WAFL WEEKLY REVIEW | Round 3

LEAGUE

In Round 3 Peel Thunder travelled up the road to take on South Fremantle at Community Bank Oval. Excitingly the club had it’s 12^th debutant of the season with Liam Reidy coming into the side for his first appearance of the year.

The League side suffered their first loss of the season with plenty of learnings to come from the performance. Peel were unable to capitalise on early opportunities with South Fremantle taking a 22-point lead into quarter time from similar scoring shots. From then on Peel weren’t able to match the Bulldogs intensity for long enough, with the Bulldogs claiming a 44-point win.

Clay Hall continued his impressive start to League football with 27 disposals, 5 tackles and a goal. Neil Erasmus, Traye Bennell and Ben Hancock all fought hard and continued on with their strong starts to the season, while Jacob Blight was solid down back. 

The Reserves will also take some great learnings out of their loss as players continue to develop their craft at Reserves level. Ben Middleton continues to thrive in positional change to the backline with another commanding performance. Aidan Hare is also starting to build into some form with 35 disposals and 8 tackles.

This week presents a great opportunity to take on an undefeated East Perth with Blair Bell and Brady Grey both closing in on their returns from injury.

South Fremantle 13.14 92

Peel Thunder 6.12 48

Colts

Round three was the first of two Colts Super Rounds that would take place for Season 2023. Six teams playing three matches at Pentanet Stadium saw plenty of talent and high scoring results across the day. Our match-up against South Fremantle would prove to be a super fest of scoring, which was a welcome change after last weeks scoring struggles. After building a thirty-plus point lead during the third, we would make hard work for ourselves by letting the Bulldogs not only back into the game but giving them the lead late. Fortunately we were able to steady and a Max Rognetta behind in the dying seconds secured our first four points of the season.

The Good

• Kaed Collard – his silky skills were matched this week with a strong work ethic and repeated forward pressure, resulting in 19 possessions and 2 goals. Encouraging signs for the young man as his fitness builds each week.
• Power Running – Jackson Klepzig and Deian Roberts provided spark with 33 possessions and 2 goals between them. The side is in good stead when these two are in possession of the ball, creating some genuine fast play offence with their leg speed.
• Offence – A significant shift going from one goal last week to fourteen this week. Cleaner ball movement meant a more aesthetically pleasing game. Hopefully this trend continues moving forward.

The Bad

• Defence – normally kicking more than ten goals at Colts level gets you the W, but this week we leaked thirteen goals and twenty-seven scoring shots. Not a great result considering our defence is an area we pride ourselves on.
• Finishing – putting the work in early allowed a large lead to be built but unfortunately, we were unable to put the Bulldogs to the sword and land the knockout blow. While a win is still a win, we need to be more ruthless in putting sides away when we have the chance.

The ledger improves to 1-2 with another Super Round fixture to come against East Perth. Even with another three debutants we are starting to see greater cohesion amongst the group and it is being reflected at various stages throughout our games. Still more to improve on, particularly when it comes to our team defence but our season is off and running.

Peel 14.9 93 

South Fremantle 13.14 92