By Nick Duck
A potential grand final preview went down to the wire in Saturday's round one action.
Here's what you might have missed this week.
Leongatha vs Moe
Moe has fired the first warning shot of the Gippsland League season by taking down reigning premiers Leongatha on their home deck.
The pre-season premiership fancies appeared to be doing it easy when they led by 30 points at half time only to have to withstand a barnstorming Parrots comeback, who refused to die wondering.
Some defensive brilliance from key back Declan Keilty saved the day for the Lions in the end, allowing them to hold on for an 8.6 (54) to 5.12 (42) win.
Keilty was a wall at times in the Moe backline, repelling attack after attack to lift his side to victory despite losing the inside 50 count by 21.
Many eyes were on how the Lions' headline recruit in recently retired AFL player James Harmes would perform on debut for his new side.
The Melbourne premiership midfielder put on a strong showing, winning 29 disposals and booting two goals - one of which was a wonderful checkside set shot from 40m against the boundary.
Things were all coming up Moe early as the Lions kept Leongatha goalless to half time – a sight rarely seen in recent years, especially at Parrot Park.
Once Leongatha got rolling it looked as if they were primed to snatch the game away, only for Keilty and co. to stand tall when required.
New Lion Riley D'Arcy kicked four goals in his own debut for the club and will undoubtedly be keen to have Ben Crocker alongside him soon after the former Magpie and Crow made a return from injury in the twos.
Myles Poholke, Harry Pepper and Blake Mullane rounded out Moe's top performers.
Leongatha's best were Kim Drew, new ruck Jack Sheridan, Ned Hanily, Ben Fort and Aaron and Dyson Heppell.
Morwell vs Wonthaggi
A powerful last quarter display saw Wonthaggi take round one honours over Morwell on the Tigers' home deck.
Leading by just four points heading into the last quarter, the visitors broke the shackles and booted five straight goals to hand new coach Tristan Francis a perfect start to his time at the club, the final score 9.14 (68) to 5.7 (37).
The rest of the day had been a real arm wrestle as both sides worked their way through breezy conditions.
The first quarter belonged to the Tigers and the second to the Power, until two Morwell goals in the third promised a thrilling finish.
Wonthaggi had other ideas however, as forward Cooper McInnes made his mark, kicking three majors in the final term to help his team over the line.
Morwell, who also have a new coach in Shaun Mooney, showed plenty of endeavour despite running out of petrol tickets.
Wonthaggi were best served by Hunter Tiziani, Jai Williams, Joshua Bates, Brodie Mabilia, Bryce Joyce and Kaj Patterson.
Aidan Quigley, Hugh Dunbar, Campbell Blewett, Zac Cheffers, Burkeley Macfarlane and Cody Mackay fought hard for Morwell.
Maffra vs Sale
The 'Battle of the Birds' turned into a mauling of the Magpies on Saturday as Maffra inflicted a heavy 72-point defeat on their bitter rivals.
An exodus of senior talent has put Sale into some dicey territory for season 2026 and Maffra certainly enjoyed the chance to sink the boot in, a blistering eight-goal term setting up a thumping 18.17 (125) to 8.5 (43) victory.
The Eagles, now coached by Hayden Burgiel, were simply far too strong, putting the Magpies to the sword for every mistake they made.
The second quarter – in which the Eagles booted 8.1 to no score – was particularly punishing.
Jack McQuillen (four goals) dominated proceedings for the home side and was ably assisted by the likes of Danny Butcher, Max Stobie, Thomas Scott and Jett Killoran.
Plenty have predicted 2026 will be a long year for Sale, who haven't been able to put up a thirds side. If their first-up performance in the seniors is anything to go by, the punters might be right.
Ashton Wright, Kaden McCulloch, Cooper Rand, Jarrod Freeman, Jordan Dessent (five goals) and Archer Gerrand were their better players on the day.
