WONTHAGGI Power’s destiny in season 2024 is finally in its own hands after it defeated Bairnsdale by 79 points at Wonthaggi on Saturday and moved into fifth place on the ladder.
Following a Gippsland League bye next weekend, Wonthaggi have Drouin away on August 17 and then second-placed Moe at home on August 24 to round out the regular season.
If they win both those games, the runners-up of 2023 will take part in this year’s final series, something that looked unlikely after they lost several key players to injury and transfer in the off-season and only won three out of the first nine games.
But since the half-way stage of the year, a reshuffled Wonthaggi side, still dealing with a number of key injuries, have won six out of seven games to be one of the form teams of the competition.
The shape of the finals could even be decided in the next round if Morwell beats Sale at Morwell, a result that is no foregone conclusion even after Leongatha thrashed the Magpies for much of the day at Sale last Saturday. Sale slipped out of the five and lost a chunk of percentage as a result so a loss to Morwell would almost certainly end their season.
Saturday’s match at Wonthaggi started quietly enough with the Power getting the first goal through Josh Bates in the first four minutes of the game and Bairnsdale’s Cooper Harvey wasn’t able to reply until 20 minutes later as the play shifted up and down the ground without any scoring for much of the opening term.
Wonthaggi had welcomed back Ryan Sparkes who was immediately in action on the ball where he received plenty of support from Jaceb Thomas, doing a great job in the ruck against big Ethan East, in the absence of Toma Huther, with the likes of Jack Blair, Josh Bates, Andrew McNeel and Kaj Patterson all taking their turn through the centre.
Isaac Chugg was a winner on his flank from the outset and the defence stamped its authority on the game early with Josh Schulz leading the way and others including Jye Gilmour, Fergus O’Connor, Tim Knowles and the Macmillan brothers playing their roles.
Wonthaggi had the quick answer just before the quarter time break when Cooper McInnes was taken high and made no mistake from 25 metres out.
That was to be as close as Bairnsdale got all day with Wonthaggi taking full control in the second and third quarters, holding the Redlegs goalless for two quarters, while booting nine themselves to be 10 goals in front at the last change.
In typical in-and-under style, Jack Blair earned a free kick near goal to get the scores rolling in the second term but a lot of players had a hand in working it forward, Jakeb Thomas with a good contest at the first centre bounce, Patterson hitting the pack to take possession and young Tom Macmillan coming forward off half back to get the play going Wonthaggi’s way.
O’Connor, Chugg, Mitch Hayes, Gilmore, Aiden Lindsay, and McNeel all got involved and Blair capped it off.
From there on, the Wonthaggi players were lining up to get their turn and there were plenty of chances for the Power forwards, McInnes bringing up his second with a nice snap.
Jarryd Blair marked one on the lead soon after and kicked truly from the angle to make it five goals to one and Noah Anderson took a contested mark moments later to make it six.
A mistake by Bairnsdale switching the ball across the backline was seized on by an ever-alert Jarryd Blair who trapped the ball, ran on and handed off the easiest of goals to McInnes, in the right place at the right time in the goals square.
Bairnsdale made a better contest of it for the remainder of the term but Wonthaggi was in complete control and eyeing a percentage boost as the teams went off at half time.
The second half was more of the same with Cooper McInnes leading the way up forward with a bag of five goals for the day, but pleasingly with some of the onballers and other forwards getting involved, Mitch Hayes kicking two, Kaj Patterson and Jack Blair with two and best-on-the-ground for Wonthaggi, Jakeb Thomas also finishing off his work with two goals.
They started the half in popular fashion when Tom Macmillan collected the loose ball and delivered a laces-out pass to a leading Cooper McInnes who honoured the superb kick with a straight shot, on their way to a big result.
Wonthaggi will get the in-form Shannon Bray back after the bye to improve their flexibility on the ball and in defence but they’ve pretty much settled into a team that can take them into the finals, if they can win the last two games of the year, or results elsewhere go their way.
In very even competition, who knows what September might bring.
Final scores: Wonthaggi 17.10.112 def Bairnsdale 4.9.33.
