Ugle enjoying leadership role in Peel’s quest to make finals history

PEEL Thunder is looking to get its tilt at a historic WAFL finals appearance back on track against East Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Sunday with star recruit Gerald Ugle enjoying his move and the leadership role with his new club despite being just 22 years of age.

Peel is yet to seriously threaten to play in a WAFL finals campaign since entering the competition in 1997, but this year it appears a distinct possibility and a win over East Perth would make that even more likely.

The Thunder already went on a club record four-match winning streak earlier this season and remain in the top-five with a 5-5 record and they could finish Round 12 as high as second with a win over the Royals.

Peel’s form in recent weeks might not have been as good as early in 2015, but the Thunder remain right in the mix to play finals and despite a four-point loss to West Perth last Saturday, it was a high quality game that they just came up short in.

Ugle now hopes that Peel can continue that strong form this Sunday against East Perth, but get over the line.

“It’s definitely a big game. East Perth have bounced right back and put in a lot different side than when we first played them so Sunday will be an interesting game,” Ugle said.

“It was really disappointing not to get over the line. West Perth have got us twice now by around that one goal mark this year and we just have to get back to playing our best footy because we know when we do that we can beat any team in the comp.

“That was one of the better games we’ve played this year actually, but we were unlucky through some of our decision-making and mistakes during that last quarter that cost us in the end. We still take confidence that we played pretty well for most of the game.”

Ugle has joined Peel this season after originally being drafted to the GWS Giants from Perth, and playing three AFL games before returning to the Demons last year. He had a good season with Perth last year kicking 18 goals in 19 games and averaging 18.4 disposals a game.