Photo: Wazshots
Traralgon vs Bairnsdale
Traralgon took the opportunity of a rare Saturday night game to flaunt their talent as they dismissed Bairnsdale by 65 points.
The Maroons rarely looked troubled throughout the 14.15 (99) to 5.4 (34) result, kicking 11 goals to three after quarter time.
Last year's runners-up will have a point to prove in season 2026 after their terrible grand final showing and a big win right off the bat is the perfect way to get things started.
The gap in quality between the sides was evident throughout the night, particularly after Bairnsdale lost their primary ball winner in Will Mitchell during the off-season.
Some inaccuracy in the final term kept things from becoming even more of a blowout – the Maroons kicked 1.7 as the weather picked up – but otherwise had too much firepower.
The ever-dangerous Harvey Neocleous was constantly a threat for Traralgon when the ball hit the ground as midfield bull Luis D'Angelo - playing thanks to Casey's week off – played a brilliant hand through the middle of Terry Hunter Oval.
Cooper Brown, Tye Hourigan, Connor Ambler and Joel Scholtes were other Maroons to impress.
For Bairnsdale, recruit Oscar Morrison constantly presented up forward, while Ethan East, Damon O'Connor, Tyran Rees, Cooper Harvey and Sam Townsend were all admirable in their efforts.
Photo: Andrew Day
Warragul vs Drouin
The Western Derby has produced some high intensity, tense battles over the years that have kept onlookers on the edges of their seats.
Sunday was not one of those times.
Warragul instead gave new high profile coach Gary Ayres plenty to love thanks to an utterly dominant round one display against Drouin that saw them prevail by a whopping 111 points.
Outside of some brief resistance in the first quarter the game at Western Park belonged to the vastly more experienced Gulls as they refused to take the foot off the throat at any stage during the 20.14 (134) to 3.5 (23) drubbing.
Forwards Jordan Stewart and Jed Lamb especially feasted on the young Hawks, kicking 13 goals between them - Jordan with seven and Lamb with six.
It's the Gulls' third successive win over their nearby rivals, and is the second time in those three victories the margin has exceeded 100 points.
With one side having featured in finals last year and the other in the very early stages of a full rebuild, the final result wasn't all that much of a surprise to many punters.
What was a slight surprise was the sheer ruthlessness with which Warragul played, showing the league their first glimpse of the famous Gary Ayres DNA as the Hawthorn legend tries to instill his winning habits.
Warragul controlled the contest throughout much of the day and consistently looked to take the game on despite some wet and windy conditions, wheeling and dealing through their home ground with pace to burn.
The result was a whole host of clean looks inside 50 - allowing Stewart and Lamb to cash in.
The pair was unstoppable at times, dismissing much younger defenders in one-on-ones and punishing them in full.
Liam Serong starred in a new role through the midfield to also be among Warragul's best while new recruit Rhys Galvin was a force to be reckoned with in defence.
Newly named co-captain Tom Stern played a vital connecting role through the middle of the ground, putting his lethal kicking skills to use as he hit target after target inside 50. If you're a Warragul forward your eyes would be lighting up every time Stern got the ball in space.
Ruck Sam Whibley rounded out the Gulls' best, racking up hit outs and giving his midfielders some silver service.
While Drouin didn't have anywhere near as many winners as their opponents, young gun Brodie Atkins can hold his head high following a standout display in the middle.
Atkins, who won the Talent League's Morrish Medal last season, was an absolute bull at times, trying his level best to keep Drouin alive even as the score slipped away.
Ruck Riley Wierzbicki fought the good fight despite giving away size to Whibley and new captain Seb Amoroso was relentless in his attack on the ball.
Zayne Atkins and Max Williames had some nice moments, as did William Virtue, on a dour day overall.
Drouin showed they might be up for the fight early in an encouraging first term, using the ball well and overlapping to keep things interesting on the scoreboard.
When the Gulls got on a run in the second term, however, the shoulders dropped, and Warragul were more than happy to take advantage - they finished the match having booted 18 of the last 19 goals.
