WA country team fall short against South Australia in first match since 2019

The WA State country football team’s last-quarter fightback was not enough against South Australia on Saturday afternoon.

Playing as the curtain-raiser to the Adelaide Carlton clash the New Holland State Country team made a return in their first competitive match in more than two years.

The side was hoping to make it back-to-back victories for the first time as they won the fixture all the way back in 2019 although the line-up was significantly different on the weekend.

Several players wore the Black Swan for the first time as Northampton’s Kingsley Smith while Brigades’ Kim Schofield donned the Swan once again.

Unfortunately, the Sandgropers couldn’t come away with the win, falling 10.8 (68) to 6.6 (42) as a late quarter fightback wasn’t enough to overcome their poor start.

They were shell shocked by South Australian forward Ben Edwards who kicked three of his five goals in the opening term as WA managed just a single behind as they were slow to get out of the blocks.

They did manage to get a goal in the second quarter but the Croweaters grew their lead to 36 points to leave WA with a huge mountain to climb in the second half.

It was a tight tussle in the third quarter but again the Croweaters just had the measure of the Sandgropers kicking two goals to one to lead by 40 points at the final break.

The Sandgropers finally managed to get some run going in the final quarter kicking four goals to one to add some respectability to the scoreline but it was ultimately too late to ever worry South Australia.

Zac Trigwell kicked two goals for WA but they struggled to find avenues to goal compared to their South Australian counterparts who had six different goal kickers as their captain Matt Willson took away best on ground honours for his work in the midfield.

Kingsley Smith impressed in his first representative match and managed to pick up a goal in while Kim Schofield ran hard as always.

Dylan Acres was from Kalannie FC in the Central Wheatbelt Football League was awarded the Terry House medal to be WA’s best.