VFL 2019: Jean-Luc Velissaris kicks goal after the siren as the Northern Blues stun Port

With the siren gone and four VFL points hanging on a 30m set shot, you could forgive a 20-year-old if nerves got the better of him. Not this kid. Watch the stunning finish to the Northern Blues’ clash with Port Melbourne.

Northern Blues skipper Tom Wilson with matchwinner Jean-Luc Velissaris.

Jean-Luc Velissaris is 20 years of age.

Even if he plays football for another 20 years he’ll be doing well to top the thrill he experienced at North Port Oval on Saturday.

The second-year Northern Blues player kicked a goal after the final siren to lift his team to a four-point victory over Port Melbourne, 10.12 (72) to 10.8 (68).

It was the Blues’ first win over Port for nine years.

“This is the stuff dreams are made of,’’ Velissaris said a few minutes after the match, in Blues changerooms humming with excitement.

Port had grabbed the lead for the first time with 44 seconds left, Eli Templeton dashing into an open goal to put it two points up.

After falling 35 points behind in the second quarter, it looked like the Borough was going to complete a stirring comeback.

But from the centre the Blues got the ball into their forward line, only to be held up by a Lachie Waddell mark.

He quickly kicked the ball on, but the Blues regained possession and went forward again.

A pack formed, and the umpire paid a free kick against Port’s Charlie Beasley, apparently for holding the ball in, setting Borough supporters howling.

Velisarris was the recipient. Then the siren went, leaving the four points swinging on his kick. He was about 30m out, with no angle to speak of. With 12 possessions, he hadn’t had a particularly memorable match. Now came his moment. With Port Melbourne players jumping up and down behind the mark like lunatics, Velissaris slotted it through. It was Jean-Luc’s lucky day.

“I just had to go back and knock it over, mate,’’ he said.

“We’d tried hard all day. We’ve had a few close losses during the year. I just had to put it through. Just had to go through my routine and treat it as a normal kick, even though it wasn’t. Just ecstatic went it went through. I was swarmed by the boys. It meant a lot to come down here and beat Port Melbourne. It’s been a while since the club’s done that.’’

Northern Blues coach Josh Fraser.

Velissaris joined the Blues last year after playing at the Calder Cannons and Aberfeldie, and is up to 15 VFL games.

“We love ‘JL’. He’s a terrific kid,’’ Northern Blues coach Josh Fraser said.

“He’s a hard-worker, he loves his footy club. He had a few moments in the second half that he’ll learn from. But he had the opportunity to win the game and I thought he showed unbelievable composure. I was hopeful. He’s a classy player.’’

Kicking into the wind, the Blues had jumped Port in the first quarter. And they kicked the first two goals of the second term to slip 35 points clear.

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LANGE GOING BRILLIANTLY FOR BOROUGH

But the Borough, coming off the bye and successive defeats, gradually worked their way into the match, Jordie Lisle prominent.

They had a lot of play in the third quarter but Blues forward Jesse Palmer made a set-shot after the siren to take the visitors’ lead out to 16 points.

The final quarter was filled with incident. Port Melbourne’s Ash Krakauer was gifted a goal from a dubious 50m penalty; Lisle booted another off the ground; a Borough player was paid a mark at half forward, only for another umpire to rush in and decide it hadn’t been taken (the umpires, it must be said, had a day to match the unpredictable weather; the Blues missed a certain goal when a kick inside 50 had too much on it for Alex Fasolo; the Borough got the ball over the top and found Templeton ….

Izzy Conway made an encouraging return for Port Melbourne. Pic: Jenny Tserkezidis

And then came the free kick to Velisarris.

Injured Blues captain Tommy Wilson said of his young teammate: “He’s committed, mate. He’s committed. He works hard at training, he’s been working hard to get an opportunity. He’s played the last three games in a row. He had a couple of moments late that he would have liked again. But then he goes back and knocks the goal over, the most important kick of the day.’’

Fraser said he couldn’t have been prouder of his players after they kicked again to regain the lead so late in the match.

“It’s something we can use for the rest of the season,’’ he said.

“We’ve seen over the past month that our footy is good enough, but we haven’t been able to produce it for long enough.

“There was a feeling at one point today that we were going down a similar road and we weren’t going to get the result and we were going to have another honourable loss. They were peppering us late in the last quarter and when they got in front you could almost understand if our players’ spirit was broken. But I reckon the character of this group … a lot of young, inexperienced players at both levels (VFL and AFL) … I was so proud of them really, really proud of them.’’

Alex Fasolo was among the Northern Blues’ best players.

Fraser also tipped praise on the more seasoned Fasolo, saying his past month had been terrific.

“His performances have been really strong and he’s dragged others along with him,’’ he said. “He’s a talented player. We believe he’s still AFL quality.’’

Borough coach Gary Ayres lamented his team’s sluggish start, which condemned it to a game of catch-up.

“We just weren’t in a competitive state of mind early in the game,’’ he said. “We couldn’t defend when we didn’t have possession, and when we turned it over they (the Blues) hit the scoreboard. Now OK, we fought back and got in a position to win the game, but you look at the margin (35 points) early … that wasn’t good enough.’’

He said Port had players who were out of form “and we’ll do something about that this week, because we can’t keep going with guys who can’t contribute consistently’’.

More pleasingly for the Borough, Isaac “Izzy’’ Conway made an encouraging return from a knee injury that kept him out of the VFL for 12 months. He had 18 possessions and pulled up OK.

Ayres also brought back Khan Haretuku, Dylan Van Unen and Matt Arnot from injury, and gave a debut to former Sandringham Dragons midfielder Geordie Nagle.