EIGHT of Portland’s best junior soccer players took on some of the state’s toughest competition on the weekend when they represented the South West Victoria Football Association at the Junior Country Championships.

The championships saw some of the best leagues meet in Geelong for a three-day tournament.

Portland was heavily represented in the under-16 boys team with the side led by Panthers coach Michael Meaola and featuring six local players – Bodie Steel, Eleazar Meaola, Cee-Jay Durbidge, Noah McKinnon, Sandy Trace and Zach Siemon.

The young side had a tough draw to compete against but managed to get a solid win on the board in their first match, defeating Gippsland Soccer League 5-0.

Following their victory against Gippsland the South West side suffered some tough losses on Saturday, 2-0 and 3-1.

Sunday morning the side had a close match against Albury Wodonga Football Association but couldn’t get a score on the board to go down, 1-0.

Their following matches were both losses, 6-0 and 6-1.

Despite the tough line up it was an important showcase with the players missing the opportunity to compete in representative tournaments for the past two years.

• Jasmine Siemon was the youngest player to compete, making her mark in the under-13 side.

Siemon’s team had a tough Saturday and Sunday going down in all of their games.

On Monday the side had their first success of the tournament, drawing 1-1 with the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League.

• Charlie Keiller was the oldest representative, playing in the under-18 side and taking on a leadership role.

There was only three teams registered in the under-18 competition with Keiller’s South West side struggling to compete against Latrobe Valley Soccer League going down 5-0 and 7-0 in their two match ups.

It was a similar story against Football Federation Sunraysia where South West Victoria Football Association was able to compete more but couldn’t claim the matches, seeing them drop both games 4-1 and 3-0.

Panthers return from week off

After a week off for the June long weekend the Portland Panthers will return to play in the South West Victoria Football Association on Sunday.

All sides except the under-16s will take on Hamilton Raiders at the Raiders’ home ground.

With some recent losses the division one side will be looking for a solid performance against Hamilton to maintain their position on the ladder moving into the second half of the season.