Kimberley to play second division in women’s football Country Championships at Bunbury’s Hands Oval next month

Fixtures for next month’s women’s Country Championships have been released with the Kimberley dropping down to division two after a fourth-placed finish in division one in last year’s championships

The championships, which will be staged entirely in regional WA the first time, will see the Kimberley go up against Esperance, Goldfields and North Pilbara.

Making the announcement earlier this year, Country Football WA confirmed the sixth edition of the women’s championships would be played at Bunbury’s Hands Oval, which has recently undergone a $25.2 million redevelopment and hosted a pair of AFL games — one pre-season fixture and a home and away clash — between North Melbourne and West Coast earlier this year.

Games in both the men’s and women’s championships have been played at Mandurah’s Lane Group Stadium in recent years but this year will be the first time the entire carnival has been played outside the Greater Perth region.

The carnival will again be split into two divisions, with reigning champions South West to feature in division one alongside Peel, newly-promoted Great Southern and Great Northern.

All teams will play two pool stage games on Thursday, October 2 and another on the morning of Friday, October 3 before grand finals and third-place play-offs take place later on the second day, with the division one decider set to start at 6pm and come to a conclusion under lights.

The championships will open with a division two clash between Esperance and Goldfields at 9.30am on Thursday before the first division one contest at 2pm sees a rematch of 2024’s final between South West and Peel.

South West have ended every edition of the women’s championships to date as the winners but have seen their dominance challenged in recent years, suffering a historic first loss to Great Northern in the pool stage of 2023’s championships and being defeated by Peel last year before reversing the result in the decider.