The team traveled to the Riverland and played two games on the Saturday and one on the Sunday.

The Great Southern players to make the final squad were Mitch Portlock, Wes Glass, Andy McDonald, Todd Steele, Craig Dobson and Sam Alexopolous (Willunga), Nick Warren (Langhorne Creek), Jon Cheetham (Mt Compass), Matt Hodge (Victor Harbor) and Matt Ellis (Strathalbyn).

The coach of the Southern Districts side was Willunga's Barry Pilmore.

Saturday Game 1

Southern Districts V Northern Areas

With the aid of a two to three goal breeze, Southern opened with great intensity at the contest resulting in many attacking plays.

Goals to Ramsey and Vick opened their account and then Vick found space on the end of a Reavill handball to notch their third, 10 minutes in.

Northern opened their account with a good crumbing goal at half forward to stay in touch, but then Southern again took over with a strong Kettle tackle laying the foundation for another Vick goal.

Steele was dominant in ruck, Vick creating havoc through the middle and up forward and with Willson, Glass and McDonald mopping up everything in defence the forwards were seeing plenty of ball.

An excellent off hands gather by Ellis resulted in another goal and then long bombs from Cheetham and Hodge saw Southern hold a commanding six goal half time lead.

The second half tightened right up with Northern attacking hard, but Southern was equal to the challenge providing plenty of aggressive pressure around the ball.

The Southern team's run and carry dried up however and found it hard to score. Their intensity never waned though and they restricted the Northerners to just the two majors to run out winners 7-6 to 3-7.

Best Players: Southern - C Wilson, J Vick, W Glass, T Steele

Best Players: Northern - D Shillabeer, A Zubrinich, T Price, R Hobbs

Goal Kickers: Southern - J Vick 3, M Ellis, J Ramsey, M Hodge, J Cheetham 1

Goal Kickers: Northern - M Reatley, M Horner, K Grund 1

Saturday Game 2

Southern Districts V Murray Mallee Border and Barossa

With the winner to progress to Sunday's final, this game shaped as the match of the day and both sides didn't disappoint.

The standard of play was high as players from both sides put their bodies on the line.

Southern drew first blood when full forward Ramsey converted from a leading mark.

MMBB hit back straight away but then Vick snapped truly for the lead again. A high tackle resulted in a free to MMBB and the player made no mistake.

A classy goal to Dobson and then two more majors to Ramsey finished out a great half of football for the Southerners to lead 5-3 to 3-1.

Steele again was getting his hand to the ball in ruck, Bennetts and Habner winning many possessions and Smith on top in defence.

The second half was however a different story.

While play again was hotly contested the Southern attacking run diminished with the forwards starved of opportunities.

MMBB gradually wore the Southern side down and with their third goal for the half coming at the 18-minute mark they hit the front for the first time.

A further major just prior to the siren saw MMBB win a titanic struggle by 13 points, 7-6 to 5-3.

Coach Pilmore was quick to point out that the lack of quick movement in both second halves was the only disappointing aspect of the day.

He applauded the players on their efforts and forecast that the strong MMBB team was the team to beat for the championship.

Best Players: MMBB - M Arnold, J Keller, B Valentine, G Bain

Best Players: Southern - C Smith, T Steele, T Bennetts, T Habner

Goal Kickers: MMBB - R Bennett 2, G Bain, C McLean, M Camplin, R Proud, M Arnold 1

Goal Kickers: Southern - J Ramsey 3, C Dobson, J Vick 1

Sunday Game 3 (play-off for third and fourth place)

Southern V South East

The talented South East side certainly came to play. South East skipped away to a five-goal lead at quarter time but during the second and third quarters the Southern players lifted and at three quarter time were still in the hunt at 7-4 to 3-5.

But the effort to stay in the match told and as injuries mounted and all players of the 25 man squad were given their opportunities the South East slipped through another seven majors with excellent running team play to run out convincing winners 14-8 to 3-6.

A disappointing end to a spirited carnival by the Southern players with a clear message that a better preparation Saturday night was required to have given a chance to finish third.

In the end Murray Mallee Border and Barossa went on to win the final convincingly and Southern's showing against them the previous day showed that they were a lot closer than the final placing of fourth might suggest.

All in all a great Country Football Championship weekend of which the Southern Districts players and officials were keen to be involved. Acknowledgement should be given to the Kangaroo Island Football League who drove the Southern defence this year and to coaches Pilmore and Hill for their commitment to the program.

Congratulations also go to the players who made the Team of the Championship from Southern Districts in Smith, Habner and Vick and to those three along with Portlock and Ramsey who were announced in the Squad of 29 for the State Team to play in the Australian Country Football Championships in Shepparton later this month.

Best Players: South East - M Ellis, R Francis, H Hodge, J Pedler, S Dulding, L Oeal

Best Players: Southern - J Cheetham, B Dawe, T Habner, C Smith

Goal Kickers: South East: - J Sutherland, L Oneal 3, A Kilsby 2, R Morris, J Pedler, M Hartree, M Sinkunas, H Hodge, L Wiese 1

Goal Kickers: Southern - J Ramsey, C Dobson, M Portlock 1