Portarlington Football Club sacks coach Darren Findlay after just seven rounds

A BFNL president has defended his club’s due diligence after sacking its new senior coach after just seven rounds.

Portarlington and new coach Darren Findlay have parted ways. Picture: Mark Wilson

Portarlington Football Club president Steve Cogger has defended the club’s due diligence after it sacked its senior coach Darren Findlay after just seven rounds.

Cogger confirmed with this masthead on Friday morning that Darren Findlay and the Demons had parted ways following a 2-5 start to the BFNL season.

The former VFL player had been out of football for 12 months before being announced as the club’s replacement for Warren Finlayson after the 2024 season, signing on for three years.

However, on Friday, Cogger said the club was confident it had done the requisite research before appointing Findlay in August last year.

“Yes, we thought we had, the credentials stood up, character and all that stood up,” Cogger said.

“Our external advice was good, positive.

“(But) coaching’s difficult these days ... and the location (of the club) makes it difficult too.

“I’m not going to say it was an error, I just think it took time for it to work out that maybe we weren’t suited.”

Darren Findlay instructs his charges against Newcomb. Picture: Mark Wilson

Cogger said there had been issues with alignment between the club’s direction and Findlay.

“Now we’re probably halfway through a rebuild ... and growth path,” he said.

“But unfortunately this season it had just sort of drifted apart, the coaching side of it and the club direction had drifted apart, we needed to get it back on (course).

“And unfortunately Darren didn’t agree with that strategy, so we agreed to part ways.”

Cogger confirmed that either injured captain Mitch Turnbull or Nathan Pigott would be caretaker coach on Saturday.

He said a replacement for the rest of the season would be sourced internally from its existing coaching panel.

“We’re not going outside, we’re not going external,” he said.

Cogger said the club may need to think more locally with a long term replacement considering Findlay was based in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

“It leads us to think because of our location we’ve got to think more regional with our staffing situation of the role,” he said.

Portarlington has shown great improvement on the field over the past three seasons. Picture: Mark Wilson

“And that’s why we’re not rushing (to replace Findlay), we’ll just sit and wait and see what falls over the coming months.

“As a club, we’re in a good position, our list is good. We still had over 60 train last night.”

However, Cogger said it was a tough decision with the Demons showing improvement on the field, running Anglesea to just four points in Round 6.

“You don’t know how frustrating it is,” he said.

“The improvement we’ve developed within the club, the respect we’re starting to gain ... this decision wasn’t made on win-loss.

“While we’re disappointed we’ve only won two games, we could see huge improvement in our on-field performances, this was just a coaching performance issue that had to be addressed.

“It’s so disappointing but I’m adamant it’s not going to set us back.”

Findlay’s departure comes following injuries to some of its most important players with Connor Menadue (hamstring), Kelly Pickard (knee), Jack Dorgan (wrist) and Turnbull (wrist) on the sidelines.

He said Dorgan, who had surgery on Wednesday, was “probably out for the year” while Menadue and Pickard would be likely to return in the next two to three weeks while the captain was a two-month proposition.

Originally published as Portarlington Football Club sacks coach Darren Findlay after just seven rounds