Despite Vic Country losing its first two matches of the under-18 national championships, a major positive has been the form of young Dandenong Stingray Myles Poholke.
Poholke started the carnival off in superb fashion against Western Australia, collecting 15 disposals (11 contested), laying seven tackles and kicking two goals.
He backed it up the following week in the devastating two-point loss to Vic Metro, producing a consistent effort with 18 possessions and two goals.
While understandably disappointed that Vic Country opened 0-2, the Sorrento junior was content with his overall contribution.
“It’s hard being satisfied without getting the four points, but I’ve been pretty pleased with the way I’ve been playing and hopefully I can continue that for the rest of the carnival,” Poholke said.
“Hugh McCluggage and I have been doing a direct swap from midfield to forward, so we’ve just been managing that ourselves.
“We kicked five goals between us in our last game … it seems to be working pretty well.”
Poholke is hopeful Vic Country can finish off the carnival strongly in its final two matches against South Australia and the Allies.
“We’ve definitely all got a team approach and always look at the positive side of things as a group,” he said.
“It’s important for us to get as many wins as possible … we’re confident we can bounce back and win our last two matches.”
Prior to the national championships the strong midfielder/forward was a solid contributor for the Stingrays, helping his side to wins in five of his seven matches and averaging an impressive 20 disposals, five tackles and a goal.
Last year was his first season in the Stingrays’ system after making the list following a strenuous pre-season.
His consistency in his bottom-age year earned him two matches for Vic Country and a place in the level two AIS-AFL Academy squad.
Stingrays coach Craig Black believes the AIS-AFL Academy’s tour of the United States in January provided Poholke with an enormous amount of confidence.
“When he went to America it was a really good awakening for him,” Black said. “I reckon prior to that he was probably thinking, ‘Do I belong here?’, but that trip to America with the other best players in Australia was a really good experience for him.
“He definitely got a lot of confidence out of that and realised how good his attributes are and the areas he needed to work on.
“He came back with a really good attitude and was prepared to work even harder.”
Poholke labelled the experience as one of the highlights of his life and felt he’d learned a great deal over the two weeks.
“You get into really good habits when you’re in such a professional environment,” he said.
“I’ve tried to incorporate that into life back at home and maintain good habits.”
Incredibly strong overhead for his 184cm stature, the 17-year-old has tried to model his game on two modern-day AFL superstars—Robbie Gray and Luke Parker.
“The way that Robbie Gray can go inside and outside and also go forward and kick a few goals is something I try to do,” he said. “Luke Parker’s overhead marking is what I look at as well.”
Black admires Poholke’s determination to continually improve his own game.
“The thing I like about Myles is he always wants to get better,” he said.
“He is a very driven kid that wants to improve so he can get the best out of his ability and give himself every opportunity at the end of the year to be on an AFL list.”
Once Poholke’s Vic Country commitments come to a close he will turn his full attention to helping Dandenong win its first TAC Cup premiership, something he feels is more than achievable.
“Last year we were sort of tagged as the favourites for the flag and we had a really talented side, but I think this year we’re a champion team instead of a team of champions,” he said.
“We all know how each other play, we’ve really bonded well and hopefully we can go deep into the finals and play at Etihad Stadium at the end of the season.”