Country championships: South West seniors coach Seth White says team was full of confidence for final

Despite losing as many games as they won through the country championships pool stage, South West seniors coach Seth White says his side was full of confidence as they headed into Sunday’s final. White’s charges did enough set up a 2023 final rematch with Avon despite splitting their four games across Friday and Saturday, suffering last-gasp defeats to Peel on Friday and the reigning champions on Saturday, either side of strong performances against Upper Great Southern and Goldfields. After progressing through to the decider ahead of Peel and Goldfields on percentage, the South West saved their best performance for when it mattered most, overturning a 15-point half-time deficit by kicking five of the game’s six second-half goals to secure redemption with an 11-point victory. White said his team had learnt much from their defeats, with the Peel game — which they lost by a point after surrendering two goals in the final four minutes — showing the importance of game management and the first Avon clash illustrating the quality which would be required to win the championships. “We were pretty confident if we got to Sunday and got to play a four-quarter game (like the grand final), things would go our way,” he said. “The competition’s set up so there’s two 20-minute halves (in the qualifying games), but there’s no time on, so you’re really only playing 12-minute halves of actual footy. If things don’t go your way, you don’t have much time to rectify it. “We take a bit of time to get our system going. After the first 10 minutes we thought everything was good, but to Avon’s credit, their second quarter was really good and put us on the back foot. “We spoke about a few things and (in the third quarter), my boys probably played their best 20 minutes of the carnival, and the rest is history.” Last year’s shock win over the South West saw Avon — led by former St Kilda and Claremont star Tom Lee in a player-coach capacity — claim the championships for the first time since 2002. But, their loss at Sullivan Logistics Stadium on Sunday saw them fall short in their bid to win back-to-back titles for the first time in 50 years. White said he had nothing but respect for his finals opponents. “I think they’re a lot like us. We’re starting to get that comp back to really what it should be, with all our best players,” he said. “They’re a super team and there was times in that second quarter where we thought we were in a bit of trouble. “I’m sure in the next three, four, five years, we’ll have a lot of competitive games against each other. Nineteen-year-old forward Cooper Clarke-Dehring claimed the Rising Star Award after kicking nine goals across the championships, kicking multiple goals in four of his five appearances. White said he had a high level of trust in the young gun, who was often isolated against a bigger and more senior defender as the deepest forward. “He’s a very talented cricketer and footballer, he’s going to have some decisions to make in the future,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s getting four, five, six phone calls (on Monday) from his performance. “It’s not just his talent on-field, he’s got a good head on his shoulders, he talks really well, he’s really respectful, he wants to learn. The world’s his oyster if he keeps his attitude right and keeps going the same direction he is now.” White said his team would remember their victorious campaign fondly, but the best part of representative football was always the friendships it helped to forge. “We just really enjoyed each other’s company ... everyone goes home with 25 more mates than they went there with,” he said. “They’re a very combative bunch and not many of them knew each other off-field, and now they all understand they’re all very similar, they’re all top blokes and they’ll never walk past each other again without stopping and talking about this weekend.”