'Something I had to do': Veteran footballer enjoying change of scenery

His move to Warrnambool and District league outfit Kolora-Noorat has paid off so far.

The 32-year-old, who played 196 senior games for the Bombers, is feeling re-energised in a youth-laden team, where his leadership and skills are invaluable.

"It's probably the first time I've been to a new club in 15 years or so," he told The Standard.

"It's probably something I had to do to freshen up. I was probably close to nearly pulling the boots off last year to be honest but with a couple of my best mates, Sam (Uwland) coaching and Jake (Evans) assistant coach, it was like 'righto I'll give it another shot'.

"...At Cobden, I'd been there long enough, I probably wasn't as valuable as much there anymore.

"It's good to go to a new club and feel like I can contribute still."

Cahill featured in nine senior games and 12 reserves matches for the Bombers in 2023 but conceded he was "getting too slow for Hampden footy".

He believes the WDFNL is better-suited to his lack of pace and the statistics suggest he is thriving.

The midfielder/forward has played all seven games for the Power, earning best-player selection four times and kicking 11 goals.

He is also enjoying giving advice to the next generation at the club.

The Power, preliminary finalists, in 2023 lost a substantial number of key senior players in the off-season.

Fortunately, they had a plethora of rising talent to elevate to senior football, thanks to back-to-back under 18 flags in 2022-23.

"I've noticed they're a pretty good group and they will listen, they take it in," Cahill said of the youngsters at the club.

"That's probably the most pleasing part, if you mention something, they actually do look and listen to you and try and take it on board as much as they can.

"You try not to fill them with too much (information) but I'm going out there too, I want to have some success too. I'm not going out there just to fill in my time. So I do want to make these kids or these blokes play better footy."

Sitting in fifth with 11 home-and-away rounds remaining, the Power are finals contenders once again.

Cahill knows they have little margin for error after falling to sixth-placed Dennington 13.13 (91) to 6.11 (47) in round seven.

"The Dennington one hurt us, that was one we didn't really want to drop which means we can't really drop any more in the future to the teams below us," he said.

"By dropping that one we've lost our bit of a buffer I reckon so now we've got Merrivale and Russells Creek the next two weeks, very tough games and then we're back to the start where we've got to make sure we get wins...

"A lot of people are kind of writing us off with the high turnover but we're still sitting fifth with only a handful of blokes from last year's team. I think it's a credit to the club and the program they've got running."