Lopsided results involving South West sports teams should have administrators and governing bodies concerned

Across all my involvement in sport as a journalist, broadcaster, coach and administrator, very rarely do I arrive home from a game in a state of crestfallen disbelief at what I’ve just witnessed. However, I was absolutely aghast following Saturday night’s South West Slammers-Cockburn Cougars women’s clash at the Eaton Recreation Centre. It wasn’t the 111-22 result, which had me riled up, nor the fact the Slammers teenagers committed 44 turnovers — it was the perceived lack of empathy or awareness from Cougars’ coaching hierarchy. Despite leading by 81 points with less than five minutes to go in the game, the Cougars elected to run five three-point sets during their final nine offensive possessions. While I understand there will be many readers who may disagree with this notion — and argue it is a State league and percentage needs to be amassed in order to reach the finals — I encourage you to look at the bigger picture. The teenage Slammers players were not only physically spent, but emotionally you could see their resilience sapping each time the seasoned Cougars launched another offensive dagger. Surely, the visitors could have put the cue in the rack, benched their starters in the second half earlier, used up the whole shot clock and fired their shots inside the paint instead? Such a result in American football at any level would see the head coach instruct his offence to run or quarterback kneel on every down, in order not to unduly humiliate the opposition. If these heavy defeats (the women’s program have not won in nearly three years) continue, will they give the game away? Where would this leave women’s basketball in the South West? The same can be said for the SWFL women’s competition, with Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault and the Dunsborough Sharks again held scoreless last weekend. In a lopsided round for the SWFL, Bunbury (172-7), the Sharks (141-15) and Carey Park (123-27) also recorded crushing colts victories over the Harvey Bulls, Eaton Boomers and Collie Eagles respectively. The Lions (with a 5.63 percentage) head into Sunday’s women’s clash against the Sharks (2.11 percentage) having been held scoreless in five of their last six games. How is this good for the players’ mental states, let alone ensuring the competition has a degree of parity? It is time for the SWFL women’s football committee to make some tough decisions in order to close the gap or we will face a mass exodus of players from our game.