The adage that sometimes your players are your best recruiters rings true at Newcomb, following an “unexpected” addition less than a month before the start of the Bellarine season.
The Power has added Northern Territory talent Oli Poulson, who has played alongside Josh Saltalamacchia at NTFL club Waratah.
“‘Salts’ reached out and said that Oli had returned from injury and was super impressed with how he went about it and that he was shifting to Geelong for uni and to live here,” Power coach Tony Mirabella said.
“We got in touch with Oli and had some great conversations with him and his coach, Ricky Nolan, at Waratah.
“He’s moved to Geelong and he’s going to be playing with us.”
A midfielder, Poulson has represented the Northern Territory and Oakleigh Chargers at Talent League level in 2024.
He also played for the NTFL in a representative match as a curtain raiser to the Gold Coast-North Melbourne AFL clash at TIO Stadium.
However, Poulson will be racing the clock to be right for Round 1 as he battles an ankle injury.
“For a club like us at Newcomb that haven’t had that junior talent coming through to the senior group, it’s a good pick-up for a guy of his calibre and talent,” Mirabella said.
“And he’s a super kid, so we’re pretty excited to get him going.
“He’s a genuine midfielder. Looking at his size, you’d probably think he’s on the outside. But the way he goes about it and the footage I’ve seen, he’s really hard-headed into the contest and really clean and very composed when he’s got the footy in hand.”
Poulson is a handy addition for Newcomb, which faces Northern League club Watsonia, and Buninyong from the Central Highlands League in practice matches before its Round 1 clash with Queenscliff at PlasterCom Oval.
“It’s a bit of an unexpected one,” Mirabella said.
“But we are pretty happy with retaining all but two players; Jack Walsh (Portland) and Andrew Steele (East Geelong) are the only two that we’ve really lost.
“We’ve probably added, you know, a few really good role players for us and retained the same group.”
X: @krockfootball
