Portarlington stalwart Shane Wiffen and Will Foott the only remaining players since the Demons’ last victory in July, 2018

Wiffen realised his Demons, the Bellarine’s and possibly the state’s most battling club, who hadn’t won since July 28, 2018, had just one player left on the bench and its opponent, Newcomb, was on the charge.

The Power had reduced a 25-point half time margin to just one, and Portarlington were suddenly without Wiffen, plus co-captain Mitch Turnbull and the utterly dominant Jaryd Cachia, sidelined from second term hamstring injuries.

“I was really worried,” Wiffen told this publication.

“(I thought) how are they going to run this game out with just one on the bench?

“I was sitting in the rooms very dejected (thinking): ‘There’s nothing I can do now, I can’t help them and they’re going to be overrun here’.”

Wiffen had a sickening feeling of deja vu; he’d seen this movie plenty of times before in the BFNL.

Like against Modewarre almost 12 months prior, also in Round 1, when the Demons were four goals up early only to be overrun by the Warriors at the same venue.

Wiffen said his teammates “rolled over” that day.

However, 12 months is a long time in footy and this was a new Demons outfit, who were not only battling an opponent but something else entirely different: expectation.

However, the Demons would withstand the Power surge, led by the class and skill of former AFL players Teia Miles and Connor Menadue and youngsters like Jack Baldi and Harry Sedgman.

“I could hear the crowd from in the rooms,” Wiffen said.

He would eventually come back onto the ground for the three quarter time address; the crowd about 10 deep for Warren Finlayson’s final speech.

Wiffen would then witness the glorious final term from the pine as the Demons saluted for the first time in 69 games by 31 points.

“I was very very proud to watch them do that,” he said.

“It was certainly mixed emotions (personally).

“It’s something I’ve been fantasising about for a really long time.

“I knew we were a good chance ... I really wanted to be out there.”

It was just reward for one of the Bellarine’s most loyal footballers.

Wiffen, a local mussel farmer, has played all his footy at Portarlington, and along with teammate Will Foott, was the only remaining Demon who played in their last win in Round 16 of 2018 when the Demons beat Newcomb by a straight kick.

Despite five consecutive seasons without a win, Wiffen was never tempted to leave.

In fact, he had played in every game since their last win – in the midst of a run of more than 130 – and had last missed a game in 2015 after being knocked out.

“I’m not a good enough player and I’m too old to go anywhere else to start again,” he said.

“It’s my home.

“It never crossed my mind, the longer that we went without winning, the more important it was to stay, to make sure we were there when it did happen.”

He said hope, and the remote chance that something miraculous might happen, also drove him during the darkest of days.

“It’s always hope, I think the hope that it will happen,” he said.

“There were some dark times around that Covid period, there really was no hope.”

However, he said things began to change when the club recruited a few players from Leopold – Jack Rose, Max Ruita, Josh Jones, Max Jenkin, Dylan O’Brien and Zac Kos – before adding proven winners in Mitch Turnbull and Kelly Pickard.

“They’d just come off a flag, and we needed people who actually wanted to come down and genuinely help us,” he said.

“They didn’t want to just come down for the money, I’ve played with a lot of guys ... who came down for the money.

“They’ve actually invested in dragging us off the canvas.”

Then, with the addition of some former AFL talent in Cachia, Miles and Menadue for the 2024 campaign, Wiffen believes for the first time in a long time there was an expectation to win before the opening round — noting an “almost finals-like” build up and anticipation.

“Some of our ex-AFL players, you talk to them before the game (against Newcomb) and they were generally nervous,” he said.

“It wasn’t just the young kids.

“There was an expectation there which hasn’t been there for a long time.

“You come into Round 1 normally and you hope you’ll be competitive.

“But there was a general expectation throughout the football community ... that we were going to win that game.”

Meanwhile, Wiffen, who must follow the league’s revised 21-day concussion protocol, is recovering well — a nagging head cold providing more issues than anything else.

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He had been tackled after launching a ball from the boundary line into the forward 50 during the third term.

“My memory’s not great of that exact moment, when it happens your head explodes a little bit,” he said.

“It didn’t hurt or anything, but I do remember trying to stand up and falling over (twice).”

Originally published as Portarlington stalwart Shane Wiffen and Will Foott the only remaining players since the Demons’ last victory in July, 2018