Power house – Wonthaggi brings home Reserves flag

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Power house – Wonthaggi brings home Reserves flag

AS predicted, it was a terrific contest between the two best sides in the Reserves competition on Sunday.

Savour the moment: members of Wonthaggi Power’s victorious Reserves side celebrate on the podium after their inaugural premiership.

Savour the moment: members of Wonthaggi Power’s victorious Reserves side celebrate on the podium after their inaugural premiership.

All year the intense rivalry has resulted in close games, finishing first and second on the ladder and sharing the spoils evenly coming into the ultimate battle for ultimate prize, the premiership.
The crowd looked forward to this game in anticipation of another great contest and they would not be disappointed.
A lot of rain in the days leading up to the final did little to alter the excellent condition of the ground and with brilliant sunshine the ground was drying out even further. There would be no excuses.
Wonthaggi, usually slow out of the blocks, burst into the game, attacking from the outset and were switched on, determined not to give Warragul a start. Adam Zanella marked strongly and kicked a goal in the first few minutes.
The key to setting up a win would be to contain the dangerous forwards of Warragul and Brendan Foon was prominent in defence, along with Gavin Coyne, Wayne Luke and Kye Atkinson setting up their run out of the backline into attack.
Glen Jobe, Nathan Jones, Josh Olden and Pat Ryan in particular were busy around the packs and damaging.
Wonthaggi appeared to be well on top but were still having trouble finishing off on the scoreboard. The forwards to their credit were working hard to keep the ball in and this was starting to cause some turnovers and mistakes.
Dangerous on-baller Rohan Todd narrowly missed two close shots on goal hitting the post on both occasions. Youngster Pat Ryan put Wonthaggi further ahead with a goal from a tight angle. For Warragul, ruckman Ben Bowman was dominating the centre bounces and Brad Nott, Matt Nankervis and Aaron Rhodes were beginning to pick up the pace of the game and putting pressure on their opponents.
Warragul’s defence lead by Tim Webster, Cooper Minichiello and Ty Galley were steadily building up the pressure and lifting the intensity.
Brad Nott got Warragul’s first goal from a free kick but Aloysia Ferriera-Neto, another Power youngster, goaled again for Wonthaggi only seconds before the siren rang to end the first quarter.
The second quarter saw Warragul lift noticeably.
Nathan Kaljouw, Bowman and their on-ballers were tackling hard but Wonthaggi was not taking a backward step as the game became a hot contest.
Nick Edney goaled for Warragul to bring them closer.
Power was battling to hold the forwards. When Brad Nott goaled again it was Wonthaggi that was under pressure.
Warragul’s gun forward Bryce Monahan gave his side the narrow lead following a strong mark and long goal.
Despite the low scoring the big crowd were enjoying the intensity of the contest. It was obvious that the result could go either way and they were looking forward to the second half.
Warragul had sorted out the matchups and were playing with greater confidence as Wonthaggi could only manage two single points for the quarter.
Wonthaggi would need to rediscover the spark it had brought into the game if it was to remain competitive.
With star ruckman Will Joplin now out of the game with concussion the pressure was on Adam Zanella and Wayne Luke to step up to the mark and this turned out to be a real turning point of the game. Luke to Rod Tack gave Wonthaggi the goal they were looking for and when Atkinson goaled it was Power which was now playing better as a team.
Pat Ryan goaled for Wonthaggi but Nankervis got one back for his side with a goal off the ground. Warragul still looked very dangerous and were coming hard.
The Wonthaggi supporters were fixed on the time clock as the ball moved back and forth. It was a real nail biter, plenty of spirit and so much to play for.
Bryn Hughes, John Rocotas, Nathan Jones, Glen Jobe and Brendan Foon were closing the game down and were rewarded for their courage over the ball and strong tackling. The siren rang giving Wonthaggi victory by two goals.
Wonthaggi’s Patrick Ryan took home the AFL Vic Country Medal as best on ground.

 

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Posted by on Sep 24 2013. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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