THERE was excitement, controversy and ultimately disappointment when a 7th-placed Wonthaggi Power side went within a kick of downing third-placed Moe at the Ted Summerton Reserve in Moe on Saturday.
Power narrowly outscored Moe in the second half, mostly rebounding out of defence where they had plenty of winners on the day.
But the moment of truth came with only seconds remaining in the match when it seemed as if Jack Blair had won a free kick just inside the 50 metre arc.
However, for some unexplained reason, the non-officiating umpire intervened and insisted the ball be handed off to Brayden Duve who appeared to be well off the play at the time of contact.
Wonthaggi had twice closed to within a straight kick of Moe in the last quarter; the first time being early in the quarter when Kaj Patterson was dumped on his head in a tackle and made no mistake from 35 metres out.
Moe’s Ben Daniher restored the lead when he hit a stoppage from a fair way back, collected the ball and banged it through at the town end.
But Wonthaggi wasn’t done with yet as all players worked hard to get to the contests and especially turning Moe away from their attacking zone; Issac Chugg, the Blair brothers, Lindsay and co the leaders.
After making several promising attacks later in the quarter Chugg got the ball forward again, Noah Anderson made a great contest and Aiden Lindsay arrived on the scene with perfect timing to take the outlet handpass and kick the goal that put Wonthaggi back within a kick again.
Wonthaggi was behind all day in the centre break stats, with Riley Baldi in best-on-ground form but they crucially won the next centre contest. Moe initially switched the ball out but through Jakeb Thomas and Jarryd Blair it was back in the danger zone again to where Jack Blair, having a purple patch up and down the field in the last quarter appeared to have won a free after getting dumped in the tackle.
The ball was marked just inside the 50 metre arc, so it was no soda, but Jack had kicked a long point early in the game from that range and looked some sort of chance to make the distance from there.
But in a late decision, the non-officiating umpire blew his whistle and for some unknown reason, insisted the ball be handed across to Brayden Duve around the time that the siren sounded. Duve went a long way back but trying to make the most of the space, ran too close to the man on the mark who it must be said jumped super high and knocked down Wonthaggi’s final shot of the day.
Power coach Jarryd Blair was seen appealing demonstratively to the umpires afterwards. It is not known what was said but it's a fair chance their last decision was the issue.
But the score was on the board and Moe had won it by three points. Despite the disappointment at the end, Power lost no admirers and appear to have regained some of the mojo that took them so far last year.
Watch them to cause more than a few upsets in the second half of the season.
Final scores: Moe 11.9.75 def Wonthaggi 11.6.72.
