WONTHAGGI Power sprang a surprise on the Gippsland League and their opponents in Saturday’s key match-up against Sale when they unveiled former Collingwood premiership player Nathan Brown for his first game in the black, white and teal.
Brown made only a modest beginning with a handful or two of possessions, but he also took a turn in the forward ruck duels, in the absence of an injured Toma Huther, had a shot at goal and a couple of goal assists.
But he also drew the attention of Sale’s best defender, Jonty McGuiness, and allowed his new teammates up forward, especially Cooper McInnes who kicked five, to get off the chain and the likes of Jaxon Williams three, Hunter Tiziani, Noah Anderson, Jarryd Blair and Brayden Duve to chip in.
He also used the benefit of his experience to help organise the forward line, going up and back in concert with McInnes, creating the space and helping the Power to make much better use of its forward entries.
With Ryan Sparkes back from the Collingwood VFL team and mixing it up on the ball against the likes of Sale’s Shannen Lange it was a consummate, organised, and committed display from Wonthaggi which saw them stretch a consistent four-goal lead throughout the day to a percentage boosting seven-goal win at the end.
Coach Jarryd Blair, a teammate of Brown’s in the 2010 AFL Premiership team at Collingwood, was delighted with the team’s performance and Brown’s contribution, especially as the Power finished with just one rotation on the bench.
“We’ve sort of spoken about it for a few years, about him coming down for a few games. We loved playing together at Collingwood and he was excited about the opportunity and things sort of lined up this year with Nath’s work and stuff.
“He lives down at Barwon Heads so it’s a bit of a stretch but he said at the start of the year that when it lined up with work he’d like to come down.
“I think he will be a good target for us ahead of the ball, a key pillar up there I suppose, someone to kick to.
“I think naturally, someone that sees the game so well, and at AFL level was a leader behind the ball, it’s only natural to be helping to set the boys up and organising.”
And that’s exactly how it turned out.
For his part, Nathan Brown thoroughly enjoyed the day.
“Great, loved it,” said Brown after the game.
“I’ve been wanting to get down here and play with Jarryd and the team for a while but the College plays its games on a Saturday so it’s not always easy.
“But yes, hoping to play a few more.”
Nathan Brown is the head of coaching at Geelong College and very committed to the role there but you’d expect him to play at least three of the next seven to qualify for finals and fingers crossed the results fall the Power’s way.
After the addition of a number of young players into the side, following the exit of Jack Hutchinson, Sparkes and others, it has taken Wonthaggi sometime to settle but they’ve been building in the past month, almost beating Moe, which franked that form against Leongatha on Saturday, and now taking the scalps of Morwell and Sale in consecutive weeks.
And the arrival of Brown helped take that development to the next level on Saturday, no doubt helping to straighten up the attack, coming out of a winning back line via the likes of Chugg, Gilmour, Knowles, and co but with the flankers, onballers and forwards also looking a lot freer, skilled and committed in their work.
It was a situation that Jarryd Blair focussed on after the game.
“That was really well done from everyone today and we should be pretty proud of ourselves especially as we finished with only one rotation. It wasn’t just one man, it was everyone.”
“Today it was all about how we were going about it. We’ve done the training, we were engaged with what we were doing and it didn’t allow the opposition to get in it, I would say, for 115 of the 120 minutes, apart from that bit in the first quarter.
“It’s been building for over a month. It just hasn’t happened. You’ve got to build confidence and earn confidence and it’s great. It was fun to play out there today.
“We had options in front of the footy and blokes prepared to take their opponent with them. Browny keeping his bloke busy and allowing Coops and Jacko to fly and we had coverage even if they got it from Chuggy, Jy (Gilmour) and others.
“We’ve got another big one next week, at home again, so let’s enjoy this one but we’re setting the standard now and let’s see if we can raise the bar again.”
Next Saturday, it’s Warragul at Wonthaggi and then in the following weeks Leongatha away, Traralgon at Wonthaggi and the trip to play an improving Maffra at Maffra.
Wonthaggi is sitting in seventh, a game behind Sale out of the top five, but in a position where they can’t afford to drop games, seven rounds ahead of the finals.
At their best, Wonthaggi deserves to be there but the bout of injuries they copped at the weekend and the likelihood that Nathan Brown and Ryan Sparkes (Collingwood VFL) will be in and out of the selected side poses some challenges if they want to take part in the post-season action this year.
