TOM HAYES
FOOTBALL
GIPPSLAND POWER By TOM HAYES WITH the football season done and dusted, our local representative side Gippsland Power looks toward the next phase of 2023. As the season concludes, reviews will be had, and a little further down the track we may see some local stars make their way onto the big stage at the 2023 AFL Draft. The Gippsland Power Boys scraped into the top eight of the Coates Talent League, following a sluggish start to the season. “The season started slowly, but as we started to get the continuity and a good mix of players available right towards the end of the season after the representative duties, we finished really well,” Gippsland Power Boys coach Rhett McLennan said. “We had a couple of really good wins, so GWV (Greater Western Victoria) were a really solid team all year and we blew them off the park at Dandenong.” A strong tail to the season saw the Power qualify for the Wildcard Round of the finals, which would see them come up against the Dandenong Stingrays in the Country/Tasmania Conference. The four-goal win over an impressive Stingrays outfit took Gippsland to the next round, where they brought the heat to Tassie Devils. “I thought our wildcard win against Dandenong was a really pleasing victory in a really high-standard game,” McLennan added. But despite having three more shots on goal that their counterparts, the Power fell 17 points short as their season came to an abrupt end. “It’s just a shame we didn’t get the win against Tasmania due to inaccurate kicking, otherwise we probably could have made it all of the way to the Grand Final,” McLennan said. “So to finish in the best handful of teams in the competition was pretty pleasing after a pretty inconsistent start. “What really worked throughout the year, especially in the second half of the year, was blooding some of our 16-year-old talent.” But now comes the exciting part, as we potentially get to see football’s next big stars take a step toward the ultimate goal. Bottom-aged player Will Brent from Traralgon played every game for the top-age side, and his performances on the wing and down back caught the eye of McLennan as one of the standouts of the season from a Latrobe Valley perspective. Also on McLennan’s radar was Morwell’s Tew Jiath, who grew in the second half of the season into a draft potential. “His ability to come in around about the middle part of the year when some guys are off doing nationals, and then keep playing better and better football as the season went on and as the standard got better was a massive highlight,” McLennan said. “It’s only been justified with the amount of AFL clubs interested in him at the moment.” Thanks to a well-finished season, McLennan hopes that more Gippsland Power boys can make their way into the AFL next season, from all over the Gippsland region. Foster’s Zane Duursma looks to be the cream of the Power’s crop, as it looks more and more likely that he will secure one of the top 10 picks. Duursma is the brother of Port Adelaide’s Xavier Duursma, who has played 73 games for the South Australian side since he was drafted at the end of 2018 with Pick 18. It’s just about impossible for him to join up with his brother however, as Port Adelaide hold no first round picks in this year’s draft. Inverloch’s Archer Reid also has a good chance of being drafted within the first round, and McLennan describes him to have “enormous potential at AFL level.” Jiath, like Duursma, could join his brother, Hawthorn’s Changkuoth Jiath, in the AFL with a selection in this year’s draft. “He’s shown through really good consistent performances and how he’s stepped up and played high-standard games, he could be someone that could play a lot of AFL football,” McLennan said. McLennan hopes the likes of Leongatha’s Wil Dawson and Warragul’s Lachlan Smith will also get a sniff when the 2023 AFL Draft rolls around on November 20 and 21. Reid, Dawson and Duursma were three of 61 players to be invited to display their skills at the 2023 AFL National Draft Combine across three days of club interviews, medical screenings and physical testing. Jiath and Smith were additional invitees to the 2023 AFL Victorian Draft Combine, which took place directly after the National Draft Combine last Sunday (October 8). While the draft is seemingly the next step, with one eye on next season, McLennan noted who everyone in the Latrobe Valley should have their eye on for next season. “There’s two stand outs at the moment, Xavier Lindsay (Leongatha) he played in the All Stars game prior to the (AFL) Grand Final, had a sensational year off the back of no preseason,” he said. “And Ricky Mentha, it was great to get Ricky into our system, so coming and playing football at Morwell and then adjusting into what he was able to do at Talent League level was really exciting, and for him to get a shot in the All Stars game was a really good experience for him.” Power held their awards night last Friday (October 6), capping off the season in style before some players start the next chapter of their careers. Jiath was awarded as the Most Improved player, taking his season to another level in the second half, rising his draft stock game by game. It was too close to call for the boys best-and-fairest, as Smith and Reid couldn’t be separated, both claiming runner-up honours. Unexpectedly, Duursma took out the Peter Francis Best and Fairest, as he looks to be taken