MPFNL 2023: Seaford star suffers knee injury

The Tigers have suffered a major blow on the eve of the MPFNL season, losing one of their most influential players to a knee injury.

Macklin Raine goes up in the ruck for Seaford last season. Picture: Valeriu Campan

It was news Seaford didn’t want to hear.

The Tigers’ star ruckman Macklin Raine needs a knee reconstruction and will miss the 2023 season.

“He’s going to get a second opinion but at the moment it’s factual that he needs a knee reconstruction, and the thought is that he won’t play this year,” Seaford football manager Paul Kennedy said.

“He hurt it last year but he didn’t have any ongoing issues with it and then at training about five weeks ago he tweaked it.”

Raine last week saw a surgeon who had a proper look at the knee and said he needed a reconstruction.

The 25-year-old has played the past two seasons with Seaford, establishing himself as one of the leading ruckmen in MPFNL Division 2.

“There are some good ruckmen around but he’s the one with the biggest presence,” Kennedy said.

“There was one game last year where he had 90 tap outs.

“He’s arguably the best in the comp on his day, so it’s a big loss for us, massive.

“We will run with young ruckmen now, we’ve got a couple of young rucks and they’ll be given an opportunity.

“Our whole focus for the past two years has been giving young players opportunities. We didn’t envisage it would be in the ruck. We thought our young blokes could be a good back up for Macklin but they’re going to have to step up now.”

Raine is now likely to move into an assistant coaching role at Seaford this season, which is shaping up as an exciting one for the Tigers.

Jack Lonie. (Photo by Albert Perez/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

Seaford coach Zac Vansittart and Jack Lonie. Picture: Facebook

Former St Kilda livewire Jack Lonie is Seaford’s marquee recruit.

He’s returned to his home club to play alongside his brothers, Sam and Tom.

Kennedy said Jack Lonie’s arrival was exciting for Seaford and the league, and he would make his presence felt through the midfield and around goals.

“He looks great, we’re looking forward to watching him,” he said.

“I think he’ll be among the best two or three in the competition.

“He’s going to be a real fillip, not only for us but also for the league.”

In a boost for Seaford, last season’s best and fairest runner up Ishak Bashir has aborted plans to move to Queensland and will play with the Tigers.

Seaford’s Damien Rayson (left). Picture: Valeriu Campan

Seaford’s leading goal kicker of 2022, Damien Rayson, is looking fitter than ever and set for another strong season.

“Joel Filippone was the big loss in the off season and now Macklin as well,” Kennedy said.

“Other than that we’ve kept everyone, we’re building a bit of continuity, that’s our plan basically so we’re just following our plan.

“We’re putting a lot of effort into under 19s. It doesn’t just happen, you’ve got to think ahead.

“We are already putting into place plans for next years under 18s and after that because Seaford this year doesn’t have 17s and 16s, so we’re not going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves because our juniors are missing a couple of grades.

“We’re going to be putting heaps of effort into our under 19s.”

Two players from Seaford’s under 19s side of last year, Ryan Jacobs and Jess McManus, have made Frankston’s VFL list.

Seaford has also picked up a good midfielder from Frankston YCW in Ben Wagner.

“We reckon he’s going to be a good addition to the midfield, we feel the midfield will be our real strong suit even without Macklin,” Kennedy said.

Luke Kranzbuhler, Josh Edwards, Matt Kennedy and Chris Buttner look the most likely to emerge and complement a core group of Tigers this season.

“Our youth is as good as it was back in 2005, two years before we won three in a row,” Kennedy said.

“We’ve got a generational team of talent.”

Seaford finished in eighth spot in Division 2 last season with an 8-10 record. The addition of Jack Lonie, and the continued improvement of the young brigade, could help the Tigers roar back into finals contention.