Under the Auld Pump: 'The club is heading in the right direction'

AT A GLANCE

Born: Port Fairy on March 26, 1998.

Parents: Craig and Allahna. Siblings: Paige and Jade.

Education: Port Fairy Consolidated School before going to Brauer College.

Sporting highlight: I played for North Adelaide in 2020 and 2021 and it would have to be playing footy on the Adelaide Oval.

Kaine, what made it so special playing footy on the Adelaide Oval?

It's just a great ground. It's a big, roomy ground with a great surface. I played a few games there in my two-year stint with North Adelaide.

The state league football competition (the SANFL) in South Australia is very strong and has a big supporter base.

I spoke to a couple of other clubs before I made the decision to join North Adelaide but in the end I had a mate who was connected with North and I decided to go there.

I'm glad I did as I had a great two years with the club.

We'll talk about how things are going for you this season in a moment but where did your footy career begin?

I was about 12 years old when I started playing for Port Fairy's under 12 side and I then went over to play in Warrnambool for the Emmanuel Hawks' under 14s and 16s sides under coaches Robbie Lee, Dominic Quinlan and Andrew Hardiman before coming back to play seniors at Port Fairy.

I was lucky enough to have played in the Port Fairy side in 2017 when we made the grand final but we lost the big game to Koroit who turned out to be a powerhouse side of the league.

Who were some of the players who played for Port Fairy in 2017?

Brett Evans was our coach and we had talented players like Sam Rudolph, Dan Nicholson and Matt Sully to mention a couple of them.

Rudolph was a very good player for us. He was like the general across the ground.

We also had good players including Dylan Gunning and Issac Martin. We made the finals a few years in a row back then.

I can still remember we played Warrnambool down at Camperdown in one of the finals back then and it rained all day and that never helped our chances.

Warrnambool ended up just being too strong for us.

Kaine, you spoke about playing for North Adelaide for two years in 2020 and 2021. Were you always going to come back and play for Port Fairy?

I suppose I was always going to come back. I knew I would be made welcome. Port Fairy is a great club, have always been the same to me.

Despite us losing players because of university or work opportunities, we've always tried to be competitive.

How do you rate the competition in the Hampden Football Netball League this season?

From what I've seen of it so far it's very strong. Football everywhere was impacted by COVID but it appears to have bounced back.

There are good crowds attending the HFNL games and there's a lot of hype with high-profile players like Ben Cunnington, Aaron Black, Steven Motlop and Nathan Vardy playing in the league.

The high-profile players create a lot of interest.

Kaine, Port Fairy played Warrnambool a few weeks ago. How did you think Cunnington performed after coming straight out of the AFL?

Cunnington is an extremely good player. He's hard to match up on because he has the class edge and I think he'll only get better as the season goes on.

Black kicked seven goals against us and he was very hard to match up against. We played North Warrnambool a couple of weeks ago and Nathan Vardy really stretched our back line.

He's a big bloke who is hard to match up on.

Before the season started who did you think the side was to beat in 2024?

I thought Terang Mortlake would be one of the teams to beat. They seem to have recruited some good players.

We play them this week up at Mortlake so l'll have a clearer idea after this week how well they are going. We haven't played South Warrnambool this season and undoubtedly they'll be hard to beat.

South Warrnambool has good ball movement among its players. They always seemed to find an avenue to goal last season when they won the flag and I reckon they'll do the same this year.

Port Fairy comes off the bye with two wins and two defeats on Saturday, May 11 against Terang Mortlake and is on eight points with five other sides. Are you pleased with how the senior side is tracking?

We're going not too bad. We've got a strong nucleus of young players. I think we had 10 players under 21 for our last game against Cobden.

It's those young players who are going to be the backbone of the club going forward. Dustin McCorkell has done a great job in his two years as senior coach.

We're quietly confident we'll finish the season off well but it's a very even competition. The club is heading in the right direction under the leadership of Rob Evans and his hard-working committee.

The new lights are up for the footy ground and the netball courts which is wonderful. I would love to see the club host a couple of night games.

There's plenty of work going on behind the scenes regarding the new facilities at the ground and when they are finished it should be a wonderful facility.

Who do you rate as some of the good players you've seen play in the Hampden league?

Good question. I suppose one of the players I admired most was Koroit's Jeremy Hausler. He always played well against us.

Jeremy was one of the keys to Koroit's success during its halcyon years. He played in seven premierships with the Saints, I think that says it all.

Have you sustained many injuries during your footy career?

I suppose the worst injury I've had was back in 2016 when I fractured my right knee cap. I was out for eight weeks and I found it really frustrating missing the footy.

Kaine, away from the footy have you played many other sports?

I played a fair bit of junior basketball in the (Warrnambool) Seahawk squads. I really enjoyed it but there was a lot of travel involved going to various tournaments all over the place.

I've also played cricket for Port Fairy in the lower grades.