within the first five to 10 picks in this year’s draft. Duursma also won leading goalkicker with 33 goals in 12 games for Power in 2023. FOR the girls, the focus was always on player development, and after talking to coach Nathan Boyd, it seems as if they reached their goal. “From a fresh perspective and having been my first year with the group, it probably followed the trajectory that I expected it to, there was gonna be some challenges early into the year … we started a little disjointed and maybe a little bit disconnected but the girls came together and the season seemed to continue to build every week,” he said. “From a success perspective we saw some great development out of some individuals.” Boyd was pleased with the end result of players at the end of the season, ticking off their main goal for the year. “I’d be pretty confident to say that we executed that pretty well. Everybody has come out of it a better footballer,” he said. Despite results not always going their way, there was highlights throughout the season, depending on which way you looked at it. Boyd reflected on the games in Round 8 against the Calder Cannons and Round 12 against the Northern Knights, where he believed the system began to work. “Either the game against Calder or the game against Northern Knights where we sort of, we just got pipped in terms of a result, but a lot of what we’d spoken about in terms of our team and how we wanted to play and how our system evolved around individual development, that was a real highlight, because it all sort of started to click,” he said. Another notable moment, which did go their way on the scoreboard, was their first win of the season in Round 7, thumping the Northern Territory to the tune of 54 points. Traralgon’s Amber Schutte is eligible for the AFLW Draft at the end of the season and was also one of 83 girls invited to the 2023 AFL Victorian Draft Combine, taking part last Sunday, October 8. “I’m really proud of Amber (Schutte), she put a lot of work in, she dedicated a lot of her time to growing herself,” Boyd said. “She’s a good trainer, she’s a really good athlete. She’s invested the time to develop her kicking … there was a game against (Tasmania) in the middle of the year where she had a really big impact.” The 2023 AFLW Draft is planned to take place sometime in December. Another girl that had a breakout year was Sale’s Ash Centra, who stacked her resume with achievements in 2023, as a bottom-aged player. “Ash (Centra) is a natural talent, she does things and she does them well,” Boyd said. “Looking back on the season, and looking at some vision, she’s become a real damaging playing inside the bubble.” As a bottom-aged under 18s player, Centra burst onto the scene in 2023. She was recognised for her efforts in the Under 16 Development Series when she was named across half back in the All-Australian team, back in May. Fast-forward a couple of months to July, and Centra was one of three Power girls, alongside Schutte and Jas Sowden to don the Victoria Country jersey in the Champs Series in Queensland. Centra was also named the Victoria Country MVP at the AFL National Championships in August, playing in the under 18 bracket, earning her a spot on the half forward flank for the AFL National Championships All Australian team. Most recently, Centra was able to take part in the AFLW Futures Game which took place ahead of Round 1 for the latest AFLW season, joined by Boyd who took charge of Team Harris. To cap off her season, Centra was named on the half forward flank once again, but this time for the Girls Coates Talent League 2023 Team of the Year. With still another year to go before she is eligible for the draft, one can only guess how far she can progress her football in that time. As for the coach, Boyd had a busy year at the helm, taking part in multiple other events outside of the Gippsland Power program, which he found beneficial. “Really enjoyed working with all of the other region’s talent and their coaches, so one thing that we’re pretty proud of in the Vic Country pool of Talent League that we all sort of share our resources and knowledge,” he said. “For me that was a really cool experience, working with some very good footballers as well, and then showing our girls what it might take to get to the next level from a training and a preparation and vision and meetings perspective. “I was absolutely thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to coach Team Harris in the 17-year-old national academy game a few weeks back. “It was a really cool year, and I think the experience and the time that I’ve had in the region, I think I’m gonna fell much more comfortable walking in come November when we formally start preseason.” Those who had an impressive year were recognised at the weekend, with multiple awards being handed out. Most improved went to Schutte who elevated her game to the next level, which granted her an invite to the combine, the only eligible player to be drafted at the end of the year. Newborough’s Alisha Molesworth took home the runner-up MVP due to her grit and determination in the midfield of the Gippsland Power girls team. Molesworth, and her twin sister Elise both earned themselves spots on Hawthorn’s VFLW list at the start of the year. Just like the boys, two players couldn’t be separated at the top of the voting, with Centra and Sowden sharing the silverware as the girls MVP.
