Former VFL captain locked in at St Kilda City
The Southern league Saints had already recruited Brownlow Medal champion Dane Swan, and now they’ve added two former VFL players for the 2021 season.
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President Rodney Gamlin says St Kilda City has been trying to recruit Luke Potts for four years.
The Saints’ persistence has paid.
The decorated Mornington Peninsula Nepean league onballer and former Frankston VFL captain signed with the Southern league Division 1 club last Saturday.
Potts, 31, lives at Elwood, and his nine-year-old daughter Charli plays with the St Kilda City juniors.
He was also keen to play closer to home after a few years of travelling to Frankston Pines, where he figured in its memorable 2018 grand final victory over Sorrento.
In 2019 he was runner-up to former AFL player Mitch Hallahan in the league medal and was named in the team of the year.
Potts had six years with Frankston Dolphins in the VFL, winning the 2011 best and fairest and serving as co-captain in 2012-13. He also played for Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup.
“Been chasing him for four years … he’s a local, he lives five minutes from the ground,’’ Gamlin said of Potts.
“Just really rapt to get him this time. He felt it was the right time … COVID, the travel, new challenge for him, new competition.
“We think we’ve got enough good players and a good enough team to make the finals next year, that’s what I said to him, and he was happy with that. So he’s ready to go.’’
Potts said the prospect of success was one of the reasons he joined City.
“I know Rod is as keen as to win a flag, and that was a big thing for me,’’ he said.
“I wasn’t going to go to a club that wasn’t fair dinkum about playing finals. I want to be able to go there and pass on a few things and help some kids and have success, play finals footy.’’
He said he thought he would eventually join the Southern league and had started to keep an eye on the results in the past two years.
Potts had intended to play with St Kilda City this year as the SFNL attempted to get up a shortened season.
He will bring with him to the Peanut Farm his former Frankston VFL teammate Jordie Pollard, who also had a stint at Casey Scorpions.
Pollard joined Tyabb in 2017 and then headed overseas.
“He’s committed … can’t wait to play with him again,’’ Potts said. “He’s a good player and a good person to have around a footy club.’’
St Kilda City had already signed former Collingwood champion Dane Swan for 2021 (he will join his great mate Dan Connors at the Peanut Farm) and has fingers crossed it will snare Potts’s Frankston Pines teammate Aaron Edwards.
Gamlin said the former AFL and VFL forward was a few weeks away from making a decision as he weighed up a relocation to Sydney.
Potts said he was looking forward to playing with Swan, who trained with City a few times this year.
“Bloody oath,’’ he said. “You don’t do that every day, play with a Brownlow Medallist. That would be unbelievable.’’
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