Clutch McInnes’ goal seals deal for Wonthaggi Power at Morwell

AT THREE quarter time in their opening round match against Morwell on Saturday, Wonthaggi Power held a four-point lead on a blustery, sometimes rainy, typical footy-weather day away.

But despite outscoring the home team 18 scoring shots to nine by that stage in the match, it was still anyone’s game as the players dragged their feet towards the final huddle, with yet another shower of rain sweeping across the ground.

But just as they broke to resume hostilities, a big, beautiful rainbow ringed the oval and it was Wonthaggi’s spearhead, Cooper McInnes who found the pot of gold.

Wonthaggi did most of the attacking in the opening minutes of the last quarter and with good forward pressure by Hunter Tiziani, Nathan Muratore and others, the Power finally got their chance to get the all-important first goal of the last quarter.

The Powers’ new ruckman, Daniel Bourke, was leading the way, ably assisted by Brodie Mabilia, in the new number 3 guernsey, either ruck-roving or taking a turn in the ruck himself.

A battling effort by Jai Williams was crucial near the boundary in getting the ball to Mabilia who kicked creatively into open space ahead of a hard-leading McInnes who marked the ball at full pace, 40 metres out on the angle.

He’d missed a couple of shots earlier in the day but with the contest on the line, he went back and kicked the clutch goal from the boundary to put Power on their way to their first win of the season.

The goal stretched the lead to 10 points but more importantly, it set the tone for the final 30 minutes which were dominated by Wonthaggi as they went away to a 31-point victory, kicking five last-quarter goals to the Tigers’ three points; with Blake Cornellis and Kaj Patterson joining McInnes (3) in a final flourish.

There was a lot to like about the Powers’ workmanlike first win, getting a contribution right across the board and developing their system in defence and attack, with the injection of new players, the further the match went.

Mabilia and Bourke were the dominant forces on the ball but Nathan Muratore was hard at it throughout the day, as were Josh Bates, Josh Schultz and Bryce Joyce.

Jack Blair and Aiden Lindsay applied good forward pressure, Kyle Reid showed his usual leadership in defence, enjoying the support of Jakeb Thomas, Reeve Moresco, Tom Glen and Jarvis Harvey back there.

Jai Williams came up into the play as required off his wing and both Jaxon Foon and Archie Jobe showed flashes of good play as well.

With the likes of Isaac Chugg and Jarryd Blair missing from the lineup, on Saturday, there was a lot to like about the Power, but also plenty to work on as they look ahead to their first home game against Warragul next Saturday.

The fuel crisis didn’t appear to have impacted the size of the crowd at Morwell for the opening round but in case there was any reluctance among Power supporters to make the trip across to the Latrobe Valley, the club promoted a livestreaming event at the Wonthaggi Club, where supporters could get together and see the game live.

Final scores: Wonthaggi 9.14.68 defeated Morwell 5.7.37.

More to follow.