The signs were ominous early when a long kick to Warragul's goal square ended in a practically uncontested mark to Jordan Stewart, giving them their first after barely a minute.
A long bomb from Jed Lamb seemed destined to be a major only for Riley Senini to mark on the line and claim the goal instead, doubling Warragul's lead.
If Lamb felt a little robbed he wouldn't be feeling that way for long, given what was to come.
The worrying signs for Drouin were alleviated after they got some great play going their way, allowing them to boot the next two goals of the day.
The first came from skipper Amoroso, who gathered the ball out of a spill and spun around beautifully to nail his shot and the second from Noah Lafrantz, who found space inside 50 to dribble through a long range roller.
Warragul regained their advantage courtesy of the two final goals of the quarter, which was seemingly cut short when the siren went with the time showing just shy of 21 minutes.
Despite the confusion, the Gulls pressed on for what was a killer second term in which they truly broke clear of their young rivals, booting an unanswered five goals as the Hawks hardly even looked like scoring again.
Lamb especially was becoming a handful, kicking three goals for the term - all marks on the lead from almost the same spot.
There was some concern when star defender Sean Masterson limped from the ground with a knee issue, but he quickly returned to the field. Just to show how okay he was, he promptly pulled down a monster contested mark not long after coming back on.
While the wind began to really pick up in the second half it didn't matter to Stewart, who went back to back early in the third to really start blowing the margin out.
Lafrantz was able to boot his second of the game during the quarter but that was to be Drouin's last goal of the game, the Gulls clearly intent on putting their old enemy to the sword.
Warragul continued to press even after the game was clearly decided and provided a late highlight when Luke Garner somehow curled through a miracle goal hard up against the boundary on the wrong side.
Their only concern to come out of the game was an injury to Alby Phillips, who copped a bone-crunching bump from Hawk Samuel Pratt that may see him miss some time.
Fittingly it was Stewart who put the full stop on the Gulls' great day, marking moments before the siren and successfully navigating a tough angle - especially impressive as he couldn't run out and snap it through.
Speaking post-game, Ayres was extremely happy with his side's effort in his first game at the helm.
"I thought today we played a style of footy we've been trying to implement and work on over the summer. By no means is it the finished product but I thought if you've come away with that sort of win you've probably had a performance where you've had quite a lot of impactful players ... Jordy and Jed's goals were a byproduct of how we moved the ball," he said.
"Our pressure and contest work I thought by and large was pretty solid for the whole four quarters."
Ayres said he was especially pleased by the way his players didn't let the occasion or weather get in the way of how they went about their game.
"I said to the guys, even though it's a traditional rival, if you're lucky enough to win you only get four points. You don't get eight points. I tried to keep it fairly level-headed.
"I didn't think the guys today let anything cloud their thinking."
Drouin coach Jordan Kingi was disappointed with how the game played out after quarter time.
"I think after quarter time their game rose over the top of ours. Their class came to the top and unfortunately we just don't have that class. They've got those senior midfielders and forward that have played 100 games and they just took over the game unfortunately," he said.
"We've just got to take it as a learning to be honest. We can't dwell and lose focus of the bigger picture and that's 17 games to go."
Kingi said the fight his side showed in the first term was admirable and they now needed to keep that form for longer.
"For a young team I think that's the biggest thing, is just our ability to try and fight back and get back into games. There were patches in the third quarter and the last quarter that we had that were really positive, the game was just already done with."
Drouin will host Traralgon this Saturday as they hope to get their Gippsland Power representatives - Blake Bibby, Caleb Kleeven and Kaiden Walmsley - back for what looms as another imposing match-up.
Warragul will head to Wonthaggi having knocked off the Power in three of their past four starts.
The game will be a kind of grudge match for Ayres, who will coach against one of his former players at Port Melbourne in Tristan Francis.
Photo: Andrew Day
