Goldfields Football League’s division one team, under Bill Hansen, made a rough start to its campaign on Friday at the annual Nutrien Ag Solutions country championships with a 15-point loss against Avon, 7.2 (44) to 4.5 (29), at Mandurah’s Rushton Park.
Goldfields, who are without a top-division title at the series since 1992, were slow out of the blocks and conceded the opening two goals.
They steadied through Charlie Scafidi, Josh Clements and Jake George to trail by a point at half-time, but Avon quickly regained the ascendency after the resumption with back-to-back goals.
It put the local side back on their haunches and they were their own worst enemy going forward with four consecutive behinds.
George eventually broke the rut with his second major, but Avon had all the answers and iced the result with goals from Thomas Lee and Marshall Jones.
Lee was the match-winner with four goals.
It was a similar story in Goldfields’ second game against Great Southern that ended in a loss by 22 points, 7.5 (47) to 3.7 (25).
After posting a wasteful 1.5 to the break, Goldfields led briefly in the second half, following back-to-back goals to Clements and Amar Elnour.
But Great Southern piled on four unanswered goals.
GFL on Saturday play Peel and South West at Fremantle Oval to round-out the qualifiers.
Friday’s opening fixture in division one saw South West launch their title defence with an 11-point win against Peel, 7.3 (45) to 5.4 (34) in a rematch of the 2025 decider.
The two-time defending champions followed-up with a nine-point victory over Avon, 5.5 (35) to 4.2 (26).
GFL’s 1992 success was the only time they have been crowned division one champions, after being runners-up in 1988 and 1991.
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