by Sean Cusick
Portland coach Mark Jeffries has inherited a team full of self-belief, Sean Cusick reports
IN 1964, the Western Border Football League was formed by amalgamating Victoria's Western District and South Australia's South Eastern football leagues. It was immediately faced with a dilemma.
Portland and North Gambier had identical guernseys, the classic Tigers trademark of black with a yellow sash. Both teams wanted to retain those guernseys.
It was decided to resolve the dispute in the most no-nonsense fashion. They tossed a coin.
And so a stroke of luck allowed the Portland Tigers to keep the guernsey they had worn since 1930, while North Gambier reversed the colours and began wearing yellow jumpers with a black sash.
Fast-forward 30 years, though, and Portland's good fortune appeared to have run out.
The year was 1995, and the 120-year-old club was looking at financial ruin.
Vice-president Ted Leahy recalls the construction of new social rooms left the club with a debt "probably in excess of $300,000".
Leahy said the death of the club would have been catastrophic for the coastal town of 11,000.
"We've got a hundred footballers playing, and a hundred-odd netballers playing," he said. "It would have cut out sport for so many people in the town."
Leahy said it was a combination of fundraising, belt-tightening and community support that got the Tigers out of their financial hole.
One particularly successful concept was the introduction of club memberships for life, which were sold for $1000.
"If we hadn't had the support from the bank and the council, from our members and sponsors, we wouldn't have survived," Leahy said.
"And certainly the players were prepared to stick with us, and we had a senior coach, Don Carlyon, who was prepared to come in and coach for nothing."
Training sessions were converted into mass letter-dropping operations, as players jogged Portland's streets delivering fund-raising pamphlets.
In one example of clubmanship, favourite son Mick Jennings, who played more than 300 games in the Western Border league, allowed his match payments to be reduced from $110 a game to just $10. The clubrooms have since been named in his honour.
It has taken 10 years to clear the debt, but now the Tigers are free to focus on on-field success.
Despite being Victoria's first European settlement, Portland is closer to South Australia than any other large Victorian town, and it this fact that has enabled the Tigers to lure talented Croweaters across the border in recent years.
Portland last won the premiership in 2003, when former Sturt player Brodie Atkinson coached the Tigers to their first flag since 1991.
Before this season Atkinson was offered a job he couldn't refuse: to return to Adelaide as assistant coach of the Double Blues.
Such was Portland's respect for its departing coach that the Tigers asked Atkinson to recommend his successor. Portland believes it has replaced Atkinson as well as could be expected with its new playing-coach, Mark Jeffries, a former housemate of Atkinson who has just drawn the curtain on his SANFL career after 221 games.
Jeffries seems confident yet approachable, and capable of laying down the law. His final and favourite coach was the flamboyant former Crow Andrew Jarman, whom Jeffries calls his mentor.
"Andrew Jarman has been a massive influence on the way I'm going about my coaching," Jeffries said. "I call on him whenever any ideas I want to discuss about football, and Jars is there. It's great to have someone in that position that you can relate to and talk to, and get that positive reinforcement or constructive criticism, so I can become a better coach.
"Definitely Andrew is who I'm moulding myself on."
Jeffries, Portland's new general manager, has brought some gun lieutenants with him, such as David Niemann, a 194-centimetre ruckman and full-forward, and Jamie Cammarano, a 188-centimetre centre half-forward.
But it's the local lads at Portland's Hanlon Park who have made the biggest impression on Jeffries.
Winnis and James Imbi have been regarded as two of Portland's most talented footballers since their junior days. It would be too easy to draw comparisons between the brothers, whose father is from Papua New Guinea, and the Krakouers. To anyone who has watched them play, there is something miraculous about them.
Winnis was good enough to spend time with Essendon and won a reserves best-and-fairest at Windy Hill, while younger brother James displays blistering pace and silky skills.
"They're cult figures around Portland and there's a reason for it," Jeffries said.
"They play such quality football, with a knack for finding each other. A brotherly knack."
Portland's captain, Jarrod Holt, who last year returned home from an injury-plagued stint in the SANFL, has also amazed Jeffries. Holt was given the responsibility of leading the club at just 22 years of age.
"Jarrod's been fantastic," Jeffries said. "He's just a fantastic young leader of the club."
Portland knows it will take a massive effort to contend with the likes of South Gambier, which has claimed nine flags since 1992.
But Jeffries is used to riding the bumps. After his 100th SANFL game, he was punched in the back of the head by a drunken Norwood fan.
The punch was retaliation for "getting a couple of free kicks late in the game (and) playing it up to the crowd a little".
This incident brought about the second siren rule, about which Jeffries is still ribbed by mates to this day.
With a balanced mix of old and new, there is plenty of self-belief around the Portland clubrooms.
"We should be in the top one or two, and have a real crack at the premiership," Jeffries said. "I'm not going to be backwards about saying it. I believe we've got the list and the ability.
"Attitude's the big thing. If we can put it all together, we'll be a very dominant force in this competition."
PORTLAND FOOTBALL CLUB
FOUNDED:1876
COMPETITION: Western Border Football League
JUMPER: Black with Yellow sash
NICKNAME: The Tigers
HOME GROUND: Hanlon Park
PREMIERSHIPS: 16 - 1906, 1907 (Pill Trophy), 1909 twice (Portland Football Association and the South West District Football League), 1912 (Portland Football Association), 1914, 1922, 1924 (South West District Football Association), 1929 (Glenelg Football Association), 1952, 1956 (Western District Football League), 1966, 1985, 1986, 1991, 2003 (Western Border Football League).
| WBFL 2006 | RECENT WBFL PREMIERS |
| Casterton East Gambier Hamilton Hamilton Imperials Heywood Millicent North Gambier Portland South Gambier West Gambier |
2005 - South Gambier
2004 - Hamilton
2003 - Portland
2002 - South Gambier
2001 - Hamilton Imperials
2000 - South Gambier
1999 - South Gambier
1998 - South Gambier
1997 - South Gambier
1996 - South Gambier
|
PORTLAND'S MOST FAMOUS EXPORT:
Stuart Spencer
Melbourne 1950-56
Games: 122
Goals: 146
Stuart Spencer’s VFL career was as exciting as it was fleeting. Recruited to Melbourne as a teenager after 45 games with Portland, Spencer began his career as a back pocket before the belief and guidance of legendary coach Norm Smith transformed him into a prolific rover. Spencer not only played alongside legends such as Ron Barassi, but outshone them, winning back-to-back best and fairests in Melbourne Premiership teams. However, at the height of his powers, after kicking five goals in a best afield performance in the 1956 Grand Final, Spencer walked out on the VFL at the age of just 25. Moving to Tasmania for family and business reasons, he went on to become a club hero with Clarence Football Club. Melbourne would go on to win another four flags in the next eight years.
Honours: Premiership Player (1955, 1956), best and fairest (1955, 1956), Melbourne Leading Goal Kicker (1955, 1956), Melbourne Team of the Century first rover, Melbourne Club President (1986 - 1991), Victorian and Tasmanian State representative, AFL Hall of Fame member.