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Round 17 WAFLW PreviewFriday, June 10, 2022 - 9:14 AM - by Chris Pike
THE 2022 WAFLW home and away season comes to an end this Saturday afternoon and everything is on the line for Subiaco while they determine their own and Swan Districts' fortunes to see who takes part in the finals action.
Round 17 marks the end of the 2022 WAFLW season and it's set to be a thrilling finish with the last spot in the finals to be determined in the very last game with Subiaco at home to Peel Thunder at Leederville Oval.
Subiaco currently sits in fifth position coming into the last round but with Swan Districts having the bye, the equation is simple. If the Lions beat the Thunder at Leederville Oval then they will replace Swans in fourth position and play finals.
Should Peel beat Subiaco, then it will be Swan Districts who stays in fourth position and plays finals once again in 2022.
Either way, whoever makes it out of the Swans and Lions will then go on to play the Thunder in a first semi-final next weekend.
The Round 17 action begins at 2pm on Saturday afternoon with Claremont hosting West Perth at Revo Fitness Stadium – which has been confirmed as the Grand Final venue for 2022.
The Tigers can't move from second position no matter the result while West Perth is anchored to bottom spot but is still chasing that elusive first ever WAFLW victory.
The other Round 17 match up is a Fremantle Derby with South Fremantle hosting East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.
The Sharks can't be budged from top spot having gone through the season undefeated so far while the Bulldogs will be looking to end their improved WAFLW season on a high.
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Meanwhile the two matches for the last round in the WAFLW Reserves competition sees East Fremantle play Claremont, and Subiaco take on Peel Thunder.
Top spot will be decided when the Sharks take on the Tigers with the winner to claim the minor premiership ahead of the two teams again doing battle in next week's second semi-final.
Peel could also get off the bottom of the ladder and move into fourth spot replacing Subiaco if the Thunder beat the Lions as well.
There are also four matches in Round 17 of the Youth Girls Rogers Cup this weekend and while the teams that will take part in the finals has been decided, the order of the top four is anything but settled.
The last round action begins on Saturday morning with East Perth hosting Swan Districts before South Fremantle is at home to East Fremantle and Subiaco battles Peel Thunder. The home and away season wraps on Sunday with Claremont playing West Perth.
Coming into the last round East Fremantle are locked into top spot but the order of Peel, South Fremantle and Claremont in the other three finals spots will all be determined with the results this weekend.
CLAREMONT v WEST PERTH
Claremont will look to gear up for their finals assault hosting West Perth on Saturday while the Falcons will look to end their inaugural WAFLW campaign on a positive note.
The Tigers are at home to the Falcons at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday at 2pm as they prepare for the finals, and West Perth plays its last game of their first ever WAFLW season.
Claremont might be locked into second position on the WAFLW ladder having won 10 of their 13 matches so far this season, but the Tigers were disappointing last week kicking just one goal on the way to a loss to Subiaco.
That was the only match this season that the Tigers have lost to a team other than the undefeated East Fremantle so they will be determined to bounce back strongly on Saturday against West Perth.
It's a big challenge for the Falcons in their last game of the season. It's been tough going so far in their first campaign in the WAFLW competition and 13 losses with an average losing margin of 67.6 points highlights that.
West Perth has only managed a total of 105 points across those 13 matches but that doesn’t mean they can't throw everything at taking plenty of positives out of their last appearance against Claremont on Saturday.
The two teams have only met once so far in 2022 with Claremont winning 11.12 (78) to 0.0 (0) at Pentanet Stadium in Round 4.
On that occasion, Tessa Doumanis kicked four goals for Claremont and Eva Campo three with Sarah Viney racking up 24 touches, Sasha Goranova 23 and Adele Arnup 21 to go with 25 hit outs. Karla Stagg was the best for West Perth with 17 touches.
SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST FREMANTLE
South Fremantle has had its best ever WAFLW season and while it hasn’t ended up in a finals appearance, they have one more chance to end things on the ultimate high taking on the undefeated East Fremantle on Saturday.
Saturday's derby encounter will take place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval and while East Fremantle can't be budged from top spot no matter what happens and South Fremantle can't make finals it should be a terrific contest.
Just six days after the men's clash between the Bulldogs and Sharks drew 6000 people to the ground, the WAFLW derby will present a chance for South Fremantle to finish their best season yet in the competition on a high note.
Having never won a game in the past two seasons coming into 2022, South Fremantle has broken through for four wins this year coming into the derby clash with the league leading Sharks on Saturday.
East Fremantle might have missed the finals in 2021, but have now gone through 2022 undefeated after 13 games to be guaranteed of top spot and the minor premiership ahead of hosting next week's second semi-final against Claremont.
This will be the second derby clash of the 2022 WAFLW season with the first meeting back in Round 6 at New Choice Homes Park with East Fremantle winning 7.10 (52) to 2.2 (14).
On that occasion, Julia Teakle kicked six goals for East Fremantle while Ashleigh Gomes racked up 23 touches and Sharon Wong 19 to go with eight tackles. Liusaidh Gilchrist collected 18 disposals for South Fremantle as did Kiara Templeman.
SUBIACO v PEEL THUNDER
Everything goes on the line for Subiaco and Swan Districts when the Lions host Peel Thunder in a rematch of the 2020 WAFLW Grand Final at Leederville Oval on Saturday.
It just happens to work out that the very last game of the 2022 WAFLW season will be when the fourth and last finals position is determined when Subiaco hosts Peel Thunder at Leederville Oval.
While the Thunder are guaranteed of playing finals again coming into the clash, whether or not it's Subiaco or Swan Districts who end up finishing fourth and playing finals all comes down to the result.
Simply, if Subiaco wins they will play finals and if Peel wins, it will be Swan Districts reaching the finals again. And either way, it will be the Lions or Swans taking on the Thunder next week in a first semi-final.
Peel has won the last two WAFLW premierships and while they won't earn a finals double chance this time around, the Thunder will be taking part in finals action once more having locked away third position with a win over Swan Districts last week.
The Thunder are now guaranteed of finishing the season in third spot currently holding a 7-6 record on the season with Subiaco no chance of chasing down the percentage gap no matter what happens on Saturday afternoon.
Subiaco struggled for much of the 2022 season having been a fixture of the finals in the first three WAFLW seasons including reaching the Grand Final in 2020.
However, the Lions have got some key players back in the last part of the season and have been able to build some form and momentum, and now after beating Claremont last week, destiny is in their own hands on Saturday against Peel.
Subiaco has made three changes to its side coming into the cut-throat clash with Peel with Nyra Anderson, Tess Lyons and Jess Ritchie all returning to the line-up.
Going out from the team that beat Claremont last week are Aisling McCarthy, Kelsey Patterson and Jamie Rust.
Meanwhile for Peel, captain Cassie Davidson returns along with Anke Grove, Ebonee Hardie and Kaitlyn Srhoj.
Holly Britton, Sabreena Duffy, Cierra O'Donnell and Lara Thomas go out of the Peel team.