Round 1 WAFL PreviewThursday, April 14, 2022 - 3:54 PM - by Chris Pike

THE wait is almost over for the beginning of the 2022 WAFL season with three huge match ups to open the new campaign on Good Friday with Round 1 to conclude with the other two matches on Saturday including a Grand Final rematch.

There is great excitement surrounding the upcoming 2022 WAFL season and it's only fitting that Round 1 will get underway across the Easter Weekend.

There will be three matches on Good Friday with West Perth taking on Claremont, East Perth playing Swan Districts and Peel Thunder playing host to East Fremantle. 

The round will wrap up with two more matches on Saturday afternoon with Perth taking on the West Coast Eagles and Subiaco hosting South Fremantle.

There is so much to look forward to with West Perth taking on Claremont at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium. 

Former Tigers coach Darren Harris is back at the helm at the Falcons, Anton Hamp has also joined him at West Perth and reigning Sandover Medallist Bailey Rogers will be celebrating his 100th WAFL game for the occasion for Claremont.

East Perth will play host to Swan Districts at Leederville Oval for the first ever time with the Royals looking to begin their quest to return to finals action in 2022 while Swans are looking to build on being part of the finals again themselves in 2021.

The last game on Good Friday is the now annual fixture between Peel Thunder and East Fremantle at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium with both teams looking to put themselves back in the finals hunt in 2022.

Then on Saturday it's Perth taking on the West Coast Eagles on familiar turf for both teams at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

They were the bottom two teams in 2021 but neither will want to be back there again in 2022 and this Round 1 match up presents the chance for one of them get off to a confidence boosting start.

Then finally it's Subiaco taking on South Fremantle in a Grand Final rematch from last year at Leederville Oval. 

The Lions will be raising their premiership banner but the majority of their flag winning players are unlikely to be available through COVID while the Bulldogs will be looking to get one back on Subiaco no matter who the personnel is they come up against.

FULL 2022 WAFL SEASON PREVIEW

WEST PERTH v CLAREMONT

West Perth and Claremont both deserve to enter the 2022 with high expectations and with a natural rivalry between the two clubs, it's shaping as a fascinating Round 1 match up on Good Friday at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

You couldn’t have picked a better way to start the new season than West Perth hosting Claremont at the newly renamed Pentanet Stadium in Joondalup.

The game gets underway at 2.10pm with West Perth having won their previous four Round 1 matches played on their home ground in Joondalup including against Claremont back in the opening round of 2018.

This West Perth-Claremont rivalry is building into one of the more intense in the current day WAFL and their recent meetings have been fascinating.

Going back to last year, Claremont won big at home by 52 points in Round 5 but West Perth got a win back at Joondalup by 14 points in Round 12.

They then met in the first semi-final and it was the Tigers who came storming back in the fourth quarter to win by 24 points and end the season of the Falcons on their way to a heartbreaking preliminary final loss to South Fremantle.

That was a second first semi-final match up between the two teams over the past four years with West Perth ending Claremont's season back in 2018 on their way to the Grand Final against Subiaco.

There have been a host of fascinating home and away season match ups along the way in between, and this Good Friday could well take the cake with the added intrigue of Darren Harris and Anton Hamp in West Perth colours for the first time up against Claremont.

West Perth's Round 1 team to take on Claremont includes the inclusion of former Tigers 163-game veteran Hamp to make his debut with the Falcons. It's only fitting that happens to be up against Claremont on Friday.

Ben Johnson will also mark his return to West Perth following time in the AFL at the West Coast Eagles while former powerful East Perth forward Mitch Dobson will also make his first appearance for the Falcons.

Michael Mallard is another new face to lead the ruck for the Falcons, but the core of Aaron Black, Shane Nelson, Blake Wilhelm, Tyler Keitel, Keegan Knott, Luke Meadows, Trent Manzone, Noah Pegoraro, Tyson Moulton, Zac Guadagnin, Mark Hamilton and Dean Munns are all good to go for Round 1.

There has been quite significant player turnover at Claremont in the off-season but it's still a strong looking Round 1 team they will be putting on the park including Alex Manuel, Callan England, Ryan Lim, Jye Bolton, Declan Mountford, Declan Hardisty, Lachlan Martinis, Ben Edwards and Sandover Medallist Bailey Rogers.

Speaking of Rogers, he will also be celebrating his 100th game with Claremont for the occasion.

