Young and old alike all shine in record WAFL victoryTuesday, June 14, 2016 - 12:06 PM - by Chris Pike

WESTERN Australia's state team in Saturday's record win over Tasmania had a good blend of youth and experience, and those who were multiple time WAFL representatives and debutants with coach Darren Harris delighted with how they all performed.

WA beat Tasmania by a record 134 points with two players taking part in their fifth game representing the WAFL, two more playing for a fourth time, another six playing for a third time, six others making their second appearance then seven players making their state debut.

South Fremantle's Ryan Cook and West Perth's Andrew Strijk were the two to make their fifth appearance with East Fremantle's Andrew Stephen and East Perth's Paul Johnson playing for a fourth time.

West Perth pair Aaron Black and Jay van Berlo along with Perth's Clint Jones, Swan Districts' Tony Notte, South Fremantle's Ashton Hams and Claremont's Ryan Neates all played for WA for a third time in their careers.

West Perth's duo of Nick Rodda and Shane Nelson along with South Fremantle pair Marlion Pickett and Ben Saunders, Subiaco's Leigh Kitchin and Swan Districts' Matt Riggio got their second opportunity to represent the WAFL.

The state debutants were then made up of East Fremantle's Brett Peake, Claremont pair Jye Bolton and Darcy Cameron, Peel Thunder's Josh Bootsma, Subiaco's Aaron Heal, West Perth's Luke Meadows and South Fremantle's Tim Kelly.

Harris couldn’t have been more proud of the way all 23 players performed in WA's fourth straight state victory.

"I was really happy with their performance. You're always nervous before a state game because it's the best players from each state out there so you never take anything for granted," Harris said.

"But we knew with the quality of players we have that if we had an even performance we believed we would get the job done.

"I thought the players were outstanding, they shared the workload and everyone had a chance in the middle and on the outside, and we had an even amount of game time for every player. They all contributed and were brilliant."

Harris was especially happy with the way captain Johnson performed once again leading the way for the WAFL team with a dominant ruck performance while also proving to be an outstanding leader.

The coach was also happy with the support Cameron provided Johnson in the ruck to set up a dominant midfield performance by the likes of Bolton, Nelson, Hams, Kitchin, van Berlo, Jones and Neates.

"Johnno was outstanding and he just buys into state footy. He just wants to play it and we watched him kick a goal at one end and then the ball went to the other and he was the one on the line trying to stop it," he said.

"That's the sort of effort he gives. And I thought Darcy Cameron's effort in the ruck when he was in there pinch-hitting was excellent as well.

"That definitely gives the inside mids a really great opportunity and I've got no doubt Jye Bolton, Kitchin, Hams, Nelson, Jay van Berlo and all those fellas in there benefitted from that great supply."

While there were some youngsters who will greatly benefit in their careers from the chance to play state football, Peake is at the other end of the scale with the 32-year-old playing for WA for the first despite an AFL career of 118 games and having played 111 WAFL matches with East Fremantle.

He bought into playing state football and was as excited as anyone else to be part of it and as a result kicked seven goals to match the performance of his father also playing for WA in 1986.

He went close to kicking an eighth goal as well and Harris and his coaching staff were certainly trying to help it happen late in the game.

"I didn’t know but John Dimmer had already tried to isolate to make sure he got the chance and we were barracking late," Harris said.

"When he dropped that mark late we thought he was a chance to kick his eighth goal and we were hoping he got some bragging rights, but he played a great game and really embraced state footy and was a great leader in amongst the group. He just really wanted to play for his state like the rest of the players.