Saturday Round 18 McDonald’s WAFL Results

WEST Perth kicked the only five goals of the last quarter to come from behind and beat Claremont as part of Round 18 WAFL action on Saturday while Subiaco and East Perth scored 100-point plus thumpings of Perth and South Fremantle respectively.

Claremont led for most of the afternoon at HBF Arena and were still 21 points up at three quarter-time, but West Perth kicked the only five goals of the last term to win 13.12 (90) to 12.8 (80) to consolidate second position on the WAFL ladder.

Subiaco then handed Perth an 11th straight defeat with a massive 25.17 (167) to 5.4 (34) victory at Medibank Stadium while East Perth also crushed South Fremantle 28.9 (177) to 11.5 (71) at Fremantle Oval to replace the Bulldogs in the top five.

Round 18 will now conclude on Sunday when Peel Thunder hosts Swan Districts at Bendigo Bank Stadium with bounce down scheduled for 11.40am.

Claremont again made a fast start as it is making a habit out of with Kepler Bradley and Beau Maister marking strongly and kicking goals to start the afternoon.

The Tigers kicked the game’s first two goals as a result and still led by 14 points at quarter-time, five points at half-time and then 21 points at three quarter-time after the Tigers booted the last four majors of the third term.

However, West Perth dominated the last quarter kicking five goals in the first 16 minutes and then withstanding Claremont’s last surge late to end up winning by 10 points to keep the Falcons in second position, and the Tigers outside of the five.

Corey Chalmers kicked three goals all in the second quarter for West Perth with Matt Johnson adding two important goals as did Aaron Black to go with his 18 possessions as he celebrated his 100th game with the Falcons.

Shane Nelson was again terrific in the midfield for West Perth with 29 possessions and a crucial last quarter goal while captain Jay van Berlo led his team from the front with 26 disposals and nine tackles.

Trent Manzone also picked up 25 disposals, Ray Bartholomew 19, Aidan Lynch 18 (13 tackles) and second-gamer Blake Wilhelm 16 while kicking the first goal of his career in the final quarter.

Ian Richardson and Kepler Bradley both kicked three goals each for Claremont with Beau Maister adding two while Tom Ledger racked up 28 possessions, Keifer Yu 25, Jake Murphy 24, Corey Yeo 24, Matthew Davies 24, Oliver Tate 23, Tom Swift 22, Ryan Lim 22 and Anton Hamp 21.

South Fremantle came into its clash at Fremantle Oval inside the top five while East Perth were out, but by the end of the game on Saturday they had swapped positions and the Royals had made quite the statement with a massive 106-point victory.

East Perth was on fire from the outset of the contest with eight first quarter goals and then the Royals really rammed home their dominance with 10 majors in the final term to end up winning by 106 points.