The visitors dealt WA their first defeat of this year's NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, running out 11.4 (70) to 6.7 (43) victors in a curtain raiser to the West Coast v Geelong match.
Country set up its win with an eight goal to three first half and kicked away in the final quarter against a lackluster WA.
WA won the inside 50 count 43-23 but were unable to find the space to deliver cleanly to spearhead Chris Yarran. Country on the other hand refused to cough up the ball and delivered to advantage with Nic Heyne (three goals) and Andrew Browne (two goals) the most productive of their forwards.
But Country were able to find options all over the ground with eight separate goal kickers in a low scoring affair.
For WA, Nick Naitanui was unbreakable around the stoppages doing it all for his team. He had 18 hit-outs and 10 clearances, but struggled to have the same influence around the ground.
Matt DeBoer (23 possessions) was clean for the home side across half-back while highly rated Daniel Rich (eight) struggled to shake the close attention he was given.
Victoria Country 3.3 8.3 8.3 11.4 (70)
Western Australia 0.0 1.1 4.4 6.7 (43)
GOALS
Vic Country: Heyne 3, Browne 2, Bucovaz, Christensen, McKenzie, Rockliff, Roughead, Sheahan
Western Australia: Daly 2, Hill, Rich, Walters, Yarran
BEST
Vic Country: Heyne, Sheahan, Ziebell, Browne
Western Australia: Naitanui, DeBoer, Jetta, Daly
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL.
