AFL flavour for WAFL Elimination Final

Peel Thunder and East Perth will have a large pool of AFL-listed players available for selection when the two clubs clash in a sudden death final at Bendigo Bank Stadium this Sunday.

The WAFL Elimination Final on September 4 will see Peel aiming to win the club’s first ever final and coach Cam Shepherd said they were looking forward to the opportunity.

“We’re really proud to be playing in finals and hopefully growing footy in the Peel District and I know John Ditchburn and the board will be really keen for us to have a big crowd there on Sunday,” he said.

“We will have good representation from Fremantle and the buy-in is really strong. We’ve averaged 11 Peel players and 11 Fremantle players to get us to this stage and the group’s come together really well so selection will be difficult and we’re hoping to put a really strong side on the park on Sunday.

“We haven’t sorted it right through, we will do that on Friday. Take out Matthew Uebergang and Brady Grey who are out with long term injury, Clancee Pearce won’t play because he’s had a hamstring and Tanner Smith hurt himself on the weekend so there’s potentially 18 listed players I think that are available.

“East Perth and Peel have had great competition over the last year or two, we know eachother really well and we’re great competitiors on the field. We know it will be a strong, well-fought game and we’re hoping at the end of the day we’re the ones that come out victorious.

East Perth coach Jaymie Graham said the Royals would also have a healthy number of AFL listed players available for selection, which would be finalised after the club’s main training session tomorrow.

“From an East Perth point of view, our Reserves finished on top and we’ve got some quality players who have been playing League football this year so whoever gets an opportunity this weekend will take their chances.

“We’ve got plenty of players who are looking forward to their opportunity.

“We’ve had a quite a healthy list from an East Perth point of view and West Coast point of view, especially early in the year, and its constant communication with your playing group every week.

“It’s a juggling act but we’ve got a real squad mentality. We’re pleased with where our Reserves are at as well and its great that we’re going to be playing finals footy whether it’s at League or Reserves level.

“We are really pleased just to be playing finals footy and looking forward to Sunday.”

The game will be broadcast live on Channel 7 from 3pm.

AFL-listed players need to have played five senior WAFL games to qualify for WAFL Finals unless their AFL team is playing in the same round, which allows open selection.

Fremantle listed players qualified for Peel Thunder:

Michael APENESS, Harley BALIC, Connor BLAKELY, Zac CLARKE, Sam COLLINS, Matthew DE BOER, Joshua DELUCA, Brady GREY, Jonathon GRIFFIN, Jack HANNATH, Ethan HUGHES, Ed LANGDON, Anthony MORABITO, Tendai MZUNGU, Ryan NYHUIS, Clancee PEARCE, Alex SILVAGNI, Tanner SMITH, Nicholas SUBAN, Darcy TUCKER, Matthew UEBERGANG, Shane YARRAN.

West Coast Eagles listed players qualified for East Perth:

Corey ADAMSON, Matthew ALLEN, Thomas BARRASS, Jamie BENNELL, Paddy BROPHY, Mitchell BROWN, Tom COLE, Brant COLLEDGE, Liam DUGGAN, Xavier ELLIS, Jonathan GILES, Mark HUTCHINGS, Lewis JETTA, Malcolm KARPANY, Tom LAMB, Kane LUCAS, Eric MACKENZIE, Patrick MCGINNITY, Fraser MCINNES, Kurt MUTIMER, Jackson NELSON, Luke PARTINGTON, Jack REDDEN, Dominic SHEED, Jordan SNADDEN, Simon TUNBRIDGE

Photo: Gary Day