Early season pain: Football playing-coach sidelined with injury

Portland midfielder Lochie Huppatz was hurt in the Tigers' opening-round loss to Hampden league rival Port Fairy on Saturday, April 6, 2024.

Huppatz, who returned to the club after a season in Queensland, suffered damage to his MCL (medial collateral ligament) in the second quarter.

He is unsure how long he will be sidelined but confirmed he would coach against North Warrnambool Eagles in round two from the bench.

"I had impact from the outside of the knee and it just buckled in," he told The Standard.

"I have a little bit of damage to the MCL and I just have to wait until I can get the scan results back.

"I am hoping it will be a quick turnaround. The MCL never seems to be as terrible as some of the ligaments in the knee."

Key position player Jake Wilson will also miss round two with family commitments.

Portland unveiled three new faces - Kodi Jones, Luke Evans and Adrian Hann - in its 87-point defeat to Port Fairy.

Huppatz said teenager Jones "didn't look out of place".

"He plays a pressure forward role which is probably the hardest position to come in and play, especially for a young kid on debut," he said.

"He'll grow a lot from that game and now he sees what the standard is like, I expect him to play a lot of senior footy this year."

Evans, who has joined from Tyrendarra, gathered 28 disposals "as our leading possession-getter".

"He is just a really clean user out of the back line, we want to get the ball in his hands whenever we can," Huppatz said.

Hann played a forward role after crossing from Heathmere and "adjusted to the speed" of the major league.

Huppatz said the Tigers would ride the highs and lows as they developed their list.

"We are trying a new game plan and a new way of defending for the club and we knew it wasn't going to all come together straight away," he said.

"We need to go into games and be prepared to embrace the mistakes and not go away from our game plan when that adversity hits.

"It's really easy when a team puts a couple of goals on for you to go 'we've got to change something' but I really want them to stick fat with the game style we want to play."

Winning the contested battle, courtesy of Ben Malcolm's ruck work, pleased Huppatz.

Malcolm had 51 hit-outs including 16 to advantage. Midfielder Toby Jennings had 10 clearances from 26 disposals

The Tigers travel to play the Eagles at Bushfield Recreation Reserve on Saturday, April 13.