After Rob Railton was appointed Wonthaggi Power's senior coach in late 2012, the club drew up a plan to become a premiership contender by the 2015 season.

But such has been the improvement since he took over, Railton's team, which is dominated by local lads, is already within striking distance of reaching its goal.

Thanks to a win over Maffra in last weekend's Gippsland League first semi-final, the Power will take on Sale in the preliminary final at the Moe Recreation Reserve on Sunday afternoon.

And the club's many supporters are confident that their boys can break their recent hoodoo in games against the Magpies and claim a berth in the grand final.

"It's very exciting," Wonthaggi president Brett Tessari said as he drove to training on Thursday evening. "A lot of hard work has gone into getting us here. The place is going to be pumping.

"Looking at our three-year plan, we're probably a bit ahead of where we thought we'd be. But we'll take any success we can get this year, for sure."

Wonthaggi Power's rise up the Gippsland League ladder has finally put to bed the controversy that surrounded the club in the early years after it was formed in 2004 by a merger of Wonthaggi Blues and Wonthaggi Rovers.

Prior to the merger, the Blues had played in the local major league, while the Rovers had been part of the Alberton league, a district-level competition that includes clubs based in tiny towns such as Fish Creek and Tarwin.

In a controversial move, given it was now the only club in a rural city of around 7000 people, Wonthaggi Power was allowed to spend its first five seasons as a member of the Alberton league.

Its senior team made the grand final in each of those seasons, winning three flags, before the then-VCFL forced the club to step up and join the region's major competition.

Wonthaggi debuted in the Gippsland League in 2010, and its senior team finished eighth out of 10 teams. In the next two seasons it finished sixth.

The appointment of Railton, who was a gun rover with Wonthaggi Blues before spending the best part of a decade working as an assistant coach under Brett Lovett at various VFL clubs, helped the team break into the top five last year.

In an impressive finals campaign, the Power edged out Traralgon in the elimination final, then went down to the eventual premier, Morwell, by just 17 points in the first semi-final.

Those results were confirmation that the Power could match it with Gippsland's strongest clubs.

"I was the biggest advocate for staying in the Alberton league, but I certainly wouldn't go back there," Tessari said. "We've seen that the Gippsland League is an awesome competition."

Tessari has watched on with delight as Railton has driven his men to improve further in 2014.

"He's unbelievable," Tessari said. "He's Wonthaggi born and bred, but it took a lot of hard work to get him back. He lives on the Mornington Peninsula and we made a lot of trips down the highway."

Railton has brought a Ross Lyon-style game plan to Wonthaggi.

"Teams earn their goals against us," Tessari said. "Rob's philosophy is that if we can only kick seven goals, then we've got to keep them to six. And he has the boys really believing in what he brings along."

But the big question is whether Railton and his men can finally get the better of Sale.

The Power lost their two home-and-away games against the Magpies last season by a combined total of 23 points. And they lost their two home-and-away matches against Sale this season by five points and one point.
Two weeks ago, however, the margin between the teams in the qualifying final blew out to 43 points.

On that afternoon, Wonthaggi badly missed the run usually provided by Jack Blair, the brother of AFL player Jarryd Blair. The gun midfielder was unavailable because he was playing for Collingwood's VFL team.

"So I'm confident we will match up better against Sale this week," Tessari said.

And what would it mean if the Power was to shrug off its underdog tag, defeat Sale and get the chance to take on Morwell in the grand final?

"I get goose-bumps just thinking about it," said Tessari, who played around 100 games for the Blues before transferring to the Rovers and winning a flag alongside former-Richmond small man Allan McKellar in 1995.

"We've had a lot of doubters on the outside looking in, so it would be some justification for all the hard work we've been putting in.

"We've made massive progress this year off the field as well as on the field, so we feel the club is where it deserves to be right now."

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age, Sept 14 2014