Port recruit Ratugolea chooses opportunity over comfort

"I didn't want to leave the place," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"But if I wanted to take my footy to another level, I probably needed to go somewhere.

"(Geelong) is not an easy place to leave. I kept second-guessing myself, it was a tough year because I love that place so much.

"And I'm always someone that has taken comfortability over anything too ... but there was that balance of choosing opportunity over comfortability."

The 197cm-tall Ratugolea has been recruited to help fix Port's weakness: a lack of big defenders which some pundits believe has prevented coach Ken Hinkley's side from challenging for a premiership.

"That was definitely the thing that got me across the line, where they needed a key defender and Ken was in my ear about that," he said.

"But I don't want to put that pressure on myself, I just want to play my footy.

"If I start putting that pressure on myself, that's where I struggle.

"Games are not far away but I have just got to keep working and keep gelling with these guys down back ... there's still a lot of work to do.

"I just want to lock down a spot really at the moment.

"There's a few boys putting their hands up as well to play the position that I'm in.

"For me, it's probably consistency in trying to keep my spot in the side, it's somewhere I've probably struggled the last few years as well.

"I've come to a place where that opportunity is there for me. I have just got to grab it with both hands."

After failing to lock a spot in Geelong's team in recent seasons, the 25-year-old had been chased by Hinkley for two years.

The Cats rejected advances in 2022, holding Ratugolea to the last year of his contract.

A move was only agreed on the final day of the trade period last October when Ratugolea was in Paris on a morning run around the Eiffel Tower, trying to ignore the dealings.

"I can't deal with the talk over (trade) stuff, so I got away," he said.

"I just said to my manager, 'Call me if anything happens'."