North Pilbara Football team win the Nutrien Ag Country Championship after a three-decade hiatus

It has been more than three decades since North Pilbara had a standalone team in country championship football but it didn’t show at the weekend as the men from the North West claimed a stunning tournament win. In a long-awaited competition return, the team made up of players from the North Pilbara Football League went down to Perth and competed in division three of the Nutrien Ag Country Championship Football tournament from Friday, July 7 to Sunday, July 9. Dampier Sharks coach Steven Dodd coached the side and said the Pilbara’s return to the competition was a league-wide effort and a long time in the making. “We’ve been planning to do this from late last year and it’s been 33 years since we’ve had a standalone team in the competition,” he said. “Some of the leaders of the footy clubs and myself came together to bring a team down and get this started again. “We think that we’ve got a good football league, it’s quite competitive, so it means a lot to the guys to come together from all clubs really embrace it and it was enjoyable that we managed to get get the job done.” The team with players from all across the North Pilbara Football League made a fast start on Friday as they managed to beat the North Midlands side 8.6 (54) to 1.5 (11). In their second game of the day the side suffered their only loss of the competition as Great Southern beat them 3.2 (20) to 6.6 (42). With one win and one loss, the team needed to be fairly flawless in their remaining matches to get into the final of the seven-team competition. With the team made up mostly of players from the Dampier Sharks and Karratha Kats, the two top sides in the league currently battling it out for the local championship, it was up to coach Dodd to unify them. Dodd said the team faced some extra challenges compared with other teams in the competition. “We have a lot of respect between obviously the Sharks and the Kats but a lot of the guys are from the other clubs, too,” he said. “To have the interest that we had early, because as a mining town work restricts some players, so we probably didn’t take down our strongest possible team, but we definitely had enough players that were more than willing and available. “We asked each team to provide five names and then from that we picked guys that had been playing well and guys that could have time off from work to come down and represent our region. In game three of the competition, the team easily beat Gascoyne 7.6 (48) to 1.2 (8) which set up an important match against Onshore in which North Pilbara needed a big win to make the grand final. In their best performance of the tournament, the Pilbara side managed to keep Onshore scoreless and won 11.8 (73) to 0.0 (0), which improved their goal percentage enough to get them into the final. Dodd said the win against Onshore gave the team the belief that they could go all the way. “Once we got over the line yesterday afternoon against Onshore and kept them scoreless that really boosted our percentage and got us into the fight,” he said. “After that, everyone was really excited about the opportunity that was in front of us because it’s quite hard to make a grand final and then it’s even harder to win one. “As coach, I didn’t have to give the guys that much ammunition they were all up and about it today and they were really positive and really fresh. “We play on dry tracks and quite a fast sort of a game but it was really wet, dewy and the ground was really heavy underfoot so I knew they had to get their head over the ball and win that contested battle against a team that plays in those conditions all the time.” The team faced off against Esperance in the final on Sunday and they started strong in the first quarter leading 4.0 (24) to 1.0 (6) at the break. The Pilbara side extended the lead by another goal at the half and in the third quarter they ran away with the match and entered three-quarter-time with a 10.5 (65) to 4.2 (26) lead. The men from Esperance clawed their way back with a three-goal to one final period but the damage had already been done. North Pilbara won the championship with the final score 11.7 (73) to 7.3 (45). Dodd said given how long the team had been absent from the competition, this win meant even more. “Whenever you win a grand final it’s special as a lot of people know it’s hard to even make a grand final,” he said. “The boys are pretty happy to be a part of something like this because a lot of these guys weren’t even born the last time North Pilbara was even in the competition. “It’s quite a challenging exercise to play two games each day and then play a four-quarter game on Sunday as well. “I can’t single out one player, I think everyone played their role and yes, it’s pretty special.” Two Dampier players made their mark on the tournament as Jordan Bucolo was awarded best on ground in the final and Guy Langdon was selected in the whole tournament Allstar team. All the players will now split up and return to their respective North Pilbara Football League sides for round 11 this weekend.