Ugle, O'Brien two excited Peel leaders ahead of Grand FinalFriday, September 23, 2016 - 7:39 PM - by Chris Pike

ONE is finding his feet in his first season as captain and the other is the experienced head in a club making history but Gerald Ugle and Rory O'Brien are equally excited to be representing Peel Thunder in Sunday's WAFL Grand Final against Subiaco.

Peel has qualified for its first ever WAFL Grand Final this Sunday against the two-time defending premiers Subiaco at Domain Stadium with the Thunder coming off their first three finals victories in the club's history.

The Thunder are in their 21st season in the league and playing in a second ever finals series. The first time was last year when they lost to West Perth and East Perth.

This year they finished the home and away season in fourth position and have gone on to beat East Perth by 49 points, West Perth by 60 and South Fremantle by 39 to book a spot in the Grand Final on Sunday.

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While a lot has been made of the 17 Fremantle-listed AFL players Peel has had through the finals and will have in the Grand Final, their WAFL players deserve recognition as well.

That includes the players that have missed selection including Andrew Haydon, Ben Hancock, Brad Walsh, Calvin Thorne, Josh Mathers, Traye Bennell, Alexander Bray, Brad McGowan, Brett Milward and Keegan Power.

But Ugle, O'Brien, Brayden Lawler, Josh Bootsma and Blair Bell have been the five players to line-up throughout the finals and they have done a tremendous job in all three victories over the Royals, Falcons and Bulldogs.

Ugle is in his second season with Peel having crossed from Perth where he returned in 2014 after time in the AFL with the GWS Giants. He had such an impact last season that he was appointed captain in 2016 to replace the retired Brendon Jones.

The 23-year-old has now been captain in Peel's first three finals victories and he is still pinching himself that he is going to be leading the Thunder into a Grand Final on Sunday.

"It will be massive to be able to captain our club into the Grand Final. Just being captain itself is a big thing, but to captain a team that is now playing in finals and has won some games is huge as well," Ugle said.

"One of my main things is to keep all the boys who haven't been selected positive and motivated to keep training with the rest of us and who knows what can happen now on Sunday."

While Ugle has taken on the responsibility of captain in 2016 at Peel following the retirement of Jones and with Leroy Jetta being unavailable, the return to the Thunder of O'Brien has been enormous.

Ugle can't speak more highly of not only how much O'Brien has helped in terms of his performance on the field but with his leadership as well.

"Rory has come in and he's made an impact straight away like you would expect. All the boys love him and he works so hard so it's no surprise to see him play so well," Ugle said.

"He just leads by example and he has been great for me to have around me as a senior player so I can sponge off him and try to learn as much off him as I can.

"Just watching how he prepares for games and trains, he doesn’t miss a beat. It's been awesome having him down at the club with everything he brings."

Playing finals was a long way off happening during O'Brien's first 92 games at Peel Thunder after making his debut in 2005 and then before departing for East Fremantle in 2011.

He played 108 games at the Sharks during which time he experienced a Grand Final in 2012 while winning another three fairest and best awards along with playing for Western Australia and winning the 2013 Sandover Medal.

The travel to and from Mandurah with three young children at home was something O'Brien didn’t want to continue to do so the option in 2016 was to either return to his original club Peel or retire from the WAFL.

The 30-year-old is delighted that a return to the Thunder was able to be organised and in returned he has delivered another standout season averaging 27.8 possessions a game even though he has spent as much time across half-forward as he has in the midfield.

Having been through some tough times at Peel, O'Brien is now delighted to be part of some success at his home town club.

"It's sort of surreal to now be part of winning finals at this club. You dream about playing and winning finals, and that's why we all play football," O'Brien said.

"To now do it with the club that give me my first opportunity to play league football and with the bunch of blokes we've got, it's fantastic. There's a buzz in the stomach and now come Sunday on 2.30 it's going to be an exciting time."

O'Brien's other Grand Final appearance with East Fremantle in 2012 saw the Sharks come up against a super Claremont team on the way to back-to-back premierships.

The challenge now in 2016 from O'Brien and the Thunder is to take on a Subiaco team trying to win a third straight premiership. He knows that winning a flag is even tougher than just making a Grand Final but he now hopes it's second time lucky.

"Subiaco are a quality side obviously and they are just so used to playing in grand finals. But to now get the opportunity to play against Subiaco and challenge them and ourselves in a grand final, it's a fantastic opportunity," he said.

"I don’t know if I'll be able to sleep all week now knowing we're there. It is pretty exciting and given I've already been there once at East Fremantle and didn’t get the job done, it's even more motivation.

"But to now be able to be there with the club that first gave me the opportunity is pretty exciting that's for sure."

Peel has already played and beaten Subiaco once this year at Domain Stadium having pulled off a stunning come from behind win in Round 12 when local product Bell stood tall in the dying stages to kick the winning goal.

Only time will tell if it has any impact come Sunday, but O'Brien would like to think the Thunder can take something positive out of that result.

"It might give us a little bit of confidence, you never know," O'Brien said.

"Their side will have a totally different make up from that day and ours probably will too, but it's nice knowing we have beat them on that ground before. We'll have a look at it and see what worked that day to see if we can try and replicate something similar."