Round 20 WAFL PreviewFriday, August 16, 2024 - 8:05 AM - by Chris Pike

IT is the penultimate round of the 2024 WAFL season and all five matches on Saturday have plenty at stake for different reasons including top five teams Peel Thunder and Swan Districts, and then East Perth and East Fremantle locking horns.

It is a race in six now for the five finals positions in 2024 meaning that South Fremantle and Claremont need to win their respective matches as they jostle over that fifth spot with the other four teams fighting over the order of the rest of the top five.

All five Round 20 matches take place on Saturday afternoon with the league leading Peel Thunder up against Swan Districts at Lane Group Stadium.

Peel comes into the game having won three straight matches to remain percentage clear in top spot with two games to go while Swan Districts is still third but trying to respond to a first loss in 10 weeks last Saturday against East Fremantle.

The other match up featuring two teams in the top five then sees East Perth hosting East Fremantle at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

The Royals have now won their last two matches to remain in second spot and only percentage out of first place while the reigning premier Sharks are in hot form having won five straight including ending the unbeaten run of Swans last week.

Perth will then play South Fremantle at Mineral Resources Park and it has some added intrigue with Peter German now departed as coach of the Demons and Todd Curley confirming he's in his last season with the Bulldogs.

Curley is South Fremantle's longest serving coach and took the Bulldogs to the premiership in 2020, but is just focused on keeping his team in the finals mix.

"I have probably been thinking about it for a little while and once I made the decision over the weekend, I was pretty keen let the club know and the players as soon as we could," Curley said.

"I let the club know Monday and we sort of had to wait around until Tuesday to tell the players, but once that's been done, it's a bit of relief. We've got two game to go and if we can both those and have a bit of luck, then we can still qualify. We'll see how we go."

Claremont replaced South Fremantle in fifth position having now won seven of the last nine matches, but the Tigers must keep winning to stay there when they host the West Coast Eagles at Revo Fitness Stadium.

The only match with no finals implications then features West Perth playing Subiaco at Pentanet Stadium with the Falcons attempting to get off the bottom to snap a 10-game losing streak.

The Lions are looking to make it consecutive wins following the victory against Perth last Saturday.

PEEL THUNDER v SWAN DISTRICTS – LANE GROUP STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.30PM

EAST PERTH v EAST FREMANTLE – SULLIVAN LOGISTICS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.30PM

PERTH v SOUTH FREMANTLE – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SATURDAY 2.30PM

CLAREMONT v WEST COAST EAGLES – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.30PM

WEST PERTH v SUBIACO – PENTANET STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.40PM