Defensive post Mitch Elford will captain the Power this season, with utility Joe O’Sullivan and forward Paul McSween his deputies.

New coach Danny Finn said he had no issue making the left-field appointments as his men attempt to return to Warrnambool and District league finals.

Finn said Elford was “a terrific guy” and well  respected by his teammates while O’Sullivan and McSween had risen through the junior ranks.

Kolora-Noorat opens its campaign against Deakin University at Noorat Recreation Reserve today, the sole round one match going ahead this weekend.

Five new and returned faces will pull on the Power jumper. They include Cobden pair Brent Goonan and Matt Harkin, who is an assistant coach.

Jake Richardson and Joe Conheady have crossed from Terang Mortlake and Justin Hicks returns to the club.

Finn said his first priority was winning the round one fixture. A dissection of the performance will happen in the days that follow.

“We’ll have our line coaches giving feedback to those players based on how we want them to play their role. That’s how specific it’s going to be,” he said.

“Essentially we’ll get the players to give a bit more feedback on their performance as well. It’s not one-way with the coaches saying this is how it is.”

Ben Kenna will play his 100th match for Kolora-Noorat today and Finn said he had used the former coach as a sounding board during the summer.

Deakin University will take a new-look side into the match, with 10 of the 21 players not featuring in the seniors last season.

Coach David Atkinson tempered expectations of an upset win but was upbeat about what lay ahead for his men.

“I can say this confidently, we’ve trained to a game plan, we know how we want to move the footy. If we are doing what we ask, that’s a win for us,” he said.

“We’ve trained since January, the same messages: do it, repeat it, do it, repeat it, so they know what we want them to do.”

Atkinson said he was excited about coaching on his own. He was a co-coach with Luke Jackson in 2008-09.

“It’s a very unique job coaching the Sharks but we’re all about embracing being the Sharks and the fact we can’t be another club,” he said. “We’re not run as a business, we’re run to support uni students.”