Women’s Country Championships: Goldfields earn promotion with win over North Pilbara in division two final

Goldfields earned promotion to division one at next year’s Women’s Country Championships with a 15-point win over North Pilbara in the division two final at Hands Oval on Friday. A 6.4 (40) to 4.1 (25) victory means the winners will be competing in the top division for the first time since the carnival was split into two tiers in 2023. The two finalists both notched 2-1 win-loss records through their pool stage fixtures across Thursday and Friday morning but Goldfields entered the decider as presumptive favourites, having won the clash between the sides on the carnival’s first day by nine points. After a back-and-forth first term, Goldfields’ Paris Unjin found space to slot the game’s first goal only moments before the quarter-time siren. North Pilbara responded in the second term through Estee Pinder but Unjin quickly added a second major before Drew Epis followed up to open up a 14-point half-time advantage for Goldfields, which grew further when Marley Kelman kicked the first goal of the second half. A pair of goals from Lilly Dhu either side of three-quarter-time cut North Pilbara’s deficit back to eight points in the early stages of the last term and set up a tense finish. But the eventual winners lifted in response, with Epis and Phoebe Tucker coming up with steadying majors to seal the result. In the division two third-place play-off, Esperance edged out the Kimberley by one point, 1.2 (8) to 1.1 (7). Kimberley, who were relegated from division one at last year’s championships, did all the attacking in the game’s closing stages but were not able to come up with an elusive second goal to steal the win. Out of division two, Marley Kelman, Chloe Jones, Drew Epis (Goldfields), Rochelle Hammond (North Pilbara), Annie-May Jennings, Claire McIntyre (Esperance) and Rachel Southam (Kimberley) were named in the carnival’s All Stars side.