Round 13 Preview – East Fremantle v ClaremontSaturday, June 30, 2018 - 8:42 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Fremantle will be hoping getting a way to one of its strongest regional homes, a break and the shackles released with the new of Rob Wiley's pending departure will lead to an improved performance against Claremont in Geraldton on Saturday.

The WAFL returns to the regions on Saturday and Wonthella's Country Builders Stadium will play host to East Fremantle taking on Claremont.

The Sharks will be hoping to be a vastly different outfit than the one that lost by 64 points to Perth prior to last week's bye. Since then, coach Wiley has announced he will be standing down at the end of the season and this will be their first game since.

East Fremantle has lost its past three matches to South Fremantle, Subiaco and Perth by an average of 80 points since a surprise Round 8 victory over reigning premiers Peel Thunder.

That turned the pressure up on everyone at East Fremantle and it is Wiley who has been the first domino to fall, although at this stage he will remain coaching the Sharks the rest of the season including on Saturday.

Claremont can't afford to be sentimental, though, with a slip up against the bottom placed East Fremantle potentially fatal to the finals hopes of the Tigers.

Claremont has strung together a good run of form now having won three of their previous five matches against South Fremantle, Swan Districts and East Perth. The Tigers' two losses in that period were by a combined 12 points against Peel and West Perth.

As a result, Claremont is knocking on the door of the top five with a 4-7 record and should East Perth lose to South Fremantle and Swan Districts go down to Peel also on Saturday, the Tigers could finish Round 13 as high as fourth position if they beat East Fremantle.

However, a loss could prove irrecoverable for the Tigers as they could not only remain on the outside of the top five, but also be a game and percentage behind the Royals should they beat the Bulldogs.

The game will be held at Country Builders Stadium, the home of Towns Football Club, and it will be the ninth WAFL fixture held in the Geraldton area since 1985.

All eight previous matches took place at Geraldton Recreation Ground with East Fremantle the home team on each occasion. 

The first game was back in 1985 and a monster crowd of almost 8000 people saw East Fremantle beat Claremont by 19 points.  

Subiaco beat East Fremantle in 1988 before the Sharks would go on to beat Claremont in 1995, Perth in 2005, Claremont in 2008 and West Perth in 2011. West Perth also beat East Fremantle in 2003 and Subiaco won by 56 points in the most recent fixture in 2014.

As you would expect following the loss to Perth for East Fremantle two weeks ago and the upheaval since including Wiley's decision that he will stand down at season's end, there are potentially plenty of changes at the selection table for the Sharks.

They've had the week off to think about things since that 64-point loss and now Nick Kommer and Cameron Loersch have got themselves right to play on Saturday and both former AFL-listed players are important inclusions.

Carl Green, Tom Marshall, Kim Schofield and Jy Stone also come into the East Fremantle squad to be a chance to play against Claremont in Geraldton on Saturday.

Schofield looks set to make his league debut alongside older brother, and reigning Lynn Medallist, Jayden and it just happens to be that the pair are Geraldton products as they prepare for a first league match together.

The Sharks then lose Jonathon Marsh through an injury suffered in that defeat to Perth while Ben Harding and Ryan Lester-Smith lose their positions in the side.

Claremont will again be without impressive emerging ruckman Oliver Eastland and despite the good jobs done last week by Eddie Simpson and Kaiden Gilbert sharing the load against East Perth, the Tigers will go with Jeremy Goddard up against Jonathon Griffin on Saturday.

Jesse Laurie has also been added to the Claremont squad following that win against East Perth with the premiership defender a chance to make his first appearance in the league side for 2018.

Matthew Palfrey also comes into the squad of 25 for the Tigers but nobody has been named out at this stage.

EAST FREMANTLE (2-9, 9th) v CLAREMONT (4-7, 6th) – COUNTRY BUILDERS STADIUM, WONTHELLA, SATURDAY 4.45PM
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