When Kolora-Noorat coach Danny Finn looks at the names of players on his white board – he sees a completely different side to the one that celebrated Warrnambool and District Football Netball League premiership glory last September.
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Only 13 players from the side that defeated Old Collegians last season played on the weekend. Three of the nine missing players, Mark Clissold, Joel Moloney (Terang Mortlake), Sandy Williams (South Rovers), have moved on during the off-season. Luke Tebble, Ben Walsh, Sam Harkin and Ben Kenna are injured and possible returns this week, while Peter Moloney will return in June and Will Carter is unsure of playing.
“We are a totally different team from last year so the more time they play together the better we are going to be,” he said. “We are trying to get game time into our younger players, as a lot of our leaders have been out and it's been a different mix and the guys are just getting to know each other still.”
The Power has been boosted by the return of experienced players over the past two weeks, with Ben Fraser, ruckman Lachlan MacKay and backman Steven O’Connor returning against Old Collegians and Paul McSween and Joseph Conheady retunring against Merrivale last week.
But Finn said there was still work to do with his new-look side.
“We had two experienced guys play their first games and we had to manage them and our young guys are going to be a bit inconsistent so we have to expect that and support them with that,” he said.
“So getting games into our older and younger blokes will hold us in good stead for the second half of the year.”
Finn said rising stars Bailey Kemp, Luke Justin, Nicholas Hoare, Luke McConnell and recruits in the off-season had stepped up to become frequent members of the Powers senior side.
Kolora-Noorat face early premiership favourite, Nirranda, on Saturday.