Temora to welcome home Will Reinhold after one season at Port Melbourne

New coach Jimmy Kennedy's tenure at Temora has got off to the best possible start with Reinhold's decision to return home after one season at Victorian Football League (VFL) level.

Reinhold was in contention of being drafted mid-season but 'fell out of love' with the demands of VFL football in the second half of the year and has signed to return home to Temora for 2023.

The 21-year-old is looking forward to returning home to Temora.

"I'm pretty excited to get back," Reinhold said.

"I kind of fell out of love with VFL a little bit.

"I went down and gave it a crack. It wasn't too bad. I fell out of form and got dropped. It was kind of a mutual thing. I went up to them and said I need a couple of weeks back at my local club and that was good fun."

It proved to Reinhold that local football was where he wanted to play and admitted the decision to leave Port Melbourne for Temora was not a difficult one at all.

MORE SPORT NEWS

"Not really. I was pretty set on coming home after this year," he said.

"The intensity of it all probably isn't for me. It was a great experience and Port Melbourne is one of the most prestigious clubs going around, so to get the opportunity to play a few games for them was pretty cool.

"I'll probably hold onto those few games for the rest of my life."

Reinhold enjoyed a brilliant start to the season and was granted an exemption by the AFL to be available to be selected at the mid-year draft after strong interest from multiple clubs.

That did not eventuate and Reinhold only played a handful of games at VFL level in the season half of the season.

Now, he returns back to Temora with no regrets.

"That was the main reason I went down there," he said.

"Now it's good to come back home and hopefully help a few of the younger boys and give them a few tips if they want to go on and do that sort of stuff, what to do and that."

Reinhold last played at Temora in the second half of the 2021 season and dominated, finishing runner up in the club's best and fairest off just seven games.

He will move home next month and cannot wait to get started.

"I'm really looking forward to it. All my good mates are still back home and a lot of them are still playing," he said.

"I've been looking forward to it for a fair while now. Now that we've got Jimmy (Kennedy) coaching, the buzz around the place is pretty good at the moment. Hopefully it's going to be a good year."

An athletic tall with a penetrating left foot kick, Reinhold will give Kennedy plenty of options.

The first-year Temora coach, who only signed last week, is happy to have a quality player like Reinhold at his disposal.

"It's a great start and should help build momentum," Kennedy said.

"I've heard he's got a nice left foot kick and is a big strong body.

"I obviously didn't have to do much. He wanted to come back home, he's got his family there and what not so it worked perfectly for me.

"I'm really happy to get him on board."

Temora will hold a 'meet the coach' at Nixon Park from 11.30am on Saturday.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: