West Australian Football

WESTERN Australia’s national title hopes were dealt a major blow at the Australian Country Football Championships in Shepparton, Victoria today (Friday, July 25) when the ACT stormed away with a 48-point win at Deakin Reserve, 11.5 (71) to 3.5 (23).

The ACT jumped out of the blocks to stun WA with seven unanswered goals in the first half, led by small forward Craig Healey from Tuggeranong.

WA’s Dale Baynes from Towns Football Club in Geraldton registered the first score of the game when he snapped a point from the pocket but it was all ACT after that, with Healey scoring his side’s first three goals with two clever snaps and another on the run.

Trailing by 44 points at half-time, WA made a much better start to the second half, winning the clearance and setting up a goal for Ricky Mott from Kukerin-Dumbleyung after strong marks to Baynes and South Bunbury player Brad Hardingham.

WA tried desperately to bridge the gap further but couldn’t match the pace of the ACT, who streamed forward in numbers and ran the ball into space, leaving their opponents in their wake.

WA managed to score two more goals through Daniel McGinlay from Coorow-Latham and Nathan Elari of Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault, while the ACT added another four goals in the second half to run out winners. Healey capped off the win with his fourth goal just before the final siren.

Baynes was strong in the forward line for WA but despite taking some great marks, only scored three behinds after hitting the post, missing a snap and tugging a long shot wide.

He was still one of his side’s best along with Elari, defender Adam Pearce from Boddington and captain Simon Duckworth.

WA play New South Wales later today and will need a big win to have any chance of playing in the grand final, while also relying on Victoria to lose to South Australia and the ACT.

SCOREBOARD

ACT     7.4       11.5     71

WA      0.2       3.5       23

Goals
ACT – C. Healey 4.0, A. Ainger 2.1, J. Kavanagh 1.2, J. Bennett, A. Lieschke, M. Powell, R. Underwood 1.0, B. Hughes, C. Petterson 0.1.
WA – R. Mott, D. McGinlay, N. Elari 1.0, D. Baynes 0.3; Forced: 0.2.

Best
ACT – C. Healey, R. Underwood, B. Neely, J. Stiller, C. Ilett, A. Ainger.
WA – N. Elari, A. Pearce, D. Baynes, M. Sherry, S. Duckworth, J. Thompson.