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Week 1 Finals WAFL PreviewFriday, September 9, 2022 - 12:04 PM - by Chris Pike
FOLLOWING a remarkably tightly contested WAFL season with the five finals teams not confirmed until the very last match, the 2022 finals series gets underway with a bang this weekend with two match ups with four teams with premiership aspirations.
It was the closest WAFL home and away season in recent memory throughout 2022 with the top four positions all capable of changing going into the last round, while the fifth and last finals position wasn't decided in the last game on Sunday.
In the end, West Perth claimed its first minor premiership since 1993 to earn themselves a break in the first week of the finals leaving East Fremantle, Claremont, South Fremantle and Peel Thunder to do battle this weekend.
The action gets underway on Saturday afternoon at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park with East Fremantle marking its return to finals action for the first time since 2014 by playing host to Claremont.
The winner of the qualifying final will take on West Perth next week in a second semi-final while the loser will be at home for a first semi-final.
Then on Sunday afternoon at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, it will be South Fremantle playing in a seventh straight finals campaign playing host to a Peel Thunder being back in the finals for the first time since winning back-to-back premierships.
The winner will stay alive and advance to a first semi-final while the season is over for the loser.
Meanwhile, the reserves finals will see Claremont take on South Fremantle in the qualifying final at New Choice Homes Park on Saturday while the elimination final will see Subiaco take on Swan Districts at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Sunday.
And in the colts, Peel Thunder will play Subiaco in the qualifying final on Saturday at New Choice Homes Park while the elimination final will take place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Sunday afternoon between East Perth and South Fremantle.
FINALS ANALYSIS - EAST FREMANTLE
FINALS ANALYSIS - SOUTH FREMANTLE
FINALS ANALYSIS - PEEL THUNDER
ROUND 20 WAFL TEAM OF THE WEEK
WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON 2022 – WEEK 1 FINALS
QUALIFYING FINAL – EAST FREMANTLE v CLAREMONT
East Fremantle will mark its finals return by playing host to Claremont with a spot in the second semi-final up for grabs at New Choice Homes Park on Saturday.
East Fremantle is back in the finals for the first time since 2014 and the Sharks will play just their third ever final at Shark Park when they play host to Claremont in Saturday's qualifying final.
The winner of the contest will advance to next week's second semi-final with a Grand Final spot up for grabs against West Perth at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium while the loser will take advantage of the double chance by hosting a first semi-final.
East Fremantle earned the right to host the qualifying final by finishing the home and away season in second position on the WAFL ladder with a 13-5 record.
Claremont finished on the same 13-5 record but ended up in third spot courtesy of percentage with both teams earning the finals' double chance.
East Fremantle is playing its first finals campaign since 2014 where the Sharks lost in the preliminary final to Subiaco on the back of kicking 7.26. It's been a rough road since for East Fremantle but now in coach Bill Monaghan's fourth season in charge, they are back in the finals hunt.
Claremont, meanwhile, is playing in a fifth straight finals series on the back of reaching the first semi-final of 2018, preliminary final of 2019, Grand Final of 2020 and preliminary final of 2021.
The two teams played another twice during the 2022 season with Claremont winning by 16 points in Round 9 at the WACA Ground before East Fremantle scored a thumping 45-point win in Round 19 at Revo Fitness Stadium.
Prior to this season, Claremont had won 10 matches in-a-row against East Fremantle dating back to Round 10, 2016. Going back further and the Tigers had won 13 of the last 14 matches against the Sharks before that Round 19 win for East Fremantle.
East Fremantle enters the finals on the back of a three-game winning streak having beaten Swan Districts, Claremont and East Perth over the last three weeks to secure second position and home ground advantage for Saturday's qualifying final.
Claremont locked away third position by beating West Coast last week to also earn the finals' double chance.
Saturday's game will be the first time the teams have played in a final with one another since the 2012 Grand Final where Claremont prevailed by 26 points to make it back-to-back premierships.
Claremont has played in just one Grand Final since that game while East Fremantle hasn’t made it back there, but a win on Saturday and it's a step closer for the winner to do just that in 2022.
East Fremantle coach Bill Monaghan is proud of his team's performance to get back to the finals for the first time since 2014 with everything they've had thrown at them.
"We're pretty happy with what we've been able to achieve up to this point. I guess there's been a few doubters and we've had a fair few personnel issues mainly due to the AFL but we've also got a couple of other guys go out injured," Monaghan said.
