STABILITY is huge at the start of a new season, and Wonthaggi Power appear to have nailed close to their best 22 already in 2023.
The Power has made just one change from the team that looked the winner, halfway through the last quarter against the undefeated premiers of last year, Leongatha, last Saturday.
Into the side for the Anzac memorial match against Moe at Wonthaggi this Saturday comes Troy Harley, who helped lead the Wonthaggi Reserves to a memorable 11-point over Leongatha, also last year’s premiers, with three goals and a near best-on-ground performance.
He’ll be a handy inclusion to swing on to the forward line, into a range of roles there on Saturday in what looms as another test for the Power.
Moe comes into the game, on top of the ladder, after two rounds having comprehensively defeated Morwell in Round 1 by six goals before a rout against Warragul in Round 2 by almost 100 points.
What’s going on with Warragul, a town like that?
Moe has recruited carefully in recent years, adding the likes of ruckman Chris Prowse and goal-kicking flanker, Nick Prowse from the Essendon and District League, Kristian Jaksch from the Amateurs a few years ago and a good selection of players from surrounding leagues including Tyler Pratt to appear as one of the improvers in the league this year.
They are being touted as a possible finalist and with pace to burn, could cause the Power some problems.
But, with the luxury of being able to build a strong and stable defence on the back of Kyle Reid, Fergus O'Connor, Shannon Bray and now Brodie Mabilia; they have a great platform for consistency, and with the mids also knowing how and who to support coming out of defence, the Power can be relied on each week to provide a worthy contest, regardless of the opponent.
Jack Hutchinson and Cooper McInnes were terrific up forward last week, but if anything, the Power’s brainstrust would like to see more players kicking goals, and just as importantly taking their chances by kicking truly.
We saw a couple of missed goals last week that resulted in momentum changes when realistically, the Power had Leongatha’s measure in general play.
The selected Wonthaggi team is backs; Jye Gilmour, Kyle Reid, Fergus O'Connor; half backs; Tim Knowles, Shannon Bray, Brodie Mabilia; centres Joshua Bates, Aiden Lindsay, Isaac Chugg; half forwards; Jack Hutchinson, Jakeb Thomas, Harry Dawson; forwards; Cooper McInnes, Jordan Staley, Jack Blair; Rucks; Toma Huther, Mitch Hayes, Jarryd Blair; interchange; Troy Harley, Hunter Tiziani, Joshua Schulz, Tom Davey.
Netballers and footballers from both sides are expected to form up before the game, after the Gippsland League declared this their Anzac Round, and there are expected to be Anzac Medal presentations to the best players after the matches.
Could get ugly at Warragul
Warragul could only manage one goal against Moe last Saturday, and while the Lions have been nominated for improvement this year, it’s not going to get a lot easier for the Gulls against an almost full-strength Leongatha on Saturday.
The Parrots will be missing their big-hearted ruckman Ben Willis, with Levi Hickey stepping up to the first-ruck duties this week after performing well against Wonthaggi’s trio of ruckmen last week.
But the Parrots welcome back late exclusions from last week, premiership players Aaron Hillberg and Cade Maskell, as well as Jack Ginnane, making a welcome return to the forward line for the Parrots.
It makes for an impressive and potent forward line against Warragul in their Anzac Memorial match and you can expect to see the Parrots cut loose with some big scoring quarters on the day.
Leongatha may, however, make some late changes with one or two selected players carrying niggling injuries after the hard-fought contest against the Power.
The selected Leongatha senior team is: forwards; Jesse Burns, Jenson Garnham, Tallin Brill; half forwards; Josh Hopkins, Aaron Hillberg, Jack Hume, centres; Cameron Stone, Aaron Heppell, Aaron Turton; half backs; Mitchell Bentvelzen, Guy Dickson, Cade Maskell; backs; Travis Nash, Sean Westaway, Jackson Harry; rucks; Levi Hickey, Jake van der Pligt, Kim Drew, and interchange; Sam Forrester, Thomas Marriott, Jack Ginnane, Luke Bowman.