In the eighth of a 10-part summer series, The Standard looks at why Portland fans should be buoyant about the 2018 Hampden league season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
1: The coach
Luke Crane is over the serious knee injury which wrecked his 2017 season and is ready to reclaim his place as one of the competition’s game-changers. The former SANFL star hopes to slot into the Tigers’ forward line and provide a crumbing option. “I have been training pretty flat out and haven’t put much thought into the knee,” Crane said of his comeback. “I think that was going to be the main hurdle, that mental game, but everything has been going pretty well so I am pretty excited for a round one return hopefully.”
2: The recruit
Former VFL player Tom Sharp – he spent the 2015-16 seasons at Footscray – has signed on as an assistant coach in a major boost for the Tigers’ experience stocks. “He’s a Portland boy. He played a few games when I first was here, so 2013, been at uni and he’s just come back for a year to help his family with their work,” Crane said. “He’s a six-foot-one. He played mainly midfield for the Doggies but he can play forward and back. He’s got a really good engine. I think he can run all day and he’s that mature body that I think we’ve been crying out for.”
3: The X-factor
A fit Jay Moody will help breathe life into the Tigers’ forward line. Moody, along with Crane, will add another dimension to an attack which lacked firepower in recent seasons. He booted 50 goals as a teenager in 2015 and slotted 24 from just 10 games last season. “Jay is on for the whole year which is exciting,” Crane said. “Hopefully he’s injury-free and even the last couple of years we haven’t had him until the backend of the year and only had him for limited games. He’s really exciting and hopefully he can even go a little bit through the midfield because he’s got that explosive speed out of stoppages.” Crane said Moody was working diligently on his rehabilitation after a foot injury and was aiming for a round one berth.
4: Fresh faces
Portland is expecting teenage duo Aaron Shepherd and Toby Oakley to become regular senior players. Shepherd has committed to his home club after coming through the TAC Cup system, while Oakley featured at senior level as a 16-year-old in 2017. Crane said Shepherd’s height, ability to read the play and stoppage work made him a handy midfield-forward option and rated 198cm Oakley as “a big lump of a kid who has got a beautiful set of hands and skills”. “His foot skills are immaculate. For such a size, I reckon he’s one to look out for,” Crane said.
5: Tall timber
Ben Malcolm and Aaron Caldow will bolster the Tigers’ height stocks. A knee injury restricted Malcolm last season but Crane is confident the former Hampden interleague ruckman can resume his mantle as one of the league’s best big men.