Wonthaggi Power fights back for thrilling draw

IT’S not often that you’ll walk away from a hard-fought match with a 62-all draw and consider yourselves lucky to come away with two premiership points.

But that was the general opinion of Power supporters about the result in yet another thrilling game featuring Wonthaggi, at home this weekend in front of a good-sized crowd against Traralgon.

Both Traralgon and Wonthaggi had their chances to snatch the win in the last five minutes, especially star Maroons’ spearhead Brett Eddy, who had the result on his boot with only minutes to go.

Power fans had their heads in their hands as they watched Eddy line them up, after landing three big-bomb goals in the third quarter.

But it wasn’t to be, the kick didn’t make the distance and both defences, Traralgon’s and Wonthaggi’s reasserted their control and the teams ground out an exciting, nail-biting draw.

Incredibly, it was Wonthaggi’s second draw of the year, including their high-scoring tie with Warragul way back on April 9.

Traralgon put their hosts on notice in the first quarter, kicking three goals to two.

But the Power held the Maroons goalless in the second quarter with Shannon Bray getting plenty of support from the defensive group in holding the dangerous Eddy quiet.

But there was nothing quiet about the match, it was fierce in the trenches.

Plenty of hard tackles, chases and pressure on every possession, it was a beauty.

You can’t keep a good man down for long and Brett Eddy surged back into calculations with three great goals in the third quarter as Traralgon threatened to run away with the game.

Wonthaggi stalwart ruckman Tom Huther had suffered a corky or something similar and was seen trying to run out a limp on the sidelines, meanwhile Traralgon’s big ruckman David Brinker-Ritchie was having a field day giving the likes of Luis D’angelo, Tom Schneider and Matthew Northe first use.

Jarryd Blair was at his in-and-under best but it was the team’s young guns who ultimately pulled the result out of the fire.

Where he had been unable to put his mark on the game in the first three quarters, Jack Hutchinson really came on strong in the last quarter to cut the deficit back, still with time for Wonthaggi to win the game.

Both teams surged forward in those last five minutes but some really desperate work by the defenders of both sides made it difficult.

By siren time, both sides were out on their feet but Wonthaggi had done just enough to retain their position in the top three, managing to keep Traralgon down in fourth.

Sale moved up into second with a big win over the hapless Moe, and Maffra kept their finals’ streak of 22 years alive with a last gasp win over Morwell who had been well in front all day.

The Power will face Morwell at Wonthaggi next Saturday, the Tigers sure to be smarting about “the one that got away”, then it’s off on a team-bonding trip to Bairnsdale on Saturday, August 13, after the bye and finally Moe at home in a reasonable run to the finals.

So, Wonthaggi Power will play finals in 2022 but they really need to make sure of a top three position ahead of what is sure to be a competitive finals’ series.

The draw? We’ll take that!

Best players Wonthaggi: Jack Hutchinson, Joshua Bates, Harry Dawson, Flynn Anderson, Steven Scott, William Lenehan. Traralgon: Conor Little, Tye Hourigan, Tom Schneider, Hugh Dunbar, Luis D'Angelo, Matthew Northe.

Final scores: Wonthaggi 8.14.62 drew with Traralgon 9.8.62.