Country Championships: Storm coach Darrell Panizza looking forward to the challenge in tough colts division

Great Southern Storm coach Darrell Panizza is expecting a tough battle as his side prepare to challenge some of the best football talent in WA in the CBH Group colts division of the Nutrien Ag Solutions Country Football Championship in Perth. The Storm will come up against a stacked division containing sides from the Peel, Pilbara, South West, Avon, Great Northern, Kimberley and Regional Districts with action commencing on Thursday. The squad has a few changes from the one that travelled to Lake Grace where they finished fourth at the Great Southern Colts Carnival last month. “This is a much harder carnival than the Great Southern Colts carnival in Lake Grace,” Panizza said. “Teams like South West, Peel and so on obviously have a greater number of kids to choose from. “Every year is a different year, we might have surprised some people last time around when we had some kids in the older age bracket. “But if you’re going to run a program based on development, not every year are you going to win. “It’s just about giving the kids an experience in football at that age.” Last year’s Warrick Proudlove medallist Milan Jaggi comes in to the side as well as Mt Barker young gun Camball McMahon and the Royals’ Lachlan Steytler and Shane Ugle. Imposing forward Clay Michael is set to travel with the group but will not play a part in the championships after suffering a season-ending knee injury at the carnival in Lake Grace while Adam Large, Josh Duffield and Cameron Walsh are also omitted. Tom Gawned and Kobi Keen will fill the roles as joint captains. Panizza said while the group will be aiming to win the championships, the division title would serve as a bonus on top of the continued development of the region’s young players. “If we can develop these kids and they stick together and they can all go away again next year, they’ll be better for it,” he said. “We are always going away to be the best we possibly can and if that means we win the carnival, that’s even better. “But at some point we’ll have a group that has been away a couple of years together and that’s when you can win the carnival. “We’re under no illusion at all, I’ve been doing this for 20 years so we will go away and we will play kids in different positions and give them opportunity and hopefully they’ll rise to the occasion. “We’ll all come away with an opinion on how they went and where they can improve and hopefully that helps their footy going forward.” The colts championship will be played in Mandurah and Pinjarra with the Storm in Pool 1 of the division tackling Peel in their first game at 9am on Thursday at Lane Group Stadium before facing Pilbara at 11am. They will play their final qualifying game at 11am on Friday against South West at Sir Ross McLarty Oval. The colts grand final between the top sides in each pool will be contested later on the Friday preceded by play-off games. Great Southern Storm Team Shane Ugle, Lachlan Cale, Marlon Mastalerz, Kobi Keen, Mitchell Paine, Jordan Hulm, Milan Jaggi, Kaizen Beeck, Justin Galos, Fynn Kelleher-Bird, Aiden Clark, Harvey Taylor, Tait Hartfield, Blake Panizza, Cooper Sandy, Jhett Morrison-Carter, Kevin Sibosado, James Watters, Lachlan Steytler, Joley Graham, Kaleb Germain, Tobyn Lowry, Kobi Doust-Pamplin, Camball McMahon, Tom Gawned, Lucas Ravenhill CBH Group Colts Championship fixtures Thursday, July 6 at Lane Group Stadium, Mandurah Peel v Great Southern Storm, 9am (Pool 1) Great Northern v Regional Districts, 10am (Pool 2) Great Southern Storm v Pilbara, 11am (Pool 1) Great Northern v Avon, 12pm (Pool 2) Peel v South West, 1pm (Pool 1) Regional Districts v Kimberley, 2pm (Pool 2) South West v Pilbara, 3pm (Pool 1) Avon v Kimberley, 4pm (Pool 2) Friday, July 7 at Sir Ross McLarty Oval, Pinjarra Peel v Pilbara, 9am (Pool 1) Great Northern v Regional Districts, 10am (Pool 2) Great Southern Storm v South West, 11am (Pool 1) Great Northern v Kimberley, 12pm (Pool 2) Seventh v eighth playoff, 1pm Fifth v sixth playoff, 2pm Third v fourth playoff, 3pm Championship final, 4pm