An undermanned Portarlington show some ticker against league leaders Geelong Amateur
Less than 48 hours after Portarlington parted ways with its senior coach, its brave replacement has praised his side’s response after the club’s most difficult week in years.
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Down by 42 points at quarter time, without a raft of key players and less than 48 hours in the hot seat as Portarlington’s replacement coach, the heat was certainly on Mitch Turnbull and his shell-shocked and undermanned Demons on Saturday.
Two of the BFNL’s leading forwards in Mitch Day and Sam Lloyd had three goals between them and it was quickly shaping as the kind of 100-point smashing the club had known only too well in recent history.
The Demons, with Turnbull himself, Jack Dorgan, Kelly Pickard and Connor Menadue on the sidelines, had suffered two massive losses over the past seven days: a 102-point belting at the hands of Queenscliff in Round 7 and their senior coach Darren Findlay by Thursday.
Against the Ammos, as Portarlington fumbled easy possessions, one Demons supporter openly, and rightfully, admitted that things were “looking ugly” with a 7.2 to two behinds opening term.
The visitors’ forwards were gifted far too much space, with Harry Kershaw and Tom Gorrell taking easy, unguarded marks, so it was little wonder at quarter time Turnbull was preaching defence above everything else.
He would single out young Harry Sedgmen for a stirring chasedown, saying that was the benchmark for effort.
“We can’t just have one a quarter,” Turnbull said.
“Did we defend for our lives there, do you reckon? Defend for your lives,” Turnbull said, calling for a response in the opening 10 minutes.
However, Turnbull would have to wait a bit longer as the Ammos continued to boss the game, getting out to a 51-point buffer through a Harrison Orr goal and Day seemingly clunking everything in sight.
Port was lucky the visitors continued to waste their dominance though when it came to marks inside 50, with Day able to burn off his opponent in Nick Sing on the lead.
Fortunately, there would be a shift, as the Demons booted four of the next five goals and upped its pressure considerably.
Riley Hayden had a strong second term, intercepting an Ammos defensive exit to pass to Kalan Dart for a goal while new recruit Tom Panuccio’s attack on the pill set up a helmeted Caleb Kennedy major.
Another terrific assist from Hayden orchestrated a Teia Miles six pointer, and when Josh Jones was rewarded for a holding the ball call, the Demons had stolen momentum.
Early in the third, a sensational conversion from the pocket from Jones cut the lead to just 26 points.
However, the Demons would waste a wealth of inside 50s, either through wayward entries or some fine defensive work from the likes of Dan Weigl, Tom Zeitz and the dominant Hamish Shepheard who was a constant aerial threat.
The home team would have been disappointed with just 1.4 for all its hard work turning the ball over and creating opportunities, with the Ammos defence picking off 10 marks from the Demons’ 14 inside 50s.
At the final break, Turnbull, armed with copious notes, still believed the Demons could pinch it, praising the efforts of Sedgmen and Nick Lane who had put his body on the line to sustain a bad corky.
“The effort and the pressure is there, we just have to go one more time again,” he said.
“Kick a couple, we’re still right in this.
“Keep switching (play), run and carry, take the game on, do you still believe?”
But the Ammos simply had too much class for a side missing key parts of its DNA.
While Sing did a fine job keeping Day quiet for the remainder of the game, up bobbed the likes of Kershaw, Jai Sheahan, Tom Gorell and Charley Green to provide an option.
In seasons gone by, the Demons would have copped a 20-goal thrashing, so there were positives to be found amid one of the club’s toughest weeks in recent years.
The league leaders would win 16.13 (109) to 6.11 (47).
But who steers the Demons ship next week though remains to be seen.
Turnbull admits it’s been a tough week for the club
Stand-in Demons mentor Mitch Turnbull said assistant Nathan Storer may take over coaching duties following the shock sacking of Darren Findlay after seven rounds just a few days ago.
Turnbull said he got the news on Thursday afternoon that Findlay, who took over from Warren Finlayson after the 2024 BFNL season, had been given his marching orders.
“It was very shocking to hear I had to take over ... it was a shock for sure,” Turnbull told this masthead post-match.
“It’s a hard one, ‘Daz’ is a good man, I got along pretty well with him, I do feel for Daz, unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“But we move on from here, we have to go and find another coach.”
When asked who would guide the team next round – with Storer away for work this week – Turnbull said his first mission was simply to get his teammates up and competing against the league leaders.
“I’m not sure we’ve got to talk about it, we just had to get through today, it was such late notice,” he said.
“’Nath’ is very adequate to step up if that’s the way we go.
“When they asked me to step up ... I was happy to give it a crack.
“I never really thought coaching was something I wanted to do until about six months ago, but I’ve loved it do be honest.
“I didn’t love it when I was down 40-nil at quarter time.
“It could have got ugly, last week I think we were in a similar boat (against Queenscliff), and we probably rolled over a bit.”
Turnbull said he had given defender Nick Sing a “little bake” after quarter time, and the new recruit responded, keeping Mitch Day to just one goal for the remainder of the match.
“He was unbelievable in the second half,” he said.
“(Day) was getting laced out by their midfielders (early in the game).
“I did give ‘Singy’ a little bake to step up and be a leader and his second half was phenomenal for us.
“It was a disappointing first quarter, obviously
“That’s our problem at the moment, just having little lapses.
“They had a good period where they kicked five or six in a row, and that’s where we’ve got to get better.
“I thought we slackened in defence in that first quarter, they got too many easy goals, but for the boys to fight back after quarter time I thought was a tremendous effort.”
Overall, Turnbull was satisfied with his team’s response, but it simply couldn’t accept 10 goal losses anymore.
“We can’t be too happy with our efforts, we’re not happy with 60-point defeats anymore, but the fact that they responded, it could have easily blown out to 100 ... I was pleased,” he said.
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Originally published as An undermanned Portarlington show some ticker against league leaders Geelong Amateur
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