Week 1 Finals WAFL PreviewFriday, August 30, 2024 - 7:50 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Fremantle and Claremont enter the WAFL finals in hot form but one of them will see their seasons end after the opening finals weekend while Peel Thunder and Swan Districts are out to move within one win of a Grand Final.

It was a thrilling finish to the home and away season with East Perth beating Peel to lock away the minor premiership to earn the week off in the first week of the finals.

While the Royals get to sit back, their second semi-final opponent will be determined with Peel hosting Swan Districts on Saturday at Lane Group Stadium in Mandurah.

The Thunder are coming off the Grand Final last year and did occupy top spot most of the second half of 2024 but still finish second to earn the right to host the qualifying final.

They come up against a Swan Districts team playing finals for the first time since 2021 and having earned a double chance for the first time since 2012.

Swans haven’t won a final since the 2017 elimination final and haven't won a final away from Steel Blue Oval since the remarkable 2010 Grand Final win against Claremont.

Experienced defender Tony Stephens can't wait to try and play in the first finals win in what will be the 86th game of his WAFL career.

"It's almost a little bit surreal really and I'm so excited to get stuck into the finals. I'm looking forward to finding out what sort of match ups Pruey has for us and then I can focus on who I might be playing on," Stephens said.

"I'm just really excited to get down there on Saturday and two weeks ago we weren’t quite good enough to beat them so there's a bit of redemption there that we want to get. We're just looking to put our best foot forward and have a real good crack at it, and try to get to East Perth."

Speaking of the Tigers, through a work of fate they will get to be playing at home at Revo Fitness Stadium in Sunday's elimination final against East Fremantle despite finishing in fifth position having locked up that spot with last Sunday's win against Subiaco.

East Fremantle has had to play without a home ground again in 2024 but the reigning premiers locked in a finals spot having won eight of the last nine games to finish in fourth place.

Claremont also enters the finals having won nine of the last 11 so both teams enter the finals in hot form, and deserving to feel like they can go a long way in September.

The reality is the season will be over for one of them by Sunday night and 182-game East Fremantle premiership winner Cam Eardley, who has had a move forward late in the season, is looking forward to another finals campaign.

"It was tight and had things gone our way we could have finished second or third, and had they gone our way we potentially could have missed out altogether so it's nice that the comp was so nice and even," Eardley said.

"I think anyone on their given day can beat any other team of those who made finals, and we've beaten everyone other than East Perth who was lost to by five points and three points.

"It's going to be a pretty intense finals campaign that's for sure, it would have been nice to get that double chance but now it's an elimination final.

"It will be a big game and you've probably got two teams with us and Claremont where one is going to be pretty unlucky because I think any of the five in the finals are deserving, and good enough, to play in the Grand Final."

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

ELIMINATION FINAL – EAST FREMANTLE v CLAREMONT – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.10PM