Ongerup defeats Central Midlands Coastal in final as other Mid West teams struggle at country championships

Ongerup defeated Central Midlands Coastal in division two of the Nutrien Ag Solutions Country Football Championships at the WACA on Sunday.

With no GNFL team being sent for the senior divisions, players across the Mid West turned out for the North Midlands, Gascoyne and Central Midlands Coastal associations.

It was the first time in 25 years Gascoyne have sent a team to the country championships.

Unfortunately Gascoyne went without a win across their four games while North Midlands managed just the one win as they both missed out on the finals.

Central Midlands Coastal put together a great run, losing only one game to finish in second position before pushing Ongerup all the way in the final.

Gascoyne’s lack of representative footy showed in their early games as they were heavily outgunned against Coastal in their first match.

However they did improve as the tournament went on and were unlucky to go down to Eastern Districts by just four points in their third match.

They were not disgraced by the all powerful Ongerup and it should be invaluable experience to help develop some of the players in the region.

Kim Schofield from Brigades, one of three GNFL top-up players, was excellent collecting best player nominations in all four games as was Stuart Parker from Ramblers who picked up three while Yarren Raven was everywhere in the later games.

North Midlands meanwhile had an up and down tournament winning one and losing a close one while being on the receiving end of two shellackings.

Their opening game was a tight loss to Eastern Districts before a thumping at the hands of Mortlock, a tight win over the Central Wheatbelt and an 85 point loss to Ongerup.

Ryan Baumgarten was the stand-out player winning three best player nominations while Rover’s Christopher Scott had a decent tournament.

Central Midlands Coastal had an excellent tournament with wins against Gascoyne, Mortlock and Central Wheatbelt and a tight loss to Ongerup in the group stages.

They were the only team that was able to hang with Ongerup but didn’t have quite enough in the final going down 10.7 (67) to 7.9 (51).