South West Football League supplies nine players for WA Country side’s clash with South Australia Country

The WA Country representative side will feature nine players from the South West Football League in the clash with their South Australian counterparts on Saturday. For their contest against the Croweaters at Leederville’s Sullivan Logistics Stadium, South Bunbury’s Tom Gorter will again captain the team, with Collie’s Luke English — who joined the Eagles over the off-season after stints with Richmond and East Fremantle — to serve as one of his deputies. All four of the league’s selections in the 2025 Country Championships All Stars side in English, Jack Fletcher (Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault), Liam Creighton (Busselton) and Zac Trigwell (Donnybrook) have earned places in the side. Lion Ty Anderson, the runaway Hayward medallist for the SWFL’s best and fairest player in 2024, and recent recruits Jason Carter (Eaton), Jye Clark (South Bunbury) and Durak Tucker (Bunbury) are the other players from the region who will pull on the Black Swan. Avon’s two players in the line-up — the side’s other vice-captain Tom Lee and two-time Jock Coleman medallist as the best and fairest player in division one of the Country Championships Kaidyn Fullgrabe — figure alongside Gorter and Creighton as the only survivors from last year’s contest as part of a new-look side selected by first-year coach Craig Otto. Kojonup player-coach Travis Abbott is the lone player from the Lower South West Football League selected in the team, which has also drawn one player apiece from the Great Southern, Upper Great Southern and Central Midlands Coastal leagues to go with four from Goldfields. Otto, whose experience includes stints in the WAFL, Perth Football League and with WA’s under-18s side, said his side would use their pace and attacking threat to play an exciting brand of football. “What I’m most happy about is the balance of the side, which is so important,” he said. “I’m really happy with the experience as well. We’ve got a few ex-WAFL players in the side but at the same time, we’ve got those genuine country stars.” WA Country will be looking to atone for a 43-point loss to SA Country at Adelaide Oval in last year’s match and improve on an overall record which has seen them win only three of the 11 editions of the contest. The game starts at 5.30pm and will be broadcast live on Streamer.