VFL: Coburg best and fairest Marcus Lentini on the move
VFL team-of-the-year player Marcus Lentini could be heading to Port Melbourne after parting ways with the Lions.
Victorian Football
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Port Melbourne is in the running to land one of the VFL’s most decorated young players, Marcus Lentini.
The 2018 Coburg best and fairest and three-time VFL team of the year selection has parted ways with the Lions and there is increasing speculation he is heading to the Borough.
Under VFL transfer rules pertaining to contracted players, if Port Melbourne does secure Lentini it will have to wait until November to announce it.
New coach Adam Skrobalak – appointed to replace Gary Ayres – started with the Borough this week but he and football manager Glenn Balmforth are advanced in their recruiting plans as they set about strengthening the list.
Coburg GM Sebastian Spagnuolo this morning confirmed Lentini’s departure from the club.
“We have provided Marcus with every opportunity to play consistent football as a midfielder since he joined our club in 2018,’’ he said.
“Marcus has achieved many accolades as an individual such as a best and fairest and three times been selected in the VFL team of the year.
“So to lose a player like that, with those individual accolades, I can understand that there’d be shock externally, but we have advised Marcus that he leaves with our full blessing and support, and having him leave doesn’t change the fact that we are hellbent on team improvement and taking another step forward in 2022 with a committed group of players that want the team to achieve success for Coburg and its members.’’
Last night Lentini was named on the interchange in the 2021 VFL team of the year after averaging 34.5 disposals from his 10 matches.
The right-footer has finished in the top three of Coburg’s best and fairest in the past three vote counts, topping it in 2018, coming in second in 2019 and third this year.
Meanwhile legendary VFL player Ben Jolley is keen to continue at Port Melbourne.
Jolley, who turns 36 in February, needs to play only 13 more games to join Port legends Billy Swan and Fred Cook as the only players in the competition to reach 300 games.
Used mainly as a defender this year, he averaged 21.6 possessions from his eight matches.
The Borough had two players, Eli Templeton and Harvey Hooper, named in the team of the year, Templeton on a wing and Hooper on a half back flank.
Both are expected to return to Port Melbourne next year, according to club CEO Paul Malcolm.
But Port could lose former AFL onballer Cory Wagner, who is being linked with Williamstown and has also attracted interest from interstate clubs.
The Borough are on the hunt for a VFLW coach following Lachie Harris’s move to St Kilda AFLW as an assistant to Nick Dal Santo.
Sophie Locke was named in the VFWL team of the year.
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