Jetta delights, Palmer soars, as GNFL country week side gets off to a perfect start

The Great Northern Football League women’s country week team started their campaign against the Great Southern Football league on Thursday in Mandurah. The competition will see eight representative sides from around WA’s region split into two divisions with the GNFL competing in division two against Pilbara, Esperance and Great Southern leagues. The top two from each group go to the semifinals and with shortened games of two 15-minute halves it leaves little room for error. The GNFL side first faced off against their Great Southern rivals who are the favourites to get out of the group. Great Northern had the better start in terms of time spent in their forward half, but it was the Southerners who opened the scoring. The ball was then locked back up in Northern’s forward, but some desperate defending kept them frustrated before a lovely passage of play saw them work the ball outside to Jasmine Johansen, who finished truly to open their country week account. It was a high-pressure game from both sides but as soon as Great Northern missed a tackle Southern pounced with Lindy Woods getting their second goal as Southern led 12-6 at the half. Great Northern got off to a great start as Olivia Bidwell won the clearance from the centre bounce to work the ball forward to Tayah Palmer, who then found captain Jessica Guidice-Nairn, who converted from the 45 to tie the game. Once again Great Northern had the ball locked in their fifty but could not get a score and were almost dealt a sucker-punch but Lani Paradella laid a goal-saving tackle to win the ball back. But the ball was at the wrong end of the ground and Great Southern got a rushed behind to take the lead with less than five minutes to go. Great Northern just lacked composure on the ball fumbling at key moments but against the run of play, they finally got some run through the middle to work it forward where Shanelle Jetta won a free kick for a push in the back with a minute left on the clock. After a quiet game, she showed ice water in her veins to convert from 35m out as Great Northern took the lead for the first time and snatched the win 18-13. Johansen and Bidwell were huge in the midfield and Palmer was key as their forward option in a huge boost of confidence for the side to get the win after dominating most of the clash. They played Pilbara in their second clash who suffered a tight two-point loss to Esperance in their opener, with a win likely enough to seal a top two spot. GNFL got off to a perfect start as Palmer barreled through the centre contest and showed great vision to find Guidice-Nairn out the back who kicked the opening goal. She went from goal scorer to assist maker as she found Jetta, who took a strong mark in front of the pack to kick their second goal inside the opening five minutes. Johansen then dropped a sitter of a mark to deny what would’ve been a third shot on goal, but Great Northern were all over the Pilbara and locked their ball forward as Guidice-Nairn just missed a shot on the run to the left. Palmer then took the mark of the day coming in from three deep to take an absolute screamer but missed her link-up kick before Fina Dethlefsen missed her set shot to the left as the siren sounded leading 14-0 at the half. Great Northern weren’t quite as ruthless to start the second half with some poor ball-handling skills often disrupting their momentum which allowed Pilbara to get their hands on the footy. Claire Garnaut was excellent off half-back to keep them at bay. Eventually their class showed through as Palmer again worked the ball forward which went out the back to Tayte Pappin, who strolled through to kick her first goal. Guidice-Nairn was then gifted a second from a 50m penalty as Great Northern put the game well and truly to bed. Jetta added a fifth while Guidice-Nairn got her third in an outstanding performance from the captain as they crushed Pilbara 6.3 (39) to 0. The two wins and big percentage boost leave them with a great chance to top the group and earn their semifinal spot. They played Esperance in their final pool game after the Guardian went to print, with semifinals taking place at 12pm on Friday.