'Magnificent' effort puts Power on the park at Wonthaggi

THE focus was on all the wrong things in the lead up to the Gippsland League game at Wonthaggi on Saturday, between Wonthaggi Power and the visiting Sale side.

The state of the ground, after 220mls of rain in the past five weeks, including surface water and large patches of mud impacting parts of the oval ahead of the game had Sale officials, the league and even the Wonthaggi brainstrust questioning its suitability for play.

But the sun broke out early on a beautiful day at Wonthaggi on Saturday and with what has been hailed by the club as “a magnificent effort by the Bass Coast Shire Council” during the week, the games went ahead.

“We followed due process and had a league official visit the ground,” said Wonthaggi Power President Darren Brown.

“Both club presidents and coaches inspected the ground before the game to make sure they were happy with the condition of the oval, that it was safe to play on,” he said.

Mr Brown said shire staff had been “magnificent” during the week responding to the situation, the day went ahead with Under 16, Reserves and Senior games all successfully completed and Wonthaggi winning two out of three… a good result on the day.

In the end, said Mr Brown, the 112-point victory by Wonthaggi had secured their place in the top three on the Gippsland League ladder with two rounds to go in the season.

It sets up a likely qualifying final between South Gippsland neighbours Wonthaggi and Leongatha at Moe on Saturday, August 29 after Leongatha overcame Warragul by 20 points to take over third place.

Wonthaggi started the game strongly with six goals to nil in the first quarter, running on top of the ground for the most part, although heavy parts of the ground did restrict play at times.

With Jasper Shone leading the way in the ruck and good support in the centre and at the stoppages from Bryce Joyce, Aiden Lindsay and Josh Bates initially, they had their first goal on the board within a minute of the opening bounce through Bates after a 50-metre penalty.

Isaac Chugg was already providing drive off half back, Brodie Mabilia was playing his role at the stoppages as well and Wonthaggi’s key forward Cooper McInnes was impacting the play anywhere near the scoring zone.

Power didn’t need any help up forward, but they got it from Sale’s Number 56 (unnamed) as he attempted to switch the ball out of danger on the Wonthaggi forward line only to see it marked by Jaxon Foon in front of goal. His shot provided the perfect start for the home side and they continued on from there with their defenders locking down and plenty of opportunities for the Power forwards.

McInnes finished with five on a day when the 18 goals were shared between eight players.

Wonthaggi will now be setting its sights on the second meeting of the year against Leongatha at Leongatha with only two games remaining in the 2026 season.

The Wonthaggi ground will get a two-week break before the last round of the season against Traralgon, another team in finals’ contention this year.

When the season is over, contractors will move in to start work on a $720,000 redevelopment of the oval including new drainage and a complete resurfacing of the ground, a process that’s likely to take much of 2027.

Power officials would like to see new turf rolled out as part of the works, instead of growing new surface grass from scratch, but Bass Coast Shire Council Mayor Brett Tessari told the ‘Sentinel-Times’ there wasn’t the funding, within the scope of the project, to pay for turf.

If that continued to be the case, there would be little or no football played on the main Wonthaggi oval for the duration of the 2027 season.