•The intensity was up at Claremont Oval. Photos by Les Everett
WAFL round 19
The WAFL finals will come a week early after Swan Districts upset the top team to keep their hopes alive coming into the final round of qualifying fixtures. Swans will play Peel next Sunday with the winner grabbing fifth spot. It couldn’t have worked out better.
On another horrible Saturday the game of the round and, thankfully, the Channel 7 game was at Rushton Park. Peel and South Fremantle slogged away all afternoon and the final margin in favour of Thunder was biggest of the day.
• Mark Hamilton marks in defence for West Perth. Photos by Les Everett
WAFL round 16
The top of the table clash at Arena Joondalup ended with a comfortable winning margin for the Falcons but it was still a worthy encounter. The Sharks led at half time and were down by just seven points at the last change. The worry was that they scored just one goal in the second half.
• Sam Sturt slams through a six pointer. Photos by Les Everett
The history making meeting between East Perth and Peel led me to East Fremantle Oval despite the game between first and third also being within walking distance. While I missed the first WAFL draw in 10 years there was still plenty of interest at the neutral venue where the finals aspirations of the Royals dived.
If you see any “genuine WACA turf” up for sale on eBay the chances are 1. it’s real and 2. it’s been put up by South Fremantle midfielders Haiden Schloithe (1) or Jarrod Doney (5). It was wet at the WACA for the derby and midfielders got a taste of what footy used to be like. For the Sharks it was like the derby has been for years now with the Bulldogs notching their 14th win in a row over their cross-town rivals. It was over pretty quickly too with East Fremantle scoreless in the first quarter and South kicking the first five goals of the game. Schloithe was brilliant, Doney dogged, Dylan Main kicked four goals and Toby McQuilkan again showed great judgment in defence. Kyle Baskerville battled in out for the Sharks and Alex Montauban scored three goals from very limited opportunities (four kicks).