Game Review: Visiting Dolphins handle business against Port Melbourne

The residents of Port Melbourne were treated to a Saturday night clash, as the Borough hosted the Frankston Football Club for their first home match of this VFL season.

After coming up short against a strong Brisbane side in Queensland for their opening round matchup, Port Melbourne were keen to secure their first win for 2025.

Both sides were aching to claim the four points, where the winning side would be taking home the Jim Renouf Memorial Trophy – a trophy to commemorate Renouf and his VFL career where he played for both Port Melbourne and Frankston.

It was a very scrappy contest from the jump at ETU Stadium, with plenty of high intensity contests taking place in the opening few minutes.

The Borough looked to create plenty of physicality in and around the ground ball while sending in repeat entries for their forwards.

Drew Lloyd was the beneficiary, wasting no time to slot the opening major for the home side just minutes into the contest.

After some squandered opportunities for Port Melbourne to strengthen their lead, Frankston responded with some quick clearance goals to level up the scores at quarter time.

Some fast paced footy favoured the Borough early however Frankston’s ability to neutralise it and slow the game down worked in their favour.

Come the final siren, the marking numbers significantly favoured the Dolphins, 84 to 59, putting defensive pressure on the Borough throughout the evening.

In what was an extremely balanced opening half, Port Melbourne simply could not convert in front of goal on their home deck, finding themselves in a 16-point hole at the main break.

Charlie Lazzaro was leading the charge for the Borough yet again, whose immense tackling pressure was on full display.

The second half of this grudge match was an entirely different story, as inaccuracy plagued both ends of ETU Stadium.

Port Melbourne fell victim to their own fast style of play, as some rushed passages produced a multitude of chances for Frankston to blow this game wide open.

What was the biggest takeaway of this game, however? Neither one of the two sides could put away their opportunities when attacking.

Seven shots at goal for the Dolphins in the third term and all of those were behinds.

Every Frankston player on the field was adding on minor scores, providing Port Melbourne with a lifeline and keeping them in contention.

The hosts simply could not break into their forward 50 and while Frankston were unable to slot a major, they did enough defensively to maintain their lead with a quarter remaining.

The crowd was treated to a toe-to-toe, contest heavy final thirty minutes, but unfortunately not a lot of goals from either side.

After four action packed quarters of football, Frankston were able to come away with the choccies and retained the Jim Renouf Memorial Trophy.

In what was a very low scoring affair, the final score read Port Melbourne 4.10 (34) to Frankston 5.20 (50).

Port Melbourne coach Brendan McCartney was pleased with the efforts of his side and believes that, “We’ll just get better and better as the year goes. I’ve got no doubt”.

Tom Hird was instrumental for the Borough in their agonising defeat, with a game high 29 disposals. Lazarro continued to start his season in style, as the bullish midfielder racked up an astonishing 14 tackles to go with his 23 touches.

Despite the loss, McCartney is adamant that as his side grows closer together, the desired results will come.

“We had 16 blokes that they had never played footy together…that’s going to take some time but the bones of what we’re about are great”, he said.

“We’re competitive in every game, every quarter, and the next step is just making the game a little bit easier for each other by taking a bit more time and not being as rushed”.

With a bye round this coming weekend followed by the State of Origin, Port Melbourne have the chance to regroup adjust before they host Essendon in two weeks at ETU Stadium.

Written by Oliver Williamson

30.03.2025