Jason Davenport says his appearance in North Shore\u2019s final-round meeting with Lara at Windsor Park is about more than just helping the Seagulls stay off the bottom of the ladder.<\/p>\n
With AFL club GWS Giants, where Davenport is head of development, enjoying the pre-finals bye, the former Seagulls coach was happy to say \u201cyes\u201d when president Maryian Szponar contacted him about his availability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really interesting to chat to him on the phone,\u201d Davenport said. <\/p>\n
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\u201cHe was full of praise with regards to how the club\u2019s tracking, and that\u2019s obviously dismissive of results. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut they felt there\u2019s been a real shift in energy and enthusiasm and engagement off-field in particular. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe club, he feels, is in a pretty strong position compared to its latter position, so that was really encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davenport, who turns 40 next Thursday, played 28 AFL games with Port Adelaide after spending two years at Geelong without playing a senior match. <\/p>\n
He joined North Shore on his return to Geelong in 2014, and coached the Seagulls for three years before taking a development coaching role at Carlton at the end of 2017.<\/p>\n
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Davenport played his last of 92 games in blue and gold in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about necessarily going down and getting the win, but it\u2019s more about just being competitive and showing that North Shore is still capable of being a part of the Geelong footy landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s an opportunity to add a bit of composure and probably a calmness to the game, and being able to help not only on-field, but also support the coaches off-field.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost importantl,y it is just about letting the hair down and having a run around and having some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second win for the season over Lara will see North Shore avoid the wooden spoon \u2013 a remarkable effort after a cloud hung over the club\u2019s future during the preseason.<\/p>\n
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However, the Cats can leapfrog the Seagulls into 11th spot with victory due to a superior percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought to myself, he\u2019s out there, and we\u2019re looking to balance things up, and he\u2019d be an ideal inclusion to help some of the younger guys around the ground with his experience,\u201d Szponar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he genuinely still loves the club, as much as he hasn\u2019t been around for the last few years because of work circumstances, <\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s been invested for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in contact with him two or three times this year.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, Szponar said North Shore is expected to secure coach Mark Hounslow for the 2026 season as the club looks to build stability and momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not locked away at the moment, but at the moment he\u2019s coaching next year, and he will be coaching next year,\u201d Szponar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not even thinking of getting a new coach in. We\u2019re looking at more people to support him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Szponar also confirmed that the GFNL would be North Shore\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
However, if Bellarine club Torquay decides to accept AFL Barwon\u2019s offer of promotion to the GFNL, the Seagulls would be relegated.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, we\u2019re playing GFL,\u201d Szponar said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re going one direction; that\u2019s playing GFL and seeing where we\u2019re at. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s going to be a three or four-year build.\u201d<\/p>\n
X: @krockfootball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Davenport says his appearance in North Shore\u2019s final-round meeting with Lara at Windsor Park is about more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-98705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}