General News
29 October, 2020
Premiership stars return to Power
KOLORA Noorat may have missed out on defending its 2019 premiership, but the club’s 2021 campaign is already growing momentum as past premiership stars return to the fold.
KOLORA Noorat may have missed out on defending its 2019 premiership, but the club’s 2021 campaign is already growing momentum as past premiership stars return to the fold.
Nick Bourke, Brad Johnson, Patrick Moloney, Joel Moloney and Mark Clissold will all don the black, white and teal again next season after previously featuring in premiership sides at the club over the last five years.
Power coach Ben Walsh was thrilled the quintet was set to return, with Bourke and Joel Moloney coming home from Leopold, Clissold crossing back from Terang Mortlake, Patrick Moloney resuming
from an injury spell and Johnson deciding to play again after planning to have 2020 off.
“They’re all home grown, one pointers and premierships players coming back which doesn’t happen that often,” he said.
“When you start your recruiting you always look at your past players and local talent and trying to get them back was a priority for us. I know I’ve only coached one year but it was a year that they didn’t really take any convincing (to sign).
“I think with what has happened, people are rethinking what they do and why they do it potentially but that culture that we have been focussing on and building is playing its part for us now.
“They all want to get back there and play with their mates and be around the people they have missed.”
Walsh went further to say the addition of the quintet was “pretty exciting” for the club’s future.
The Power has numerous emerging talents within its ranks who the coach said were both ready for and deserving of more senior opportunity.
He said adding extra experience to support them would be vital for their development, with a changing of the guard likely to take place over the coming seasons.
“I think we’re really conscious of the fact we have a lot of kids too – we have six or seven guys under 20 who played in our premiership side and we have to look to give them more opportunity,” Walsh said.
“But it’s certainly going to help those young guys a lot with the guys we have coming back. The likes of Luke Justin and Ben O’Sullivan could play similar positions to Bourkey and to have him back there will be great for them.
“Nick Hoare, Luke McConnell and Harry O’Sullivan are probably looking for more mid minutes and the fact they get to learn off Dingo, BJ and Juddy (Scott Judd) is super for them.
“We’ll have a really good mix, we’ll have plenty of youth while still having the experience but the younger guys will get a lot more exposure rather than playing other roles and they’re really keen to step up.”
Alongside the new signings, Walsh said the Power had retained this year’s playing list as well as fellow Hampden league inclusions Tom McKenzie (Terang Mortlake), Jacob Mahony (Camperdown) and Justin Wallace (North Warrnambool).
‘We’ve retained 100 per cent of the list we had for 2020 and I’m hoping between now and round one it stays pretty similar,” he said.
“The guys are all pretty keen to get stuck into it when we can.”