It was a day to remember for North West AFL as they made history in the annual representative fixture against North Coast.
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The first higher-level women’s encounter took place at the clash in Inverell with the North West team claiming the win by one point.
The host side kick 2.6-18 to North Coast’s 2.5-17 for the honours.
The North Coast men’s side have held the bragging rights over North West for nearly two decades but the home side simply outclassed their eastern opponents in this year’s game.
“We looked at the shield and 1999 apparently was the last time we beat them in this tournament,” North West captain Tom Hunt said.
“A lot of the boys have played over the years so it was good to finally get one.”
Hunt said it was an even contest in the opening stages but his team built momentum to run away with it.
“It was tight at the start and at quarter time it was locked up and then the game started to open up a bit,” he said.
“We got the jump at the start of the second quarter, four or five quick consecutive goals which set the platform and we kicked on from there.”
North West ended up snagging an 89 point-margin, winning 20.23-143 to 8.6-54.
Hunt was one of four Nomads who took to the field with players from all clubs putting their hands up to pull on a North West jersey, a change from previous matches.
“The big thing was this year everyone was on the same page,” he said.
“The league wanted to field the best 22 players and all the clubs put forward their players, whereas previous years some blokes may not have been keen or other clubs didn't nominate players so there was a big push this year to put our best 22 on the park and we did that.”
Hometown hero Mick Gould starred in the game and was voted best on ground and Hunt put forward Gunnedah’s Ben Maher and Jake Spackman as two other players who stepped up to the plate.