Round 3 Optus WAFLW PreviewSaturday, March 6, 2021 - 6:05 AM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 3 of the Optus WAFLW Premiership Season shapes up as having the potential to provide the three best and most intriguing match ups so far highlighted by the undefeated Peel Thunder and Swan Districts locking horns on Saturday night.

It has been a fascinating first two weeks of action in the WAFLW competition with Peel Thunder beginning their premiership defence in style with two big wins.

Swan Districts have also been impressive winning their two matches and now both teams put those undefeated records on the line when they do battle at Mandurah's David Grays Arena on Saturday evening in what looms as the match of the 2021 WAFLW season to date.

There are two other big match ups in Round 3 of the 2021 season as well starting with East Fremantle and Subiaco facing off to begin proceedings at midday on Saturday at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park.

Both the Sharks and Lions are attempting to bounce back from last up losses and the game will be streamed live thanks to The West Australian.

The last game of the round then takes place at Claremont's Revo Fitness Stadium on Sunday afternoon with Claremont hosting South Fremantle. That game will be live streamed also thanks to Front Row Screens.

OPTUS WAFLW ROUND 2 WRAP

OPTUS WAFLW ROUND 1 WRAP

OPTUS WAFLW PREMIERSHIP SEASON PREVIEW

Round 3 in the 2021 Optus WAFLW Premiership Season gets underway on Saturday afternoon with the Sharks and Lions both desperate for a strong bounce back performance against one another.

East Fremantle has lost its opening two games of the season starting with a 32-point defeat at the hands of Peel Thunder before losing to Claremont last Sunday by eight points.

That leaves the Sharks sitting on an 0-2 record coming into their first home game of the season against Subiaco and they will be doing everything they can to avoid that 0-3 start to 2021.

Subiaco, meanwhile, just isn’t used to losing games so far in the WAFLW competition. The Lions finished on top of the ladder the last two seasons before falling in the preliminary final in 2019 and losing last year's Grand Final.

The Lions then opened their 2021 season with a narrow three-point victory against South Fremantle before losing the Grand Final rematch to Peel Thunder last Saturday.

East Fremantle has named plenty of changes from the team that lost to Claremont last Sunday with Emily Burton, Dorna Fedele, Evie Gooch, Samara Pluschke and Elle Sanders all inclusions.

Lea Caccamo, Mylee Leitch, Sara Lewis, Kahra Sprylan, Roisin Walsh and Zoe Gillard are the players to go out for the Sharks.

And at Subiaco, Taylisha Brown, Hayley Corlett, Beatrice Devlyn and Kate Pocsidio all come in at the expense of Abbey Dowrick, Courtney Guard, Dahna Lee and Mary Roseingrave. 

Next up in Round 3 is the battle of the undefeated teams after the first two rounds with Peel Thunder returning home to host Swan Districts in what looms as a tantalising match up.

Peel pulled off the remarkable performance to come away with the premiership last year and they certainly continue to prove that was no fluke with the way they have started the 2021 season.

The Thunder opened up their premiership defence beating East Fremantle by 32 points at home before backing that up in last week's Grand Final rematch with Subiaco at Leederville Oval with a 44-point triumph.

Swan Districts has made an emphatic start to the new season as well opening up with a six-point win against Claremont at home in Round 1 and then backing it up with a 53-point win last Sunday against South Fremantle away from home.

Peel has made a couple of changes from its team that beat Subiaco last week with Kerrilee Brown and Kaitlyn Hayes coming into the line-up at the expense of Gracie Fenton, Katie Jayne Greive and Beth Schilling.

There are four changes at Swan Districts as well with Shanae Davison, Mikayla Morrison, Ash Sharp and Bianca Webb all into the side from the one that beat South Fremantle a week ago.

Hayley Cole, Stephanie Graskoski, Danielle Wright and Mikayla Hyde all go out for the black-and-whites.

The round will then conclude with what should be also a fascinating match up between Claremont and South Fremantle.

The Tigers started their 2021 campaign kicking just the one goal in a narrow loss to Swan Districts before bouncing back to beat East Fremantle by eight points las Sunday.

They have only kicked three goals across their opening two matches but also only conceded three at the same time.

South Fremantle did open the new season impressive fashion only losing to Subiaco by three points at home but last week was tougher losing to Swan Districts by 53 points.

But Sunday presents another chance for them to claim that elusive first ever WAFLW victory.

Claremont has made a couple of changes to its side that beat East Fremantle a week ago with Adele Arnup and Madeleine Scanlon coming into the side with Emma Lendrum and Jessica Low going out.

There are a few changes again for South Fremantle as the Bulldogs hunt that WAFLW breakthrough victory.

Gabrielle Canicosa, Sarah Du Plessis and Liusaidh Gilchrist all come into the team to take on Swan Districts at Claremont Oval on Sunday while Clair Edwards, Chelsea Parnell, Poppy Stockwell and Sarah Wright go out.

OPTUS WAFLW PREMIERSHIP SEASON - ROUND 3

EAST FREMANTLE v SUBIACO – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 12.00PM
Livestream from The West Australian

PEEL THUNDER v SWAN DISTRICTS – DAVID GRAYS ARENA, SATURDAY 5.00PM

CLAREMONT v SOUTH FREMANTLE – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SUNDAY 1.00PM
Livestream from Front Row Screens