Claremont will also welcome back former colts star Ronin O'Connor from his time in the AFL while they will be looking for big contributions from fellow new faces Louis Passera, Logan Guelfi, Cameron Anderson and Jacob Blight first up against the Falcons.
 

EAST PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS

There is plenty of intrigue and excitement surrounding East Perth and Swan Districts coming into the 2022 WAFL season so how they open their campaigns on Good Friday at Leederville Oval is going to be captivating.

East Perth showed some good signs of heading in the right trajectory last year and will be looking to build on that further while it's been a slow build for Swan Districts to get back to finals, and they will want to keep that momentum going in 2022.

The Good Friday match up will be the first ever time that the Royals and Swans have met in Round 1 at Leederville Oval. The last time the black-and-whites beat East Perth in a Round 1 match up was way back in 1986.

It's been an interesting recent history between the two teams with Swan Districts winning both meetings by a combined 54 points in 2021 as they made their return to finals action.

However, prior to that it was East Perth who had won four in-a-row against Swan Districts between 2018 and 2020.

At Leederville Oval, this will be a 26th ever meeting between the two teams with East Perth having won 18 of the previous 25 but Swan Districts did win there by 13 points in Round 5 last year.

East Perth's line-up for 2022 is boosted by the return of Hamish Brayshaw to the Royals while Tom Medhat has arrived from West Perth and Elijah Taylor and Kyle Hamersley are among the other new faces in the team for Round 1 against Swan Districts.

What the Royals will be relying on is Scott Jones to hold down the ruck with a strong contingent through the midfield of not only Brayshaw, but Christian Ameduri, Angus Schumacher, Jackson Ramsay, Angus Scott and Stan Wright.

They will need Eddie Simpson to be the spearhead in attack with support from Nick Robertson, Shayne Hille, Tom Edwards-Baldwin and Taylor while down back, the Royals look solid led by Kye Willcocks, Jacob Msando, Taylor North and Corey Watts.

Swan Districts suffered a couple of late blows coming into the season losing Corey Gault and Jarrod Cameron to retirement on the back of the ACL injury from last year's first semi-final loss to West Perth to reigning fairest and best winner Frank Anderson.

However, Swans have made some good inclusions for 2022 and Jarvis Pina, Will Collins, Tobe Watson and Victorian wingman Ryan Kemp are among those named in the team for Round 1 to take on East Perth.

There's still a good core group at Swans as well with the back-line to again be anchored by new co-captains Brandon Erceg and Chris Jones along with Tony Notte, Tony Stephens, Jackson Beck and the returning Watson and Collins.

While the midfield won't have Gault in the ruck and Anderson, Matthew Germs will step up with Sam Fisher, Aidan Clarke and Jesse Turner while Jesse Palmer, Brayden Noble and Nathan Ireland will again be the main targets in attack.
 

PEEL THUNDER v EAST FREMANTLE

Peel Thunder and East Fremantle are two WAFL teams with hopes of getting themselves back in the finals hunt for 2022 so a winning start will be the target on Good Friday at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium.

This will be the fourth time that the Thunder and Sharks have met one another in Round 1 to open a new season having done it previously in 2009, 2018 and 2021. Overall though, Peel has only won five of its previous 21 Round 1 matches since entering the WAFL competition in 1997.

Meeting in Mandurah on Good Friday is now becoming somewhat of an annual tradition for the Thunder and Sharks, and overall the recent history between the two teams has been fascinating.

They split their meetings in 2021 with East Fremantle winning to open the season in Mandurah but Peel getting a win back at Shark Park in Round 14.

Going back beyond that and Peel has had the better of the recent battles winning 12 of the past 15 matches including going on a run of nine consecutive victories against East Fremantle.

There are new faces galore at the Thunder coming into the first season with Geoff Valentine as coach. Brad McGowan is among the players to return to Peel for 2022 with Ben Hancock, Tyrone Thorne, Blair Bell and Traye Bennell among those back to lead the way.

Peel will also have Fremantle-listed players Joel Hamling, Ethan Hughes, Nathan Wilson, Connor Blakely, Liam Henry, Mitch Crowden, Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss, Joel Western and Lloyd Meek for the Good Friday clash at home to East Fremantle.

East Fremantle suffered a triple blow on the eve of the season with the departure of ruckman Luke Strnadica, midfield recruit Tom Joyce and key forward and pinch-hit ruckman Hugh Dixon to the West Coast Eagles.

