A Mornington Peninsula league contender has sacked its coach ahead of the finals

A Mornington Peninsula league contender has sacked its coach just two weeks out from a potential finals campaign. Here are the details.

Sorrento coach Leigh Poholke. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Mornington Peninsula league perennial power Sorrento is in the market for a new coach after it sacked club champion Leigh Poholke.

Sorrento lost to last-placed Mornington on Saturday but sit just two points outside of the Division 1 top five with a 7-1-8 record.

Poholke sensed the decision was coming after heavy defeats to Frankston YCW and Dromana.

“It’s probably a surprise in terms of the decision they’ve made but I probably knew it was coming, if that makes sense,” he said.

“When you’ve got a young group on the park, these results happen and I guess we’re sort of aware these things happen but people aren’t really happy with that.

“I think when you sign up to coach, you sign up to get sacked, not many coaches get to retire.”

Leigh Poholke is hoping to finish the season strongly. Picture: AAP/ Chris Eastman

He is disappointed with the outcome, as he feels blooding kids while still being a finals contender is a great result for the Sharks.

“We added 26 kids to our roster, got an under-19s up for the first time in five years and I think nine of those have played senior footy,” he said.

“I believe there’s a bit of process to that, we’ve played 42 players this year and had 80 reserves.

“There’s still expectations we win our last two games and play finals, with that and playing the kids I thought that would be a pretty good result for our footy club but it’s their (the committee) prerogative to make those decisions.”

Poholke said he “adores the playing group from top to bottom” but there’s “no secret” he loves coaching.

He will coach out the remainder of the year out and then assess his future.

“I love coaching, I don’t know what it looks like, depending on what happens in the next one to two weeks depends on what I do,” he said.

“I love the footy club, I love the playing group, I love the supporters – in an ideal world they can go out get a qualified, proven coach who is great with development of kids.

“I think someone who has a good reputation would be fantastic for the footy club and then I will decide on the back of that.

“I love coaching, that’s no secret, but I do really love the Sorrento footy club.”

Sorrento has Pines and Frankston Bombers in the final two weeks of the year.