WELL, that’s it for another year for Wonthaggi Power after their chance of a fairytale finish to a season of challenges, growth and improvement was blown away by a very professional performance by Traralgon at Moe in the 2024 First Semi-final.
Traralgon’s pressure was elite all day, closing down the space for Wonthaggi to work in and they had players strategically placed to negate Wonthaggi’s strengths, like having arguably their best player Tristen Waack on the Power’s key forward Cooper McInnes, and a couple of other intercept marking defenders including Ty Hourigan and Tom McMahon in support.
Hourigan had more than a dozen marks back there and he had plenty of support when clearing the ball out of the danger zone, proving that while Wonthaggi had plenty of drive, especially off half back from Isaac Chugg, who was probably best on the ground despite Traralgon’s win, the Power simply could not make it count on the scoreboard.
And finally, their inability to score weighed more heavily as the game went on and Traralgon kicked two goals to nil in the last quarter to ice a low-scoring game marred by a howling wind for most of the day.
Wonthaggi had plenty of strong contributors on the day including Shannon Bray and Jakeb Thomas who shared rucking duties against big Max Jacobson, who it must be said was one of Traralgon’s best, onballers Josh Bates, Ryan Sparks, and Kaj Patterson had their moments, defenders Fergus O’Connor, Jye Gilmour, Josh Schulz, Tim Knowles and Isaac Chugg of course stopped many Maroon scores and both Blair brothers Jarryd and Jack tried to inspire their team mates but it wasn’t to be.
Aiden Lindsay kicked the Power's first goal and remained a threat on the forward line throughout but the delivery wasn't good, often impacted by Traralgon's pressure.
Tom Murray was a good inclusion for Power and emerged as one of their best on the day with a four quarter effort
After a run of 10 wins and two losses from Round 8 onwards, they were the form side of the competition, but on a very windy day, against a very committed Traralgon side, they couldn’t maintain their winning streak and have bowed out of season 2024.
Coach Jarryd Blair said after the game that it wasn’t where we wanted to be at the end of the day today, but he was tremendously proud of the growth in the group and where they had come from during the year.
Final scores: Traralgon 6.6.42 defeated Wonthaggi 3.5.23.
