PORT Melbourne’s back is right up against the wall – and you get the sense that is exactly how the Borough likes it.

Port has been racked by the worst injury list in Gary Ayres’ 13 seasons as coach and has slipped to 1-3 and 18th spot after losing to Coburg last week.

But Ayres, who will become just the fifth man to coach 250 VFL matches – at a 66 per cent win ratio – when the Borough runs out in a must-win clash against Greater Western Sydney at Blacktown on Saturday, is not one to make excuses.

“There hasn’t been one week yet where we haven’t had a minimum of 12 unavailable (from a list of 40) – and nine or 10 of those are in our best 22,” he said.

“But it exposes young boys to this great game of ours and they get an understanding of the pressures of playing against full-time footballers and in the VFL competition.

“It’s not ideal but we’re a no-excuse footy club – we’ve had our backs to the wall before but it’s in our DNA to fight, it’s in our DNA to come out and be winners, it’s not in our DNA to feel sorry for ourselves, it’s not in our DNA not to stay relevant.”

Ayres won’t be the only one celebrating a milestone, with Anthony Anastasio reaching 100 VFL matches and Harvey Hooper 50.

Ayres said proving the doubters wrong was the club’s main motivation, and he was proud how often they had been able to do so – highlighted by premierships in 2011 and 2017.

“I am proud of that … and to think I’m there 14 years later is something I would never have thought when I rolled into Port Melbourne and opened the door of what I affectionately called the Bat Cave – the old container out the back of the Norm Goss Grandstand – and I’m very proud of what the club and the players have achieved,” he said.

“There was this thought that a standalone team could not win a VFL premiership and I thought we need to roll the sleeves up and if people say you can’t do anything then the club strives even more to be the best it can be – and within four years we were able to go through the season undefeated.

“That is the supporters, the members, the sponsors – the attitude when we’ve been down on our knees financially, the ground was a mess, the facilities – you sometimes get the greatest growth in adversity and the club has done that over a long period of time.

“At the end of 2016 the club was in a very shaky financial state, but the players were galvanised and we went on and won our 17th premiership at the end of that year against Richmond.

“I dubbed that the People’s Premiership in 2017 – we could have turned around said ‘it’s all too difficult’, but that is not in Port’s DNA not to get on with business and always be relevant.”

Anastasio, 27, who played 69 games including the 2015 premiership for Williamstown before crossing to Port in 2017 for another flag, is similarly proud of a milestone that took longer than expected. It was 959 days between his 95th and 96th games, but he never doubted it would come.

“It means a lot. I started in 2012 and would have got there in 2018 if I didn’t decide to jet off to the World Cup, and then came back and lost 2019 to an ACL and 2020 was COVID, so it has taken a little while,” he said.

“I always knew it was something I wanted to do and I didn’t want to end my VFL career on an ACL, and the last game I played before this year was an elimination final which we lost in extra time so that’s not really how I wanted to go out.”

Anastasio said he was lucky to have played with some great footballers at both the Seagulls and Borough and holds both flags close to his heart.

“The one at Willy took four or five years of building with the other guys who played in that team, and then the one at Port I was lucky enough to come across the bridge and enter a really successful team with guys like Toby Pinwill, Chris Cain, Sam Dwyer and those kind of guys who are legends of the comp and to be able to play with them was great.

“The same at Willy – Ben Jolley’s a legend and blokes like ‘Gibbo’ (Michael Gibbons), who has gone on to bigger and better things, and Adam Marcon.”

Having experienced both sides, Anastasio said the fierce rivalry between Port and Williamstown was built on mutual respect.

“I know both clubs don’t like each other on the field, but there’s a lot of respect off it and you always go into those games knowing it’s going to be a really hot contest and blokes are going to crack in,” he said.

“It’s just a game worth four points, but there’s something a little bit more when you play Willy, but then once you cross the white line there’s the ability to have a beer and a chat with them.

“It’s that mutual respect between two powerful standalone clubs of the competition and what we’ve achieved probably the last decade has been credit to them competing against full-time AFL athletes week-in, week-out.”

Anastasio said it was a privilege to share his milestone with Ayres.

“Gary is a legend not only of the AFL but of the VFL as well.

“What he’s been able to do when he was told they could never win a premiership, he obviously showed them that can happen and he’s taken Port Melbourne to the next level from being a great club to being a super club and a powerhouse.

He’s been in the game for 40-odd years and has done everything you could want as a player and a coach.”

But the supercoach typically shifted the praise onto his club and players.

“It’s the supporters who you get to know over the years who are so in love with the club and would do anything for it and the players – they’re our most valuable asset – and the sponsors, it just goes on and on and they’ve seen something in that Port Melbourne Football Club that they want to be a part of,” Ayres said.

“We won’t go anywhere if we don’t have the supporters, the members and the sponsors, so I’m very lucky and I couldn’t speak more highly of the footy club.”

GARY AYRES AS PORT MELBOURNE COACH

2008 – 18-5 (Grand Final)
2009 – 13-8 (Preliminary Final)
2010 – 13-7 (Semi Final)
2011 – 21-0 (PREMIERS)
2012 – 15-6 (Grand Final) *
2013 – 10-9-1 (Semi Final)
2014 – 17-4 (Preliminary Final)
2015 – 7-11 (10^th)
2016 – 11-8 (Elimination Final)
2017 – 15-6-1 (PREMIERS)
2018 – 10-9 (Elimination Final)
2019 – 12-8-1 (Preliminary Final)
2021 – 1-3 (?)
249 matches – 163 wins, 84 losses, 2 draws
* Ayres also took Port Melbourne to the semi-finals of the 2012 Foxtel Cup