Thunder not afraid to shoot for premiership hat-trickFriday, March 23, 2018 - 6:25 PM - by Chris Pike

TWO premierships the past two WAFL seasons have Peel Thunder well and truly the hunted coming into 2018, but for coach Cam Shepherd it also has them a club people want to be part of and he has no reason to think they can't give a hat-trick a real crack.

It's remarkable to think that four years ago Peel Thunder had never played in a WAFL final since entering the competition in 1997.

They first qualified for finals in 2015 and ended up playing in two finals, but lost to West Perth at HBF Arena and then to East Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium to bow out in straight sets.

Then entering the 2016 finals series, they were yet to win a final in the club's history but that changed with an elimination final victory over East Perth in Mandurah.

They backed it up with wins over West Perth and South Fremantle to book a place in the 2016 Grand Final where they went on to make history and defeat Subiaco to claim the maiden premiership.

On the back of that, Peel backed up in 2017 by ending the home and away season in third position before beating South Fremantle in the qualifying final and Subiaco in the second semi-final to reach a second straight Grand Final.

And the Thunder went on to make it back-to-back premierships meaning there is every reason for them to be feeling good entering the 2018 season as they chase what would be a remarkable third consecutive WAFL flag having never won a solitary final before the run started.

While Peel will again be aligned with Fremantle so the AFL-listed players will have a significant say in their fortunes in 2018, there's plenty of talent and experience from the Thunder-listed players too.

Even though the retired Rory O'Brien leaves a big hole, really he's the only loss of any significance from last year for the Thunder. They welcome back Ben Howlett from Essendon in the AFL while Andrew Haydon returns having been an important midfielder in 2016.

There are plenty more local players that Shepherd is looking forward to developing further this year too. He is glad to see so many want to be part of Peel because of the winning culture they have created alongside the partnership with Fremantle.

"We've gone from being a club that had limited, or no success, to having great success and young players want to be part of that success," Shepherd told 91.3 SportFM.

"We only averaged 10 players a week from Fremantle last year and then the finals came along we kicked in, but a lot of young ones are still in the infancy of their careers who didn’t play. 

"At any football club you need to have your experienced and better players on the park when you are playing finals, but there's great opportunities at our club. We've seen that over the pre-season where we had 55 or 60 on the track and they were all keen to pursue their football careers."

Shepherd is especially looking forward to seeing what Howlett can produce for Peel in 2018 with the 2009 fairest and best winner returning after 124 games at Essendon over the past eight years.

Leroy Jetta is another that Shepherd is expecting big things from after his 2017 was interrupted midway through with a knee injury even though he returned to contribute to the premiership.

"Ben's come back and has been a real leader around the club. He has trained really strongly and we are expecting him to have a big year," he said.

"Leroy has been up in Darwin a bit playing footy and he finished last year with those wonderful two goals in the Grand Final. Again we are looking forward to him having a good year."

There are plenty of Fremantle-listed players, both new and retained, that Shepherd is looking to see how they can contribute to Peel in 2018. But he's just as excited to see the Thunder-listed players like Gerald Ugle, Traye Bennell and Michael Tassone as well.

"In terms of the Fremantle players, obviously they get a bit of size and shape added to them really quickly and it will be interesting to see how we merge together this year," Shepherd said.

"I think in our side, I look at young men like Traye Bennell who came across to us and played in a premiership last year, and I think he'll have a wonderful season. 

"We have a couple of young guys who started their careers last year in the league side like Michael Tassone, I think he'll have a good year. Gerald Ugle is looking in wonderful nick and he has been training the house down. I think there's a lot of excitement in our team at Peel."