Championship bid falls short

The Great Southern Football League's bold resurgence in the annual Landmark Country Football Championships fell agonisingly short after losing a thrilling division 2 grand final by two points to Lower South West Football League at Medibank Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The GSFL began brilliantly in the championships, winning all four round-robin matches, including a 14-point win over LSWFL, but the end result was a heartbreaking one for the GSFL who hit the front inside the final three minutes of the decider.

The GSFL led by 18 points at quarter time and eight points at half-time before LSWFL fired back with two goals in the third to reduce the margin to a single point at the final change.

An early rushed behind in the final quarter levelled scores before livewire Arthur Bennell booted a clever goal in traffic to hand LSWFL a six-point lead.

LSWFL peppered the goal mouth but a couple of costly misses from set shots allowed the GSFL to stay in touch despite the ball being locked in their defensive 50.

A swift passage of play down the outer side of the ground led to GSFL full-forward Glynn Verbruggen converting for his fourth major of the match to pull the margin back to three points.

Moments later Matt Galantino intercepted a pass at centre half-forward before wheeling around and thumping through a long goal that handed the GSFL a three-point advantage.

Despite some courageous defending from the GSFL, the weight of opportunities allowed LSWFL captain Brett Dobson to pounce on a loose ball at half-forward and snap the winning goal with less than 90 seconds to play, as his side went on to record a 7.13 (55) to 8.5 (53) win.

LSWFL midfielder Rob Dawson was adjudged fairest and best player in the decider.

GSFL senior coach James McRae said there was so much to take from the carnival despite the disappointing end result.

"Obviously it was very disappointing that we got beat," McRae said.

"We didn't finish off our good work from the first two days but we are a young side and we'll just get better.

"We will learn from it and need to keep improving but the future is very bright.

"It's a big step up in the standard of footy and again another step up in the final, and unfortunately we didn't quite play the way we wanted to and we were a bit unaccountable."

Defender Ben Gray was simply outstanding in defence in the grand final, which was over four quarters compared with the shortened two halves of the round robin fixtures.

His ability to spoil, win crucial contests and provide damaging run from the back half ensured he was the GSFL's best player in the enthralling contest.

Ryan Kinnear racked up a plethora of possessions right across the ground and really stood up in the big moments along with fellow co-captain Bodhi Stubber in defence.