GIPPSLAND Power boast a pick one contender and are “bullish” on their bottom-age talent heading into season 2025, according to head coach Rhett McLennan. Find out how each Vic Country hub member is faring, which players are primed for big campaigns, and what to expect from the Power this season.

PRESEASON

“It’s been good. We have five satellites across Gippsland, so they’re in their satellites pre-Christmas and then we all come together after Australia Day, so we’ve had a nice decent block. It’s a great time of year just to learn what we’re about and what we’re trying to create as a footy club and a footy team. The guys that have made the final squad have done a great job in their commitment and dedication to our program for this season.”

TOP-AGE VIC COUNTRY HUB MEMBERS

Willem Duursma
Utility | 191cm | 21/06/2007

“I think he’ll take it all in his stride. He’s a pretty level-headed kid. He’s obviously been through it before with the rest of his family, so he’s all around it. I think that he’s ready to roll and he’s had an injury free preseason, so that’s all we can ask for.”

Zach O’Keefe
Midfielder | 177cm | 22/03/2007

“Zach’s had a fantastic preseason. I’m really happy with the way Zach’s tracking, he shows great leadership qualities. Not only is he physically in great shape, but I think from a team leadership perspective he’s well balanced and ready to have a good start to the season.”

Jobe Scapin
Midfielder | 187cm | 01/05/2007

“Jobe’s been really good. His ability to mature and look like a leader around the group in the last month or so has been fantastic. We’re just really keen for him to have a good start to the season injury free and play to his potential. That’s probably the missing link for him is he’s had great spurts in games but can he string four quarters together, because when he does that I think he definitely looks like a draftable player.”

Mitchell Stevens
Defender | 185cm | 15/08/2007

“Mitch has been excellent. Unfortunately he got a little bit of a head knock at training so will miss testing but everything he’s done before that has been excellent. He’s had some stints in Adelaide as part of their father-son academy and some of the stuff he’s done in match simulation with us has shown better growth than probably what we gave him credit for. Expect him to play closer around the ball in midfield this year.”

ONES TO WATCH

“We think that Thomas Matthews has had a fantastic preseason. Obviously he missed out on the Vic Country hub, but had a really good finish to the [2024] season. He’s a really dangerous small forward. Not getting into that hub has probably spurred him on a little bit more. He’s super fit and ready to go. He’ll spend some time in the centre bounces as well. He’s done everything he possibly can to have a really good start to the season.

“Sam Anderson has been primarily a cricketer. He captains Wesley College’s cricket team but shows some real footy ability. He’s going to concentrate on footy this year throughout the season. We haven’t seen too much of him due to his cricket commitments, but what we’re seeing actually is really impressive. It’s his top-age year, so we’ll give him an opportunity but maybe it’ll be boosted up to a 19-year-old. We’ll just see how he develops this year, but he’s got some potential as well.”

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STANDOUT BOTTOM-AGERS

“We’re really bullish about our bottom-agers and we play a lot of them throughout the year, especially early on. Marlon Neocleous has been excellent so far this preseason. Even though he’s been at Caulfield [Grammar], his commitment to our program’s been unbelievable. So we’re expecting him to have a really good start to the season for us before he goes away and plays school footy. Xavier Ladbrook, for his size and height profile, it’s amazing how durable he is. He never misses a session. Wil Malady, it’s been a year of big transitions I reckon this year for Will, where there’s no doubt he’s got incredible talent. Now going to school in Melbourne we’ll see him obviously at the start and the end of the year, but it looks like he’s growing from a profile point of view.”

OVER-AGERS

“We have one 19-year-old boy, he’s played some good local footy over the last couple of years, Zach Walker. He’s worked on his game really, really well and his performance in preseason was too good to pass up. So, he’s probably going to be one of our intercept defenders this year.”

CLUB & FAMILY TIES

“Goy Jiath, brother of ‘CJ’ and Tew has come back, I don’t know how much he’s grown – it looks like a foot – but it’s been marked since last year. He’s really grown into his body as well. I’ve been really impressed with the sessions he’s done with us so far this year. Obviously we’ve got Willem [Duursma] part of that and Mitch Stevens who’s father’s-son to Adelaide. Sam Anderson is Stuart Anderson son, who was a North Melbourne ‘96 premiership player, played at Fremantle as well.”

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GOALS

“Just to be competitive and play as good a footy as we can. It’s very cliche, but the great thing about Talent League football, it’s not all about winning. So what we want to try and do is actually develop our kids and turn them into great teammates, and if we can do that and some of them go on to play AFL football, what we’d really like them to be is well respected around the club and be people that other players love to play with.”

STYLE OF PLAY

“A bit like everyone, if we get the opportunity we’ll try and play fast as often as we can. We’re a smaller team, we don’t have too many quality talls so long down the line will be our last resort. But what we’ll try and do is flick the footy around and get it down to some of our guys that can take a catch like Malady and Jonah Walker. We’ve got some mosquito fleet down there to hopefully bring some excitement to the games that we play and kick some goals and have some fun.”

ROUND 1

“We love playing Murray, love coming up against ‘Browny’ [Mark Brown] and his boys. It’ll be a great contrast in style, as per usual Murray are quite tall. So how do we combat that being a pretty small team? They’re always really tough to play. We’ll just give it our best shot and hopefully we’re ready given that we usually have a fairly limited training session schedule compared to everyone else due to the travel. We’ll see how that goes, but looking forward to it.”