The South East team split its results in the Think! Road Safety South Australian Men’s Country Championships in Victor Harbor on the weekend.
Some of the region’s best footy players headed to Victor Harbor to represent the South East footy zone in the championships, with the local side comprising players from the Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara Football League, Limestone Coast Football Netball League and the Mid South East Football League.
The side was coached by Nick Davis from the KNTFL with Clint Gallio from the MSEFL and Tom Renzi from the LCFNL serving as assistant coaches.
Naracoorte’s Matt Willson captained the side with Bordertown’s Jacob Eats as vice vaptain.
The South East kicked off the carnival on Friday night against Eyre Peninsula at Victor Harbor oval.
The men had a tough loss, going down by two points with Keith’s Daniel Bibby and Kingston’s Campbell Watts the standout players.
On Saturday the South East took on Central and picked up another loss, defeated by 17 points.
Hatherleigh’s Patrick Chay and Mundulla’s Billy Wiese both kicked two goals in the match.
However, on Sunday the men found some success as they took on Northern in the 5v6 final, coming away with a 19 point victory.
Once again Campbell Watts had a great performance with Millicent’s Kade Varcoe also putting up a solid performance.
The South East had two players named in the team of the championship.
Bordertown’s Troy Blackwell was selected in the centre along with Kingston’s Campbell Watts who was selected in the back line.
Head coach Davis spoke to The SE Voice about how his side fared during the weekend.
“We were a bit slow to start in the first game on Friday night and we got a few goals down at half time but we fought back really well in the last quarter and we probably had our chances to win it but unfortunately went down by two points,” Davis said.
“Saturday I thought we did a bit better but we ended up going down by 19 points to a really good Central side, so that was disappointing that we were out of the competition for the grand final and on Sunday we played against Northern and played a pretty solid four quarters and had a good win, so it was good to come home on a high note.”
Davis said he was impressed with the performances of Campbell Watts, Daniel Bibby and the overall performance of the whole team.
“For us Campbell Watts got player of the carnival, he was great in all three games and Daniel Bibby was really good across all three games and then there was a fairly even contribution across the rest of the fellas,” he said.
Overall Davis was happy to get a win during the weekend and thought the side which had a bit of youth in it got a lot of experience out of the weekend.
“It was just a really good weekend and it was good to get the win, we went away with a really young side with six under 21s and it was good experience for them to get away and test them for the high level, so overall it was disappointing to not make the grand final but to get a win for the weekend was a good way to finish off,” Davis said.
Eastern zone successfully defended its championship with a 36-point win against Central in the grand final at Encounter Bay Oval on Sunday.
