FOOTBALL

GIPPSLAND LEAGUE

By LIAM DURKIN

 

CERTAINLY a long way from Whitten Oval.

Moe Football-Netball Club has officially welcomed Melbourne premiership player James Harmes.

Harmes trained with the Lions for the first time last week, putting to rest weeks of speculation.

The 175-game AFL player had been linked with Moe following his abrupt retirement.

He is best mates with new Lions recruit Blake Mullane, and knows Moe playing-coach Leigh Poholke personally.

“I spoke to Leigh four weeks ago, just flagged it, I would probably be finishing up (at AFL level). The opportunity to play with Blake was probably the biggest calling for me, along with Declan (Keilty) I played with him at Melbourne,” Harmes told the Express.

“Leigh and Myles (Poholke) I’ve known since I was a younger junior down at Deavon Meadows, so super-excited to be here.”

While a Devon Meadows homecoming appeared the most logical next step, Harmes said he was eager to escape the bubble of metro footy.

He also had further connections to Moe through Bernie Vince. The pair were teammates at Melbourne, with Vince acting as Harmes’ mentor.

Vince played for Moe in 2019, and told Harmes, who has plans to work in counselling helping youth, that a move to the country would do him the world of good.

Harmes walked away from the Western Bulldogs with a year to run on his contract, saying he was unable to do what was required at the top level.

“Probably for the last couple of years it’s been on my mind, it’s probably just the little things that make you a good AFL player I couldn’t commit to doing anymore so I decided to hang them up.”

Harmes confirmed he will be fulltime with Moe, and expects to play as an inside midfielder.

While he admitted to not knowing much about the Gippsland League, his first impressions of Moe were positive.

“Boys seem really fit, up and about, seems like a super-talented team, some of the young boys really impress,” he said.

The recruitment of Harmes has been somewhat fortunate, with things falling into place.

“Obviously when we drew it up five months ago, we didn’t expect Blake to bring James, but if we had of known five months ago we would have been just as happy,” Leigh Poholke said.

“We’re probably more lucky with how good the juniors are coming through that we actually had the six points available (in player points), so we had the flexibility if someone came along.

“The playing group recruits itself, players recruit players, that’s how it works, most recruits are through personal relationships.”

Poholke has known Harmes for more than a decade, through work and the social scene around Sorento establishments, where they catch up three to four times every summer.

The coach said he had no expectations on Harmes’ pending performances.

“It’s important that he has fun. You don’t come back to local footy, as serious as we want to take it, he’s done all he possibly can, so now it’s about coming back and enjoying your football, finding a happy medium of football and life balance,” he said.

“His natural talent will take over, he’s fit, he’s strong, he’s going to be so good for the kids.

“It’s freed us up a little bit, Brock (Smith) can go back now. Brock was going to come inside because we needed some size. The kids are going to be great but they’re all smaller, more explosive.”

The signing has not been without careful consideration either, with the Lions hierarchy pondering a range of factors.

Club president Mat Howlett moved to reassure Moe hadn’t simply signed him just because he’s James Harmes.

“We always do our due diligence on anyone, it’s what we need to do. It certainly wasn’t a rushed decision, and it had to be good for the club and good for James,” he said.

The president said he expects Harmes to give back to the club, mainly helping with junior training.

Talk of money is never far from recruits of this calibre, and while Howlett admitted there had been “a few phone calls”, Harmes was committed to the club holistically.

“The rumour mill started, these things tend to get out. My biggest influence over the discussions with James that it wasn’t motivated by money because we realise there’s restrictions, we don’t want to be leaving our young kids out of the team at the expense of players coming in from the outside,” he said.

“Thankfully it wasn’t all motivated by money, there are some connections. James wants to get into counselling, and we’ve got some people that can help him do that.”

Given the attractive salaries at AFL level (match payments alone are $5000 a game), it is unlikely money would be much of an issue for someone who spent as long in professional ranks as Harmes did.

The Gippsland League salary cap doesn’t leave much room to spend big on a handful of players either.

The cap is $125,000, which in reality is only $85,000 given 22 players get paid the regulated $100 per senior appearance across 18 rounds.

If one player is supposedly getting paid $50,000, they would want to have some very generous teammates.

Howlett’s predecessor Manny Gelagotis worked on a basis that player payments were predicated on attitude. If the rate was $600 a week, it was $200 to train Tuesday, another $200 on Thursday and $200 on game day.

The Lions have now firmed as premiership fancies, although there will be challenges that come with landing such a big fish.

Leigh Poholke will have little choice but to drop himself when everyone is available, as player points will be maxed out.

Harmes will attract the maximum six points, while fellow recruits Mullane and Riley D’Arcy are three pointers.

The Lions also have ex-AFL players Ben Crocker (five points) and Myles Poholke (two) coming into their second year at Moe, along with imports Nathan Scagliarini, Alex Dijkstra and Aaron Paxton who are all still worth more than one point.

Local players Keilty, Smith and Harry Pepper take the number of Moe players with AFL experience to six.

Clearly there is always the risk that noses will be run out of joint if too many imports come in, yet Poholke was confident in retaining the squad for seasons to come.

The squad begins work at 12.30pm every Saturday, when Poholke will line up in the reserves, who will again be coached by Lachlan Sim.

The latter will then join the senior coach on the bench for the main game.

You really couldn’t ask for a better whole-club arrangement.