Portarlington has turned to assistant coach Nathan Storer and captain Mitch Turnbull to guide the club’s fortunes for the remainder of the Bellarine season.
The pair was officially confirmed earlier this week following the sacking of Darren Findlay just seven matches into a three-year contract last Thursday.
Storer, a former Leopold player, has previously coached the Demons’ under-18s and was an assistant under former senior coach Warren Finlayson.
He retained that role when Findlay was appointed last year.
“There are so many football names in the Bellarine Footy League,” he told K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.
“It’s stacked with some really key figures of local footy; I don’t take that lightly.
“It’s pretty humbling to be amongst that group of people now.”
Storer, who is a teacher at Northern Bay College, says Portarlington “can’t bite off more than we can chew” over the remaining ten rounds of the season.
The Demons enter Saturday’s clash with Ocean Grove at Ron Evans Oval following four consecutive losses, including by 102 points to Queenscliff and 62 points to Geelong Amateur on either side of the bye.
“We’re not going to be able to change the world before the bye or even in this last 11 (sic) games,” he said.
“But what we can do is have some really specific focuses that, not just the playing group, are going to be focused on and be judged on, but us as a coaching staff are going to be focused on and judged on, and the wider footy department will be judged on and focused on.
“I don’t want to, I guess, elaborate on it too much just because I want the boys to have some time and our staff to have some time to really embrace themselves in what our focuses are.
“But, yeah, if I could bottle up the intensity and the hunger of what I saw from the blokes in that change room last (Tuesday) night, it’s a really motivating and exciting time for us.”
Storer, whose grandfather Bert Worner was a member of Geelong’s famed 1951-52 VFL premiership teams, is confident no players will leave Portarlington in the wake of Findlay’s departure.
“All of the players that I’ve spoken to, some as late as this (Wednesday) morning or this afternoon, the playing group is committed to where we want to go,” he said.
“But, I think it’s really, really important that footy comes second in all of this.
“Footy is a people game and there are people’s families and their lives that this current situation is going to impact.
“So, I think a big thing for me will just be ensuring that that connection is priority and that the people come first before the footballers and the staff.”
X: @krockfootball
