Power charging for a surge in 2023

WONTHAGGI Power have taken a well-earned break for the holidays after a gruelling preseason training schedule that saw them reach unprecedented levels of intensity as they prepare to contend again in 2023. 

In an interview with the Sentinel-Times, Wonthaggi Football Netball Club’s (WFNC) operations manager Stuart Gilmour spoke on the positive vibes around the club during preseason. 
“Numbers have been really good, we’ve had 48 senior players on the track before Christmas and they’ve done about 13 or 14 sessions, they’re really pushing themselves hard, ever since Blair took over the numbers have been great,” he said. 

The young Power line up come off their most promising season in years, but will no doubt still be stinging from their straight-sets finals exit, which included a four-point loss to eventual premiers Leongatha in the second semi-final, and a four-goal loss to Sale in the preliminary final. 

“There’s a feeling that we’ve got some unfinished work there, but we don’t call it that, we know we’ve got to get better, and the boys have really worked themselves hard, their work rate can’t be outdone,” said Gilmour. 

No doubt the Power will be a formidable opponent in 2023, with a new and ever-burning fire in their bellies and some valuable finals experience as both their seniors and reserves played two finals after finishing second on their respective league ladders. 

“We’ve given ourselves a really good launching pad, the average age of our list is 23.5 years of age and many of those guys were young and didn’t have that belief that they can go out there and compete with the best,” said Gilmour. 

“Now we have a really good football program in place, and we’ve added to our coaching group so now they all have the confidence they can compete at both levels too!”
In an excitement filled league, the Power can easily be considered to have one of the more talented young lists, and Gilmour was bullish about the direction his club is taking with its plethora of talent. 

“We’re really building towards something great, we’ve retained a lot of our young players, I think we’ve only lost one genuine senior listed player and kept the rest including our 30-year-old, more senior players, so this list now goes into their second year playing together, it’s really exciting,” he said.

Experience is invaluable in any level of football, and the Power of committed to building it into their young group and ensuring they stay together on their way to potentially producing something special.

However, they didn’t go without making a move in the recruiting space, landing the signature of one exciting prospect. 

“Cooper McInnes has come over from Tarwin, he came across early, he’s got great athleticism and really suits the Gippsland League fast and open game style, he’s elite by foot and he obviously can kick a goal, he also has a few mates here he’ll enjoy playing alongside,” Gilmour said.

McInnes arrives at the Power after a season with Tarwin in the Mid Gippsland League which saw him take out the league goal kicking title, bagging 71 goals as the Sharks too lost in the Prelim. 
Gilmour was excited about their recruiting success and stressed the importance of player retention and opportunity. 

“We really tried to recruit to our game style and Cooper really fits into the way we want to play, we also have Kyle Reid full time next year, he was with Port Melbourne this year but was instrumental in the finals series and the games he played in for us,” he said. 

“We’ve also been able to re-sign some of the guys like Jack Hutchinson and Ryan Sparkes who were awesome for us this year, it’s just great having guys like ‘Sparkesy’ and ‘Reidy’ they’re just real drivers of the standard, Tom Murray too.”

The Power, along with the rest of the Gippsland League, will be in hot pursuit of Leongatha, who are the clear benchmark of the competition, going undefeated and claiming the senior premiership as well as the reserves flag too. 

However, Wonthaggi look poised to contend again having ticked all the boxes so far in the preseason, only losing a couple of players. 

“Steven Scott has gone to Kilcunda Bass, he was a regular senior’s player, we also lost Lachlan Burns and Dean McRae who were more on the fringe, they weren’t really in the senior side as much but we wish them all the best, we don’t begrudge anyone that leaves, the door is always open,” Gilmour said. 

Despite the positivity surrounding the club’s senior sides in 2022, the Power struggled for the same representation in the Saturday morning fixtures, going without an under 16s side and seeing their under 18s finish last on the table. 

“We’ve been running an AFL Development program for juniors, aging from top age under 14s to under 18s, it’s not a Wonthaggi Power program it’s just for all the kids in the region to come along and train, have fun and improve their footy,

“We’ve had about 52 kids involved in that and six to seven coaches which has been awesome, and we were able to finish the block before Christmas by taking 40 of them down to AIA Centre (Collingwood Football Club training facility) and Steele Sidebottom took them for a tour and training run there,

“We also had Swanny (Dane Swan) come down to training last week so that was great.

“We’re real fortunate for our top age under 14s coming up, we’ll definitely have an under 16s team in 2023 and Ryan Sparkes and Josh Bates are coaching our under 18s so that’ll be really good for them, both of those boys are working really hard to get things going for the 18s,”

The positivity doesn’t end there though, as the Power have been just as competitive on the netball courts, and they do not plan to change that in 2023. 

“We’ve competed really well, we’re really young on the courts too, we’ve got 21-year-olds playing A grade, we’ve had a few coaching transitions this offseason,” Gilmour said. 

“They’ve also had a really light preseason as they found the season got quite long this year but absolutely, we want to contend again.”

The Power will build towards April of 2023 when they will kick off their season with a blockbuster home date with Sale, the team that eliminated both their seniors and reserves from the finals in 2022.