WA Men’s State Coach Craig White says results from matches between the Perth Football League and Victorian Amateur Football Association are important for the growth of state footy moving forward. 

After last year’s heartbreak in Melbourne, the WA men got revenge against Victoria, notching up a 23-point win at Bassendean Oval over the weekend. 

Fremantle CBC’s Matt Ward was named best-on-ground medal the second year in a row, while Kingsway forward Kyle Halligan contributed a number of WA’s 11 goals. 

White says this result was ‘huge’ for the Perth Football League. 

“It was a huge result for the PFL. It was a little bit disappointing last year to go down last time,” said 

“We probably exceeded probably our own expectations last year and gave us a bit of a next issue where we could get them back on our home deck and take it up to them. 

“Yesterday the boys performed really well and it was a great result for everyone involved.” 

Bassendean Oval gave the WA boys an advantage over the Victorians, with the differing size to the Victorian footy ovals proving to be a significant game changer. 

The width and dimensions of the ground enabled WA to use their speed to their advantage, which ultimately prevailed. 

“That’s kind of the WA style,” said White. 

“The big part of it is that we wanted to shift them around, especially defensively and make them chase us. 

The women’s side – coached by Steph Walding, fell agonisingly short of locking in two wins for WA over the weekend, losing by one point. 

Perth led 13-9 at halftime, with Bassendean forward Ashley Sharp having a massive presence up forward.  

The former AFLW player kicked four of Perth’s five goals, but it was not enough to get them over the line, losing 31-32. 

Despite the disappointment, White has commended the performance from WA to bounce back from last year’s 63-point thrashing. 

“The girls did an amazing job to kind of bridge the gap from last year,” He said.

“They went over there and they weren’t overly happy with their performance last year and to turn their result around was great.”

Overall, White is hoping to see these state matches continue building and become a goal for Perth amateur footballers to strive for in the future. 

“For us to now have two years in a row where we had a good result last year and then back it up with another result this year was really important,” he said. 

“We’re just trying to make that state rep footy something to strive for in our league. 

IMAGE: VAFA