CRICKET season may have only just gotten started, but football is a year-round commitment for local teams in this day and age, and this is no different for Portland who are looking to rebuild towards a more positive 2024 Hampden Football League season.

The club’s new senior player-coach Lochie Huppatz, who steps into the role made vacant by outgoing coach and recently inducted life member Jarrod Holt, said the club has been hard at work on the recruitment path looking to re-sign current players and find some new ones as well.

“It’s been really exciting to see the current playing group commit to the club, and in our conversations with them they’ve shown a lot of belief in where the club is trying to head,” Huppatz said.

“I think everyone at the club is excited for the year ahead, the challenge now is to try and bring some new faces to the club to fill in those gaps where we need to.

“I have no doubts that we’ll get pens to paper and some strong commitments from players, but obviously there can be challenges in trying to bring people from out of town into Portland, we’ve just got to do our best to work through the options with them.

“But it’s all tracking pretty good, our team of recruiters are putting in some big hours trying to find the names and reach out to them.”

The club has secured the signatures of best and fairest winner Toby Jennings and runner-up Jake Wilson, along with captain 2023 Josh Edwards and club veterans such as Tom Sharp and Ben Malcolm, among plenty of others including a number of players coming out of the under-18.5s age bracket.

Portland’s official preseason begins on November 15, with Huppatz saying the goal pre-Christmas is to try and find the balance between working hard on the track and developing the social side of the club off it.

“It’ll be Wednesday and Friday set up, with Wednesday to be a more solid day on the track, and Friday to be a short-sharp session with the club putting on some food and drink afterwards,” he said.

“Getting out and training is obviously important, but there’s also that balance with getting players to the club and having them get around each other… it can be a long preseason if all you’re doing is hitting the track night after night.

“We want our group to be playing for the bloke next to him.”

In that spirit, Huppatz said this year’s training block will see the senior netball contingent join in the sessions, with Huppatz saying he wants to see the entire club united under one banner.

“I was really excited when I heard (new Open netball coach) Laura (Kelly) was coming on board for next season,” he said.

“When I reached out and asked if there was anything I could do to help she mentioned not being in town until probably the new year, so we decided it would be great for the netballers to come along and do their preseason with us.

“I’m looking at the bigger picture of the club and the best way forward for us is to have a close-knit bond between football and netball… I’m sure they’ll put us through our paces with the round ball at some point.”

Other clubs

The off-season so far has already seen a number of notable players sign up with rival Hampden league clubs, with Warrnambool FNC having signed former AFL players Ben Cunnington – who played 238 games for North Melbourne – and 50-gamer Aaron Black for 2024.

Meanwhile, Terang-Mortlake FNC recently announced they had signed former AFL midfielder Nick Shipley for the season.

Huppatz said he and the playing group certainly weren’t going to be intimidated by the presence of elite-level talent on the opposing sides and added that its simply an opportunity for his guys to go out there and test themselves.

“It’s good for the league to have elite talent out there on the field, and I bet if you asked any one of our players how they felt about sharing the field with an AFL footballer they’d see it as an opportunity,” he said.

“We have our own strengths as a football side, and we’ve got some really talented players who are going to be able to hold their own in that environment.”

Huppatz added that the preseason training program is open to anyone from anywhere who wants to come down and be involved, adding that anyone who is a “fresh face” to the club is welcome to reach out via private message to the Facebook page or to him personally with any questions.