However, the Sharks will still be confident of pushing for a finals return in 2022 and starting with a bang in Mandurah on Good Friday.

It's not so much new faces the Sharks will be banking on, but improvement from within and with their key players Cody Leggett, Jonathan Marsh, Ryan Lester-Smith, Luke English, Blaine Boekhorst, Cam Eardley, Jamie Meade, Matthew Jupp and Kyle Baskerville to lead the way.

If the next group of Milan Murdock, Dillon O'Reilly, Alex Montauban, Lachlan Bailey, Durak Tucker, Matthew Burton, Finn Gorringe, Max Murphy and Cody Smith can step up and deliver more on their potential, then East Fremantle will be confident of a strong start against the Thunder.
 

PERTH v WEST COAST EAGLES

Perth and West Coast didn’t have WAFL seasons they were hoping for in 2021, but both the Demons and Eagles will be desperate to begin turning that around in their Round 1 clash for 2022.

Neither team had the 2021 seasons they had anticipated with both of them only ending up separated at the bottom of the ladder on four wins from the 18 matches.

The Eagles were struggling for personnel early in the season and lost their first eight matches, but they found some better form with better player availability mid-season to notch their four victories in the space of six matches.

It was the opposite story for the Demons. Coming off their breakthrough finals appearance in 2020, Perth won six of its first eight matches to be looking impressive in 2021.

However, they only won once more the rest of the season including losing their last 11 matches to close the campaign in disappointing fashion.

While Perth comes into the game on an 11-game losing streak, they have won their previous three Round 1 matches including against the Eagles in 2019 and 2021, and then Peel Thunder in between in 2020.

A win on Saturday would give Perth a perfect start to a season four years in-a-row for the first time since they did so for six straight seasons between 1966-71.

While Perth comes into the season having lost their past 11 matches, West Coast is also on a four-game losing streak.

This will be just the fifth ever meeting between the Demons and Eagles in the WAFL, and all five of them will have been played at the Lathlain venue.

Perth won the first clash by 46 points back in Round 1, 2019 before the Eagles beat the Demons by 19 points in Round 18 of that 2019 season.

West Coast didn’t take part in the 2020 campaign but returned in 2021 with Perth winning by 13 points in Round 1 and then the Eagles claiming a 56-point win in Round 17.
 

SUBIACO v SOUTH FREMANTLE

It's a Grand Final rematch between the last two WAFL premiership teams when Subiaco takes on South Fremantle at Leederville Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Subiaco and South Fremantle have played one another in two of the past three WAFL Grand Finals, they have combined to win the last four premierships and you couldn’t come up with a better way to start the season than them facing off on Saturday at Leederville Oval.

It just happens to be the first WAFL Grand Final rematch held in Round 1 this century as well. The last time a Grand Final rematch took place in Round 1 was a Fremantle Derby back in 1998.

If South Fremantle is going to turn around recent history against Subiaco, they are going to need to find a way to kick a winning score against the Lions. The Bulldogs have only managed an average of 40.3 points a game in the last three meetings with the Lions.

That is the lowest three-game aggregate for South Fremantle against Subiaco since they averaged just 32.3 points over the 1943-44 seasons played during World War II.

It's only fitting that Subiaco and South Fremantle open the new season against one another on the back of not only playing in last year's Grand Final, but given they have shared the past four premierships.

Subiaco won the flags of 2018, 2019 and 2021 with the last of those two courtesy of Grand Final victories against South Fremantle while the Bulldogs broke through in 2020 for their first premiership triumph in over a decade.

While the personnel on both teams will be significantly different for this Round 1 clash, Subiaco will be looking to maintain its impressive recent form against South Fremantle while the Bulldogs will be looking to begin turning that around.

The Lions have won the last three meetings between the teams including last year's Grand Final at Optus Stadium by an average of 36.7 points.

Going back further and Subiaco has won six of the previous eight matches between the two teams, 12 of the past 15 and 18 of the previous 22.

So Subiaco come into the clash in Round 1 at Leederville Oval with an 18-4 record against South Fremantle dating back to 2014 but that doesn’t really describe the competitive battles between the two teams in recent times.

Things at Leederville Oval recently have been even more in favour of Subiaco with the Lions having won 12 of the past 14 matches on their home ground against South Fremantle.

All of that should give the Lions confidence of a strong start to their new season on Saturday no matter who is available while at the same time, the Bulldogs won't be short on motivation of a first up win over Subiaco to kickstart their 2022 campaign.