Portarlington president Steve Cogger says the club is “duty bound” to seek expressions of interest for its senior coaching job.
The Demons have started the EOI process, and current coach Warren Finlayson has been informed he will have to reapply for the position he’s held since late 2022.
“Our club policy requires us to seek expressions of interest at the end of a contracted period for our senior coaches,” Cogger said.
“As a professional club, we want to see what is out there.
“Bearing in mind, Warren took us on when we were pretty poor, and we’ve grown and developed in that period under Warren.
“I would think Warren would be an applicant; however, we are duty-bound to see what is out there that would assist us going forward.”
Cogger is confident Portarlington has a foundation to make the position attractive.
“Our under-18s are now into their second year; we’ve got two under-16 teams, two under-14 teams playing competitive footy,” he said.
“So, we’ve now got a pathway for junior development, and we have got a senior squad that is quite competitive in the BFNL with some high-quality players and a range of local juniors coming through the ranks.
“We’ve tried five or six 18-year-olds this year, and last Saturday we had four playing.
“And we continue to attract young guys in the region to us.
“We’ve come a long way in a couple of years, but we can’t afford to stand still; we’ve got to keep pushing forward to become the successful club we need to be.”
After a winless first season in charge, during which the average losing margin was 93.5 points, some handy recruits, including former AFL players Teia Miles and Connor Menadue, have resulted in three wins for Finlayson.
Three of Portarlington’s ten losses have been by 12 points or less, and only one margin has been greater than 100 points.
“Warren fully understands that this is what we’ve got to do as a club,” Cogger said.
“He’s done a lot of hard yakka for us, and he’s been beaten up as badly as any of us over that last couple of years.
“He endorses that we probably should have won more than we have to date, but that’s a part of development and growing.
“Warren’s been a good leader; this is his first senior role, and he’s learnt from us, and we’ve learnt from him.”
When BFNL action resumes this weekend following the bye, Portarlington will chase its first win over Drysdale since 2018.
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