KOLORA-Noorat is bullish about its premiership chances after welcoming a former VFL player home for the 2023 Warrnambool and District league season.
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Ben Moloney, 31, will return to the Power for the first time since winning their senior best and fairest as a 17-year-old.
Moloney - the younger brother of captain and assistant coach Joel - played more than 100 state league games across three clubs and made the 2015 VFL team of the year.
The former Collingwood, Werribee and Geelong utility - likely to be deployed in the Power's midfield - also won three Geelong league premierships with St Joseph's and St Mary's, including one in September when he was injured in the first quarter.
Kolora-Noorat coach Nick Bourke said Moloney's signature was a massive coup for the club which made a preliminary final last season.
"It is very exciting. Ben has been number one on the Power's recruiting list for years," he told The Standard.
"Ben being the player and person he is, he always wanted to play at the highest level he could and he did that for a really long time.
"We let the dust settle on his premiership (with St Mary's) and we kind of thought it might be a great time for him to come back and potentially finish his football career where it all started and he thought the same way."
Moloney, who lives in Winchelsea with his three children, told The Standard he was excited to return to where his football career began and play with familiar faces from his childhood.
"It's been 14 years, it's been a long time. I am sure it's changed a little bit but no doubt there's still a lot of people there who were there when I was," he said.
"We have built in Winchelsea and just moved there. With a young family, time is something you don't have a lot of and I thought 'it's either stay at (St) Mary's and commit one more year or this is maybe the last opportunity to play with my brother and my close mates'.
"It seemed like the timing was right. I still feel I could keep training to play at the level I needed to in the GFL but I just don't think I have the flexibility to do it anymore."
Bourke said Moloney would commute to games and add leadership and experience to the Power's line-up.
"He is really, really keen to help us improve on where we finished this year and I have no doubt he's going to put us in a position to do that," he said.
"We certainly felt we needed to add a midfielder and Ben is exactly that.
"But being the player he is, he can play multiple positions. Our juniors at under 17 level won the premiership and we have a lot of young kids coming up, so his knowledge and leadership for them is going to be invaluable."
Moloney, who works for Powercor, said he would "commit to as many home games as I can and then work on the others from there" and planned to get to some of the Power's pre-season training sessions.
He is eager to share his football IQ and "work together as a team".
"I have played a lot of football now and there's younger guys - the Beasleys, the Kennas and all these 16-17 year old players - and that was what was I once was and I had guys like Paul Gleeson, Tubby Darcy and Shane Hutchins who guided me and taught me how to play the men's game and how it is in country footy," he said.
"With my experience I probably understand body positioning and where to run. Instead of running around and chasing the ball, there's an art to it, you can be smarter and still get the ball rather than busting your bum."
Kolora-Noorat is still searching for recruits and recently added former Cobden player Sam Uwland from Woorndoo-Mortlake.
The Power has also added former players Charlie Scanlon, who spent a season at VAFA club Latrobe, and Henry Kenna for season 2023 while Luke McConnell and Ben Reid have crossed to Hampden league club Terang Mortlake for a new challenge.
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