EP Captain Simon Pedler won the toss and kicked to the southern or river end in the first half with no advantage on a perfect morning for footy with the manicured surface in tip-top condition.

Eyre Peninsula didn’t waste any time getting the scoreboard ticking over with Aiden Whitford marking a pass 40 metres out from goal and converting with 2 minutes on the clock.

Central had two chances to goal a couple of minutes later but a set-shot by Tyson Willmott from 40 metres out went through off hands for a point and following the kick-in Josh Lawson missed a snap at goal off the left boot.

EP cleared the area from the kick-in but only as far as the wing where Todd Miles gathered the footy, handballed back to James Vandeleur who squared it up to the centre, Ryan Darling gathered, handballed to Ryan McDermid and he snapped truly from 45 metres out.

approaching the 9-minute mark Brodie Murphy marked a pass from Willmott after good work from Paul Jones, John Southern and Darling but he missed the target from 35 metres out.

Peter Mann marked the kick-in from full-back, bombed the footy back into the danger zone, Willmott gathered it beautifully and snapped successfully from 30 metres out.

With 15 minutes on the clock EP got one back when Kyle Jenner pounced on a loose ball, had two bounces, handballed to Carl Semmler and he booted the major but Central answered two minutes later.

Mann marked a clearing kick out of defence by EP, kicked forward, Southern gathered, ran to within 45 metres of goal and nailed a very good major to give Central some breathing space.

Entering the time-on period Willmott gathered an errant handball by E.P., handballed to Miles, handball to McDermid, handball to Mann, 10-metre handball to Todd Price who kicked to full-forward, the ball went over the back, Murphy gathered and popped through another goal for Central.

Joel Wilson had a shot for goal soon after for Central but the EP defence rushed it through for a behind. EP failed to clear the area from the kick-in, Darling snavelled the footy but missed the snap at goal from 35 metres out.

Lawson gathered the kick-in, drilled Murphy with a magnificent pass and the full-forward booted his second major for the term from 20 metres out.

A terrific opening stanza from Central with Darling leading the way with 12 possessions, Mann had the footy 10 times, Miles won every tap with McDermid, Southern, Willmott and Jones getting plenty of the ball to lead by 23 points.

HALF TIME: CENTRAL 5.5 (35), EP 2.0 (12)

Miles won the tap at the opening bounce of the second half but EP cleared the footy to half-forward resulting in a shot for goal but they were off line.

With 2 minutes on the clock Whitford accepted a good pass and kicked his second goal for the game for EP to cut the margin back to 16 points.

At the 5-minute mark following a behind to EP Craig Curtis received a free, handballed to Michael Curtis who kicked to the hotspot, Murray Kelsh was given a free and he made no mistake to make it a 9-point ball game.

Halfway through the term Miles won the tap at a boundary throw-in to Lawson who handballed to Mann and he delivered a terrific pass to Murphy on the lead. Murphy sent home his third goal for the game and the margin was back out to 15 points.

EP could’ve cut the margin back to 9 points with 15 minutes gone but they missed a snap at goal from close range.

Will Bradley had the final shot at goal for the game with a snap from 30 metres out but the footy went the wrong side of the large upright.

EP played much better footy in the second half of the contest but Central set up their victory in the first half and won the opening game of the 2008 SA Country Championships by 15 points.

FINAL SCORE: CENTRAL 6.6 (42) d EP 4.3 (27)