THE power has finally gone out in Wonthaggi's three-year battle to remain in the Alberton Football League.
The much-maligned club will play its final season in South Gippsland's minor league this year, before an enforced switch to a VCFL major league - most likely the West Gippsland Latrobe or Mornington Peninsula Nepean league.The Victorian Law Institute on Thursday night upheld a poll of Alberton league clubs held to determine Wonthaggi Power's future in the competition beyond this year.
Alberton league clubs voted 10-4 in favour of Wonthaggi leaving the competition when the vote was conducted at the end of last season.
But the Power's lawyers disputed the validity of the result, arguing one club was not a financial member of the league when the vote was held, according to the VCFL.
The protracted dispute about the Power's future in the league stems from a 2006 VCFL directive for the club to move to a major competition, after some Alberton clubs complained it was too strong for the league's smaller clubs and towns.
The Power was formed in 2005, as the result of a merger between the Wonthaggi Blues and Wonthaggi Rovers.
The Blues, part of major league West Gippsland Latrobe, had been highly competitive in the years leading up to the merger, earning grand final berths in 2001, 2002 and 2004.
The Rovers made finals appearances in the Alberton league in 2002 and 2003.
The combined Power team has won senior premierships in three of its four years in the Alberton league, finishing runner-up to rivals Yarram in 2007.
Yarram was one of the clubs which had long campaigned for Wonthaggi's removal from the league.
It controversially forfeited its football and netball matches against the Power in May last year in protest at the impasse.
