There were a number of familiar faces on the park when Port Melbourne took on Geelong in a practice match last weekend.
On a Saturday afternoon at North Port Oval, the Cats had in company such names as Duncan, Narkle, Fort and Jenkins. That assembly wouldn’t be all that eye-raising on any given VFL day, but there was greatness present.
Having been suspended for three matches at AFL level, Cats star Patrick Dangerfield was a late inclusion for the scratch match against the Borough and it came with great learnings for the standalone club.
Port coach Gary Ayres spoke of Dangerfield’s presence, how it came about and how it was beneficial for his players.
“We found out before the game,” Ayres said on SEN’s The Sporting Capital.
“It was a practice match so there’s obviously things you can get through and it’s got to go through the AFL, there’s no doubt about that.
“It didn’t actually worry us at all and as a matter of fact, I thought it would be quite good for our young midfielders and our midfielders overall to come up against an absolute superstar.
“Of course, the other thing was (he was) spending a little time forward, it gave some of our defenders an opportunity to understand that he is one of the very, very best.
“If you’re actually going to be having aspirations to go to the next level, well, just have a little bit of a snapshot about what a guy’s done over a long period of time to make himself a genuine superstar.
“I thought it was fine from our point of view, no complaints at all.”
Sources very close to the game suggest Dangerfield was cruising around in “second gear” for the Bendigo Bank Cats who won comfortably by 74 points.
Mitch Duncan impressed in a solid half of footy, Quinton Narkle was very busy throughout, Josh Jenkins finished with five goals while Brad Close and Ben Jarvis kicked four apiece.
The Cats meet Hawthorn on Easter Monday at the MCG as the Borough continue preparing for their Round 1 clash with Queensland outfit Aspley in the new-look VFL/East Coast state league on April 17.