anything is possible,” he said.

“Holty (Jarrod Holt) and the boys accomplished a lot this season and now pushing ourselves up into that next bracket with the likes of South Warrnambool and North Warrnambool, it’s a realistic ambition.

“The main thing for us will be keeping the same core group together first of all, and then second maintaining that focus and concentration for another year.

“The hard yards need to be done though and improving again after one great season, it won’t just happen without the work.”

Wilson spent the first half of the 2021 season away from footy but was a key player in the team’s push for finals later in the season.

His return to the game came in late June – back-to-back tough defeats against South Warrnambool and Koroit – but success came in the final two matches of the year, with the Tigers handing defeats to Port Fairy and Hamilton Kangaroos.

Wilson said he enjoyed his return to deep in defence.  

“Everyone missed all of 2020 obviously because of the lockdowns and then by the time 2021 rolled around, I’d put so much focus into my family and the farm and work, that I’d lost a fair bit of interest in footy,” he said.

“After being away for the first half of last year I started to find myself missing it more and more and so I headed back to training and once I was back into it, it was great to be back.

“The way the year ended was pretty shattering, everyone wanted the chance to play finals, but for the time that I was down there, I loved it.

“I was back being deep in defence and loved playing my natural game again after switching back and forth in 2019.

“It was great playing alongside Josh Edwards, he’s someone who I think could take his footy anywhere, he’s still so young but he’s got heaps of strength and confidence and in particular he really backs himself in aerial contests which is super promising.

“A lot of people already know how seriously David Denboer takes his responsibilities down back and he had another great season, and even Paul Procter too, he was a great pick up for us.

“He runs hard in straight lines, works hard to get to where he needs to be and never backs down from the contest, and that’s all you ever want to see from your defence.

“With some exciting new faces at the club already, like Lochie Huppatz, hopefully the team has a solid preseason and hits the ground running next year.”