Round 14 WAFL Wrap Up

CLAREMONT scored an upset win, Subiaco recorded an important win and West Perth kept its 2014 season alive with all three recording WAFL victories in Round 14.

The round began with two matches on Saturday afternoon with Claremont beating Swan Districts 15.7 (97) to 11.5 (71) at Bassendean’s Steel Blue Oval and Subiaco defeating Peel Thunder 11.18 (84) to 7.16 (58) at Leederville’s Medibank Stadium.

The round then concluded on Sunday with West Perth scoring an important, emphatic and comfortable 19.19 (133) to 10.11 (71) victory at Fremantle Oval.

The results see East Perth (10-2) remain on top of the ladder ahead of Swan Districts (10-2) by percentage with Subiaco (9-4) in third position and East Fremantle (8-4).

West Perth (6-6) remains the only team still in contention for the finals from outside the top four with Claremont (4-8), Perth (3-9), South Fremantle (3-9) and Peel Thunder (2-10) all tightly bunched in the bottom four positions.

Click here for the summary of Round 14 of the WAFL

THE BIG WINNERS
Claremont had a horror start to its 2014 season with its first five losses coming at an average of 73 points, but to coach Michael Broadbridge and his players’ credit the Tigers have turned things around impressively.

Since losing to East Perth by 80 points back in Round 8, Claremont has found a way to not only be more competitive but pull off a couple of upset wins against the third-placed Subiaco and then the second-placed Swan Districts in a dominant display on Saturday.

It has come on the back experienced players Mark Seaby, Luke Blackwell and Andrew Foster leading the way while Jack Bradshaw, Corey Yeo, Brenden Abbott, Ben Daniher, Mitch McGovern, Matthew Goyder, Hugo Breakey, Lachlan Davey and Jordan McAllister continue to emerge.

Based on the impressive recent performances, Claremont might not be far away from building on its last four years that brought about two premierships, three grand final appearances and four minor premierships.

THE BIG LOSERS
South Fremantle continues to struggle and now faces a big task to avoid the wooden spoon having lost five straight matches to be a game off bottom spot with two games this season against Peel remaining.

The Bulldogs will now miss the finals for the third straight season and while there were encouraging signs in both 2012 and 2013 with a number of competitive losses and strong finishes to both seasons, 2014 has fallen right off the rails.

South Fremantle lost its first four games but there were enough good signs there and things became encouraging with wins over West Perth, East Fremantle and Claremont, but losses to Peel, East Fremantle, East Perth, Swan Districts and West Perth since have been disappointing.

Particularly the last two weeks when the Bulldogs went scoreless in the last quarter to lose to Swans after leading by 32 points at three quarter-time, and then a non-competitive showing after quarter-time on Sunday against West Perth to lose by 62 points.

South Fremantle is a team full of talent led by Ryan Cook, Ashton Hams, Craig White, Adam Guglielmana, Toby Bairstow, Dylan Ross and Nick Borovac while Ben Saunders, Haiden Schloithe, Jarrod Parry, Tim Kelly, Anthony Collica, Brendan Verrier, Steven Verrier, Ben Sokol and Zac Strom are youthful to be part of a potentially successful future.

However, things currently are far from clicking at the port for whatever reason.

THE SHINING LIGHTS
Claremont was on top from the outset against Swan Districts on Saturday leading by 12 points at quarter-time, by 19 at half-time and then 23 at three quarter-time.

Swans were always going to make a charge with the confidence of having come from 32 points down last week to kick six goals to nil in the final quarter to beat South Fremantle, and they came out and kicked the first two goals of final term to get within 11 points.

Claremont did well to steady, though, and kicked three of the game’s last four goals to win by 26 points and move up into sixth position on the ladder in the process.

Dual premiership player Andrew Foster was outstanding for Claremont finishing with 25 possessions and two goals with Brenden Abbott, Ben Daniher and Mitch McGovern all kicking two goals each for the Tigers and Jack Bradshaw adding three from 16 disposals.

Mark Seaby led the way in the ruck for the Tigers with 38 hit outs to go with 19 possessions, six tackles and five marks while Ryan Neates racked up 30 possessions, Luke Blackwell 27 and Corey Yeo 20.

Tim Geappen returned for Swan Districts after a week off with a hamstring niggle with four goals while Ryan Davis booted two to go with 20 possessions and eight tackles.

It was Adam Faulkner who was the best for Swans all day, though, finishing with 32 possessions, six marks, six tackles, four inside-50 entries and two goals.

Subiaco’s clash with Peel at Medibank Stadium was a drama-filled affair despite neither side able to execute their skills around the ground or in front of goal throughout the afternoon.

In the finish, the only player to take his chances in front of goal was Subiaco’s George Hampson who kicked the last four goals of the match to set up the 26-point victory and his entrance as a match-winner coincided with his opponent for the day Sam Menegola going off with concussion after keeping Hampson quiet up until midway through the third quarter.

However, the drama for Peel came in the first half when the Thunder had to start the match without Fremantle pair Kepler Bradley and Tom Sheridan who were required by the Dockers to take part in the warm-up at Patersons Stadium.

The pair did not arrive on to the bench at Medibank Stadium until the 16-minute mark of the second quarter with Bradley taking his place at full-back at the 21-minute mark and Sheridan joining the midfield a couple of minutes later.

Peel had done well up until that point to only be a goal behind Subiaco, but actually should have been doing much better had it not been for poor kicking in front of goal.

Once they arrived, the pair were two of Peel’s better players with Bradley shutting down Boland before the Subiaco full-forward injured a hamstring and Sheridan racking up 17 possessions in little more than a half.

Subiaco captain Kyal Horsley again led the Lions with 32 possessions, five tackles and a goal with Wayde Twomey gathering 20 disposals, Jason Bristow 19, Shaun Hildebrandt 18 and defender Daniel Leishman 17.

The ruck battle between Subiaco’s Frank Stockley and Andrew McDougall, and Peel’s Jonathon Griffin and Jack Hannath and all four were strong contributors for their sides.

Peel had its chances in front of goal with Michael Apeness and Hannath kicking two goals each but Scott Gumbleton and Laine Wilkins only managed to combine for eight behinds.

Anthony Morabito was again terrific with 24 possessions for the Thunder while Matt de Boer had 20 disposals, Eddie Dann 18 and Brendon Jones 16 to go with the first goal of the match.

Nick Rodda was the star for West Perth on Sunday up forward kicking a career-best five goals from 10 kicks and eight marks. Matt Johnson was also outstanding across half-forward for the Falcons with three goals from 24 possessions and nine marks.

Marc Crisp had a good game for the Falcons with two goals from 19 disposals, six inside 50s and five marks.

West Perth’s midfield worked its way on top led by Shane Nelson with 36 possessions and six inside-50 entries. Rohan Kerr racked up 26 possessions with eight marks, six inside 50s and a goal, and Aaron Black 25 disposals, nine marks, eight inside-50 entries and a goal.

Chris Keunen was the best ruckman on the ground finishing with 13 possessions and 29 hit outs.

The Falcons back-line might have had to only deal with 31 inside-50 entries from South Fremantle, but stood up well with Dan Hunt keeping Josh Pullman to the one kick while Jordan Jones and Andrew Strijk both provided rebound with 22 possessions apiece.