Round 17 McDonald’s WAFL Results

PEEL Thunder and East Perth took significant steps towards another finals appearance in 2016 by recording wins over East Fremantle and West Perth respectively in wet conditions in WAFL Round 17 on Saturday.

There were just two games in Round 17 on Saturday but both had big finals implications and ended up with East Perth beating West Perth 8.7 (55) to 4.18 (42) at Medibank Stadium and Peel Thunder defeating East Fremantle 10.9 (69) to 3.8 (26) at ATOM Stadium.

Both the Royals and Thunder won on the back of keeping their opponents to long goal droughts with the Falcons goalless from the six-minute mark of the second quarter until the 15-minute mark of the last while the Sharks didn’t kick a goal after five minutes into the second term.

The results mean that West Perth (10-6) stays third missing a chance to move into second while Peel (8-7) improves to fourth, East Perth (8-7) remains fifth and East Fremantle (7-8) slips to sixth.

The final derby of 2016 between East Perth and West Perth took place at Medibank Stadium with the Royals starting well to kick the opening goal through big man Jonathan Giles.

West Perth had the better of play after that but were inaccurate until Max Duffy goaled just before quarter-time in what was his first game against East Perth as a Falcons player.

There was just the one goal apiece in the second term and the Falcons completely dominated but kicking seven behinds left them 2.12 at half-time and leading by just eight points with virtually no reward for controlling the game.

East Perth made West Perth pay in the third quarter with five goals to nil before the rain pelted down denying the Falcons any chance of a final term comeback despite them kicking two goals to cut the final margin to 13 points.

Jonathan Giles ended up having a strong game for East Perth kicking three goals to go with 14 possessions, six marks and 30 hit outs with Paul Johnson helping give the Royals the edge in the ruck with 15 disposals and 28 hit outs as well.

Simon Tunbridge also booted two goals for the Royals while Eric Mackenzie was solid again down back not only holding Michael Lourey goalless, but having 20 possessions and six marks himself.

East Perth also got good run and drive off half-back with Nathan Blee finishing with 22 possessions, Callum Hart 20, Jackson Nelson 17 and Mitch Fraser 15.

The Royals might have finished with 49 possessions less than the Falcons but they had some strong performers through the middle as well led by ex-baseballer Corey Adamson who finished with 33 possessions, six marks and a goal.

Luke Partington returned from a stint in the reserves to gather 20 disposals for East Perth, Malcolm Karpany 19 and Tom Lamb 18.

Max Duffy was West Perth’s only multiple goal scorer on the day kicking two of the Falcons’ four goals in what was his first chance to play in a derby against East Perth after missing the first two of 2016 through injury. He also had 16 possessions and six marks.

Joel Leeson and Mark Hamilton were West Perth’s other goal scorers.

West Perth had plenty of players who racked up a lot of the ball with Shane Nelson again leading the way with 38 possessions while Luke Meadows had 33 disposals (10 marks, nine inside 50s), Rohan Kerr 32, Aaron Black 31 and Tyler Keitel 30 (seven marks, five tackles, eight inside-50 entries).

Aidan Lynch returned to the team and also gathered 25 disposals while laying 11 tackles with Jay van Berlo finishing with 20 possessions, Blake Wilhelm 17 and Joe Morrow 16.