Great Northern coach Nathan Johansen proud of country week efforts after back-to-back third-place finish

A historic upset in country week wasn’t enough as Great Northern missed out on the grand final again, but their coach says they have something to be proud of. In the near decade of competition South West had never taken a loss, until October 5 when Great Northern defeated them 3.5 (23) to 3.2 (20). They were coming off a 7.2 (44) to 1.2 (8) win against Great Southern and felt confident going into the match up. “(South West) played a tight game against Kimberley and just got over the top,” Johansen said. “If we could slow the scoring down a little bit, that would definitely give us an in, because defensively was where we were quite strong.” The game was competitive early, and the scores were tied at the half 1.2 (8) each. “To be all squared up at half-time, that’s got to instil some self-belief and confidence into the group. . . I was quite confident they’d have it in them to get over the top” Johansen said. The win came down to the last minutes, with a late Great Northern goal taking the win. “The girls were stoked, you could see the smile on their face, that’s a massive highlight, just the joy in their face to know that they’re the first team to knock off the South West.” Unfortunately their momentum did not carry over into day two, as they fell to Kimberley 2.2 (14) to 5.7 (37). “We didn’t capitalise on a couple of opportunities going forward, we dropped them and on the flip side, Kimberley did capitalise on their forward entries,” he said. The loss knocked Great Northern out of the grand final, news they found out only minutes later. “It’s pretty hard. . . we had eyes on the grand final and had been knocked down, so you’ve got that emotion to deal” Johansen said. The girls showed up for their bronze match just 15 minutes later, with a 9.6 (60) to 1.1 (7) win against Great Southern. The side had many stand-out performances including Gemma Dix, who was named player of the tournament and selected in the all-star squad along with Abby Green and Jasmine Johansen. “Gemma was one of those players who we expected big things. . . her ball use, presence around the ground, pack marking and lead,” Johansen said. “A couple of our players were a bit stiff to miss out, had that all-star squad been a little bit bigger, I think they definitely would have been selected.”