"I'm really proud of what the players been able to achieve but we've had a brief chat since Saturday about how it's a new season now and what happened up to this point is somewhat irrelevant over the next four weeks.
"We'll reset and hopefully the boys will come out firing this week against Claremont who we were able to beat quite comfortably a couple of weeks ago. We're expecting a fired up Claremont this week and it will be a great test for us to be back in the finals for the first time in eight or nine years."
Claremont coach Ashley Prescott is looking forward to leading the Tigers back into another finals campaign and is expecting a much better showing from his team than two weeks ago against the Sharks.
"We're feeling pretty good. Overall as a footy club we got through the home and away with 25 wins and nine losses from our reserves and senior group so it's a pleasing spot to be in. Now the season starts again," Prescott said.
"We learned in that last game that they are very good and that you need to be at your best against them. We got beaten around the ball, behind the ball and ahead of the ball really quite convincingly so it was quite disappointing.
"But you do take quite a bit away from it and we knew there was every chance that we might play them again so hopefully we can improve on that performance."
ELIMINATION FINAL – SOUTH FREMANTLE v PEEL THUNDER
The seasons of South Fremantle and Peel Thunder go on the line when two teams no stranger to battling one another in finals lock horns at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Sunday.
While South Fremantle and Peel Thunder deserve to enter the 2022 finals series thinking their best football is good enough to win the premiership, the reality is the season will be over for one of them by Sunday afternoon.
The Bulldogs and Thunder lock horns at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in an elimination final with the winner to advance to a first semi-final against either East Fremantle or Claremont, while the season will be over for the loser.
South Fremantle comes into the elimination final having finished the home and away season in fourth position with 12 wins, five losses and a draw on the back of winning their last three matches against Subiaco, East Perth and Perth.
Peel, meanwhile, took until Sunday to guarantee a spot in the finals when the Thunder beat Swan Districts by 92 points at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium which saw them secure fifth position with an 11-7 record.
The two teams met twice during the 2022 season with South Fremantle winning by 26 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in Round 5 while Peel hit back with a 14-point win at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium in Round 17.
Prior that win from the Thunder a month ago, the Bulldogs had beaten them six straight times and in seven of the last eight clashes since they last met in a final.
Both finals the two teams have done battle in also took place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval starting with the preliminary final of 2016 where Peel won by 39 points on the way to breaking through for a maiden premiership.
The Thunder then also defeated the Bulldogs in the qualifying final of 2017 by 18 points to go on and end up winning back-to-back premierships.
However, Peel has not played in a final since that 2017 Grand Final win against Subiaco.
South Fremantle, meanwhile, is gearing up to take part in a seventh consecutive finals series on the back of bowing out in preliminary finals of 2016, 2017 and 2018, and then losing Grand Finals to Subiaco in 2019 and 2021, and winning the premiership by beating Claremont in 2020.
South Fremantle coach Todd Curley rightfully has great confidence in his group who are accustomed to now playing finals and have finished the home and away season in 2022 in strong form.
"We're really excited. We've got all our teams in the finals for week one and that's all you want when you start training in November. It's been a super close competition and we finished fourth but we were essentially only one game off top.
"The weather is now supposed to be pretty good on Sunday and we're looking forward to it. We didn’t have the best start this season but since then we've been pretty consistent and over the last eight weeks or so of the season we've won six and-a-half out of eight.
"We're going into the finals in pretty good shape and obviously Peel have been in pretty good form as well but we've won one and we've won one so far this year, and in both those games they've had pretty much the same team that they'll have this week.
"We go in with a lot of confidence and we think our best footy has certainly been building towards the back half of the year and we're looking forward to Sunday."
Peel Thunder coach Geoff Valentine is in his first season coaching the Mandurah-based club and is hoping his team can keep their form going in Sunday's elimination final and beyond.
"We think our best footy matches up with anybody but we have to get through South Fremantle before thinking about anything else," Valentine said.
"We are 1-1 with them this year. They gave us a touch up earlier in the year at Fremantle Oval but if we're very fortunate enough to get through that we'll start preparing to play either East Fremantle or Claremont, and will continue to work through it as long as we can.
"It's shaping as a cracking finals series and I think the team that can stay healthy and get into form at the right time and separate themselves over the next few weeks who will end up going all the way. Hopefully that can be us."