Gippsland is left powerless

By Paul Pickering
GIPPSLAND Power’s gloomy start to the 2010 season continued at Bendigo on Saturday.
The Power proved to be no match for a formidable Geelong Falcons outfit, going down by 51 points in the first match of the TAC Cup triple-header at Queen Elizabeth Oval.
The result saw Gippsland slump to 0-3 and provided coach Damian Carroll with another reminder of how far his team is from keeping up with the competition front-runners.
And Carroll is not hiding from that reality. He even conceded that Saturday’s scoreline could have been uglier if not for the wet conditions.
But he is not panicking either.
“(The Falcons) have got a quality list, and they’re a lot further advanced than we are,” Carroll said in defence of his inexperienced side.
“They gave 100 per cent, and as a coach you can’t ask for more than that.”
Indeed, the Falcons were minor premiers in 2009 and have established themselves as early flag fancies this year after winning their first two games by a total of 148 points.
They monstered Gippsland at the stoppages and amassed 100-odd more possessions. The Power boys chased admirably, as indicated by co-captain Tim Northe’s 14 tackles, but couldn’t find enough of the footy to mount a challenge.
Fellow skipper Dyson Heppell summed up the conditions best, recording 15 kicks in his 18-disposal outing.
Emerging on-baller Haydn Hector (25 disposals) was again impressive, while defenders Josh Tynan (17), Aiden Lindsay (17) and Brayden Salton (18) did their best to stem the tide.
Carroll was disappointed to see his charges concede the last five goals of the match, but also careful not to overreact to the loss.
“We were in the same position last year, when we lost the first three games and finished second in the home-and-away season, so there’s a long way to go,” he said, adding that the club should not be judged solely on win-loss ratio.
“That’s probably not what the competition is about,” he said.
“Of course we’d like to be winning, but we think the bigger picture is that these guys are improving, and hopefully we’ll start to see that sooner rather than later.”
The Power, which had 10 bottom-age players in Saturday’s side, glimpsed a bright future in the performance of its under-16 side at Bendigo on the weekend.
The Gippsland development squad accounted for a highly regarded Dandenong side on Sunday, with a handful of players making strong claims for selection in the Vic Country squad for this year’s national championships.
Carroll expects some of those under-16s to break into the TAC Cup side later this season as a pseudo-apprenticeship for their 2011 campaigns.
Gippsland’s next TAC Cup fixture is against the unbeaten Oakleigh Chargers at Morwell on Saturday 24 April.