THERE will be a familiar look to both the Wonthaggi Power and the Leongatha Parrots when they run out for the start of the 2023 season on Saturday.
The selected Wonthaggi Power side, to play premiership runners-up Sale at Wonthaggi on Saturday, in what is arguably the Gippsland ‘Match of the Day’ will include five players who weren’t in the Power’s preliminary final team, although the only new face for locals will be former Collingwood midfielder Isaac Chugg who joins the Power after being delisted by the Pies at the end of the 2022 season.
Chugg, a speedy 181cm midfielder, who was recruited from Launceston, played 26 games for the Collingwood Reserves before being Rookie listed by Collingwood and playing two games in 2022, against GWS and the Gold Coast.
At just 21 years of age, he still has a lot of great footy ahead of him and shapes as one of the recruits of the season in the Gippsland League.
Among the others; Josh Schultz, Jakeb Thomas and Jye Gilmour are well known to Power supporters while former Inverloch-Kongwak junior Cooper McInnes makes his debut, on route to the Power from Tarwin where he put together a good body of work with plenty of goals and will be a welcome addition to the Power forward line.
Their opponents on Saturday, Sale, have nine changes from the team that went oh-so-close to stopping Leongatha’s unbeaten run in last year’s grand final.
All of their best players are back from the heroic grand final performance, with the exception of Ryan Pendlebury, including talented onballer Shannen Lange and leading lights Jack McLaren, Will Leslie, captain Jack Leslie, and Sale playing coach Jack Johnstone.
But they will be without big forward Brad Dessent and key defender Mitch Thacker.
They have however recruited well with the likes of Port Melbourne’s Cody Henness selected for Saturday’s game and former Sale premiership junior Lachie Ronchi joining his brother Harry in the black and white and expected to impress.
Both Sale and Wonthaggi are expected to be in the top group this year, but at home, expect Wonthaggi to start well with a close win.
Leongatha travels to Traralgon, who are being touted as the team to beat this season, with a side that includes seven changes from their 2022 premiership team.
Missing will be Cam Olden (suspended), Luke Bowman (injured), Justin Pellicano (unavailable), Luther Juric (moved for work), Matt Willcocks (Vermont), and Sam Forrester (unavailable).
But, fortunately for the Parrots, they had the runaway best Reserves team in the competition last year and coach Trent McMicking has had the luxury of dipping into their deep talent pool to bring forward some excellent replacements, most with senior experience already.
Added to the senior team this week are Jacob Lamers, Will Dawson, Tallin Brill, Mitch Bentvelzen, Jenson Garnham (IK, Gippy Power) and a key recruit, Guy Dickson from Port Melbourne via Kyneton.
Already added to the coaching panel as an assistant coach, with hopes of taking it further in the future, the club is hoping Dickson will also play a leadership role in the back half, helping to cover the loss on the talented Willcocks. But he can play key position front and back and also pinch hit in the ruck as at need arises.
Returning Parrots' coach Trent McMicking said this week that he hadn't noticed any letdown in enthusiasm by the group this year, after the success of last year, in fact the injection of the club's young talent into the senior side was having the opposite effect.
"The young guys have really brought their commitment and enthusiasm with them this year and our older guys are really feeding off that. Obviously we have a big job ahead of us at Traralgon on Saturday after they've recruited well and are expected to improve but I think the whole Gippsland League looks to have gone up a level.
"It's pretty exciting from that point of view."
McMicking said the clubrooms were really humming on Thursday night with upwards of 250 people in the rooms for dinner and for the reading out of the football and netball teams.
"We're pretty excited about our juniors this year and that's another thing that's given us a boost, having some new families around and keen to get into it as well. We're looking forward to it."
Leongatha has supplied the strongest numbers of recruits to Gippsland Power this year with six players, indicative of the strong program at the Parrots.
It’s another great season in prospect for the two South Gippsland clubs, Leongatha and Wonthaggi, both expected to be in the hunt for the premiership in 2023.
Fans will have to wait until after Easter, on Saturday, April 15, for the first local derby of the season when Leongatha will host Wonthaggi at Parrot Park in Round 2.