Round 3 WAFL Preview

CLAREMONT captain Declan Mountford is confident the Tigers can bounce back and get their first win of 2024 as they take on South Fremantle as part of Round 3 of the WAFL on Saturday.

It’s been an unusual start to the season for the Tigers losing their opening two games including a shock 90-point defeat at the hands of East Fremantle last Saturday – their biggest since losing by 131 points to Subiaco back in 2008.

Claremont has been up for a long time with six straight finals appearances including heartbreaking grand final losses in both 2020 and 2022, but now they find themselves needing to hit back against South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday.

The two teams are no strangers to playing for high stakes including that 2020 grand final and preliminary finals of 2019 and 2021, and Claremont captain Mountford is confident of a strong response to last week’s loss to East Fremantle.

“Obviously it wasn’t up to the kind of standards that we have set for ourselves over the last few years and it is a bit different this year getting off to a bit of a losing start whereas the previous few years we’ve come out of the gates pretty hot,” Mountford said on 91.3 SportFM.

“But we’ve sort of come into this year as a bit of a different group and we’re pretty young. We’ve had a big week on the track now and are looking to bounce back on Saturday.

“It sort of seems like a bit of a second home playing South Fremantle down at Fremantle Oval, and there’s still a lot of familiar names there on their team with Schloithe coming back, the Strom boys and a few others who have been around a while.”

The other Round 3 WAFL matches include Peel Thunder looking to bounce back on Saturday hosting the undefeated East Perth while Subiaco is at home to West Perth, and Perth plays host to Swan Districts.

The round then wraps up on Sunday morning at Mineral Resources Park with West Coast up against East Fremantle.

PEEL THUNDER v EAST PERTH – LANE GROUP STADIUM, SATURDAY 1.40PM

SOUTH FREMANTLE v CLAREMONT – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

SUBIACO v WEST PERTH – SULLIVAN LOGISTICS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM

PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SATURDAY 4.10PM

WEST COAST EAGLES v EAST FREMANTLE – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SUNDAY 10.00AM