Southport Sharks head coach Matt Primus previews 2025 VFL season
New Southport Sharks VFL head coach Matt Primus breaks down the key off-season recruits, rising stars and goals for the 2025 season.
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Southport Sharks head coach Matt Primus insists his side will not feel the affects of any type of hangover from last year’s heartbreaking six-point grand final loss to Werribee as the club chases a maiden VFL premiership.
Primus has taken over the helm as head coach after serving as an assistant to Steve Daniel since 2019 and ensured the side moved on quickly after the defeat in the 2024 decider.
The Round 1 clash will be the ultimate test of the side’s character as the Sharks take on Werribee in a grand final rematch to kickstart the 2025 season.
“When we first started back in November, we acknowledged what happened last year but then we moved on pretty quickly,” Primus said.
“The demographic of our list has changed significantly, we’ve got quite a few new players under our squad too so they don’t have that history of what happened last year.
“so I think they’re in really good headspace, they’re ready and eager to get back into playing … I couldn’t have had us in any better condition and I think we’re ready to go.”
Pre-season takeaways
Much of the Sharks team which made it to the grand final last year is set to return but that has not stopped Primus from bringing in some game-changing talents.
As a result, much of the focus from the former Port Adelaide coach has been on strengthening team chemistry.
“We always spend a lot of time in getting to know each other, not just the football game plan side of things and getting fit but spending some time with each other, building on our connections,” he said.
“That’s been the biggest bang for our buck, getting to know each other really well because we don’t have too much time in-season to work on that.
“I think we’ve done that pretty well, it has held us in good stead the last couple of weeks when we’ve been interrupted by the cyclone and weather but we’re fit and ready to go.”
Key recruits
There have been two key groups of players who Primus targeted throughout the off-season.
The first was adding mature age talents and the second was bringing in strong local talents, especially those who were part of academy prospects but may have missed out on an AFL contract.
Hewago Oea, Sam Lowson and Josh Gore highlight the mature age signings, while Tai Hayes, Joe Kennedy, Justin Krok, Finn Hay, Darby Scott and Matt Hollier are the young guns joining the side in 2025.
“We’re always looking for players that have previously played here and are playing in other competitions to see if we can entice them back,” Primus said.
“And we’re able to do that this year with one of our players who had been playing in West Adelaide Josh Gore.
“He’d been over there for four or five years, he was a Southport junior so we were able to convince him to come back and join us in the VFL program.
“It was probably an area we thought we needed to try and improve on was our forwards.
“Another guy that some of our guys played state league footy with last year is Sam Lowson, they played with him in the state game, we chased him in the off-season and he was able to come up here.
“Hewago Oea, he’s from Papua New Guinea and he was on the Suns list for the last three or four years and we were able to get him on board after the Suns moved him on.”
Rising stars
“We played a practise match against the Giants which was our first one, we took a few of the young ones down there for that and played a Giants reserves team that had a lot of AFL listed players so it was a really good look to see where they’re at,” Primus said.
“A few of them showed some good signs there which is good because it would be naive to think our same 23 that we put out last year will go around and be the team for us this year.
“Guys like Owen Collins, Tai Hayes, Darby Scott, they showed some glimpses.
“Christian Webster who was on our list last year has had some good form down back, Will Derrington has done some good stuff, (he) didn’t get much of an opportunity last year because we were pretty strong.”
Sharks excitement factor
With months of pre-season now in the rearview mirror, Primus was excited to lead the team for the first time in an official match.
“(I am excited about) putting all the work we’ve done for four or five months, putting it into practice over an 18-game season,” he said.
“We’re a stand-alone club, we’re proud of that, we know we have a fair bit of travel to do to Victoria and New South Wales but still trying to be the best stand-alone team we can be in the competition.
“That’s what I’m looking forward to, putting all that work together, not just for Round 1 but throughout the whole season and try and continue how good we’ve been the last few years.”
Aims and expectations
The Sharks ended the 2024 regular season in fifth place with 12 wins and six losses but went to another level during finals, winning three must-win games in a row before falling to Werribee in the grand final.
Primus has ensured his side will not rest on its laurels and come out of the gates firing on all cylinders in 2025.
“Like every team, our number one thing is we want to play finals football, we’ve got a history of playing finals football and we want to do that,” he said.
“Last year we were very good, the year before that we dropped away, so we want to make sure we win enough games to play finals and then you want to win enough games to finish as high up the ladder as you can.
“That will be our aim although we will take round 1, then we will focus on round 2 and round 3 and so on.”
Southport’s 2025 VFL List: Boyd Woodcock, Brayden Crossley, Brock Aston, Campbell Lake, Charlie Rowe, Christian Webster, Darby Scott, Elijah Reardon, Finn Hay, Harry Sullivan, Hewago Oea, Hugh Dixon, Jack Sexton, Jackson Edwards, Jacob Dawson, Jacob Heron, Jesse Joyce, Joe Kennedy, Josh Cresswell, Josh Gore, Justin Krok, Jye Lockett, Keegan Gray, Mackenzie Willis, Marcus Khoo, Mason Field, Matt Hollier, Matt McGuinness, Max Pescud, Max Spencer, Michael Manteit, Nick Williams, Owen Collins, Riley Bowman, Sam Cilmi, Sam Lowson, Tai Hayes, Taine Dawson, Will Derrington, Will Sexton, Wylie Buzza, Zac Foot, Zach Molloy.
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