Country championships: South West senior side suffer last-gasp loss to Peel and smash Upper Great Southern

The South West senior country championships side started their carnival at Sullivan Logistics Stadium on Friday with a last-gasp loss to Peel before getting back on track with a big win over Upper Great Southern. Seth White’s side looked in control of their clash with Peel in the early game, but a pair of late goals saw the Cavaliers steal a 5.2 (32) to 5.1 (31) victory. A brilliant set shot finish from big man Paul Rinder gave the South West a 12-point lead with less than six minutes to go, but a rushed behind from the boot of Peel’s Reece Wilkey quickly cut the margin back inside two goals. Cameron Gavin then found a pocket of space and reduced the Cavaliers’ deficit to five points before they stunned the South West with a brilliant end-to-end transition, finishing with an inside-50 mark by Wilkey. As the game clock ticked inside the final 30 seconds, the veteran came up clutch, nailing his kick from 40 metres out to steal an upset win for Peel. Earlier, Gavin opened the scoring for Peel before the South West responded with three quick goals of their own as part of a blistering start which saw six majors kicked in the first 11 minutes. As the South West moved the ball aggressively, star South West midfielder Mitch Tenardi was directly involved in everything early, firing off a handball to Cooper Clarke-Dehring for their first goal before spotting up Busselton teammate Liam Creighton for the third. * The afternoon contest against Upper Great Southern was decidedly more anticlimactic, with the South West dominating from siren to siren to run out 12.8 (80) to 1.1 (7) winners. Smarting from their last-gasp loss in their first fixture, the South West set the tone early, with a Liam Creighton snap giving them their first goal of the game inside the opening minute. Needing a big win to ensure they had a healthy percentage, the South West went all out, stacking on another five goals to take a 38-point lead into half-time, which blew out further with another six majors in the second half. Richie Bourne and Greg Humphries were given more of a run around the ball and duly dominated, with Bourne kicking three brilliant second-half goals as Humphries did the dirty work on the inside. Upper Great Southern hardly had an inside-50 entry for the game but were at least able to take home a late consolation prize, with Byron Blevin capitalising on a turnover to give them their only goal of the day just before time expired.