Lower South West relegated after tough promotion to division two at Country Championships

The Lower South West could not replicate their feats of last year’s Nutrien Ag Solutions Country Championships division three win, going winless upon promotion to division two and being relegated.

In division two the side came up against Central Midlands Coastal, Eastern Districts, Upper Great Southern and Ongerup who all defeated LSW by 17 points or more.

Coach Gavin Norrish said the results were disappointing, but the experience would prove invaluable for a young squad playing against stronger opposition.

“It’s been good, but without getting the wins,” he said.

“We’ve got a very young crew and they’ve they’ve got a taste of it now, so they’ll be for the better for next time and bar the results, it’s been a really good weekend.

“Look, it’s one of those things, you come up at this level, and if you’re not quite good enough you’ve only got 40 minutes to win a game of footy and if you’re not quite on, you can get what happened this week.”

Norrish said the side’s depth was tested, with player availability and injuries making it difficult to field the strongest possible team against quality opposition.

“It’s just more on what players you can get, there’s injuries, there’s players unavailable,” he said.

“It was a pretty solid squad, but I’ll say half of them are still very young, which is a good sign.

“This year’s given an opportunity for some that may have not got an opportunity last year or next year, but they’ve had a taste of it, which is a big tick and I think they all handled themselves pretty well.”

Two of the competition’s brightest young stars in Khai Robertson and Lachlan Hughes were excellent for the side, playing far beyond their age, said Norrish.

“I know a fair bit about most of them, but I don’t know a lot about a lot of them, and all of a sudden, a few blokes put their hand up and I’ll go, tick, he’s definitely up to the standard,” he said

“Those two young kids were fantastic and I think they gave us a bit of a spark in the last game where we needed a bit of a lift.

“I think the boys saw those young kids cracking in and thought ‘we’ve got to jump in behind them’.”

Alongside the young stars other more experienced players stepped up, with Brett Wilson also being named in the All Stars team of the carnival.

“Travis Abbott was fantastic, his effort was great and he played back and forward,”

“(Brett Wilson) was very, very good and really those two young boys were probably not far behind them.

“Tim Davies had a good trip, he was a solid contributor all weekend, so we had blokes in and out a bit, but those probably four or five names are the ones that over the journey play the best footy for us.”

Despite the relegation, Norrish hopes the experience encourages more players across the Lower South West Football League to put their hand up for representative football in the future.

“That’s the message I finished with to all the boys because I said from last year, you know, if you had a good experience at the carnival, make sure when you go back to Tigers or Imperials or wherever you go, just tell a few blokes, we had a really good time up in Perth with the carnival.”