Peel fall short after gruelling battle with West Perth | WAFL RD 19 Report

Peel falls short after gruelling battle with West Perth.

Inaccuracy in front of goal cost Peel as they went down by eight points to West Perth at Lane Group Stadium.

An opportunity to strengthen their position in the top half of the table went missing as the hosts kicked 9.18 in the narrow defeat.

Liam Reidy (28 hitouts) and Riley Smith (27 hitouts) dominated the ruck duel giving Peel the advantage going inside 50 (52-48).

Experienced defender Joel Hamling (14 disposals, 12 marks) had another impressive display in his second game back as he stood tall for Peel late in the game.

The game started in emphatic fashion as Wilson launched a booming goal from outside 50.

Peel controlled most of the territory battle in the first, but a high-pressure game saw both teams struggle to link clean possession together.

Some clean work out of the centre saw Brody Wemm (2 goals) kick the Thunder’s second.

Benjamin Hancock (21 disposals, five inside 50s) pumped a deep ball inside 50 which saw Matt Taberner (2 goals) take a strong contested mark to put Peel ahead.

A late goal from Jack Sears (15 disposals, 1 goal) allowed Peel to head into the first break with a seven-point lead.

A quick centre clearance started the quarter strong for Peel as Ben Middleton (8 marks, 1 goal) went back and extended the Thunder lead.

West Perth responded with three of their own goals and regained the lead before Stanley found himself in space and levelled scores.

The quarter was largely dominated by West Perth as the visitors’ forced turnovers and went into the main break with an 11-point lead.

Taberner started the second half with a piece of brilliance as he snapped a beauty from the pocket.

Peel had the ball locked in their forward half early in the third but were unable to capitalise on opportunities before West Perth punished the home side on the counterattack.

A late flurry of action and some desperate defending from Jacob Blight (19 disposals) in the dying seconds denied West Perth a goal to keep the margin at just three points heading into the last quarter.

With everything to play for, Liam Reidy put the Thunder ahead with an early goal in the last.

Joel Hamling was influential in keeping Peel in the game as he soaked up pressure, taking strong defensive 50 marks allowing Peel to build from the back.

Unfortunately for Peel they were unable close out the game kicking just one goal and seven behinds as multiple players missed opportunities in the final term, allowing West Perth to walk away with the four points.

Jack Sears spoke after the narrow defeat.

“Yeah, it was pretty disappointing, skills pretty much most the day were down. We kind of played into their hands and how they wanted to play. They had 120 marks or something like that and that’s exactly what they want, so the pressure wasn’t there. Think we only had 32 tackles as a team, which is a season-low by a long way… also kicking 17 points is a disappointing result,”

“They are the reigning premiers, so we know they are a really good team and yeah with the season on the line we knew they were going to come out hot today… so credit to them,”

Sears reflected on the half time talk after conceding five goals to two in the second quarter.

“The second quarter was by far our worst, skill-wise we had a lot of turnovers which resulted in goals, I think they kicked four or five goals that quarter just from turnovers, so it's hard to defend when you turn it over in the corridor and their bouncing, so the big message was to just fix up our skills,”

Sears spoke about the value Brody Wemm has added to the team.

“I love playing with Brody, we’re pretty good mates actually, so obviously it’s really good he came down here this year and I can’t wait to be playing with him in the next few years. He just produces something that we’ve never really had down here so yeah, really happy to have Brody in the team,”

Peel takes on Swan Districts next Saturday at Steel Blue Oval as they hope to finish the home and away season off with a win.

Written by Frederick Knickel

Peel Thunder 4.3 6.6 8.11 9.18 (72)

West Perth 3.2 8.5 9.8 12.8 (80)

Peel Goals: 2 - M Taberner, B Wemm 1 - L Reidy, B Middleton, N Wilson, J Sears, E Stanley

West Perth Goals: 5 - T Keitel 3 - D Dixon 2 - G Julian 1 - L Meadows, M Peirce

 

COLTS

Peel 16.4 100 def West Perth 11.15 81

Two teams that have history took to the field to see who would take the return matchup in 2023. Peel were put to the sword in Joondalup earlier in the year and were looking to square the ledger.

The game itself would be a shootout with twenty-seven goals scored and plenty of offence. Fortunately, the Thunder would score more of those goals and come away with a 19-point victory. Again the final quarter would prove decisive with the home side kicking 4.1 to 1.2. Accuracy playing a key part in the victory.

The Good

• Offence – Kicking 100 points at Colts level is a rarity and it happened on the back of some efficient and exciting ball movement combined with plenty of set shots that made their way between the big sticks. Offence was a big winner on the day!
• Tackling Machines – This week we were better inside and a lot of that was a result of improved pressure around the ball. Enter Deian Roberts (9) and Joel Rush (8) who combined for 17 tackles. If they continue to set the standard our midfielders will always be difficult to get through.
• The Key Target and The Opportunist – Our goals came in various forms which made us a dangerous prospect to defend. The pick of the bunch was Ethan Logan who had another multiple-goal game with four and Austin Polmear who took advantage in the fringes kicking three.

The Bad

• Scores from Turnovers – Allowing 26 scoring shots usually means a mark in the loss column but fortunately our offence took up the slack. Most of the opposition scores came from our turnovers, which allowed them to stay in the game for longer. If we cleaned this up the game would have been out of reach for the Falcons earlier.

Our first win in five weeks moves us to 4-11 with one game to play. Another win could see us finish as high as sixth and potentially only one game out of the top five. Some missed opportunities mean no finals action this year but considering a few sliding doors moments potentially going our way our season may have taken a different direction. A case of close, but not close enough.

One more chance to prove ourselves. Swans at Swans. What an opportunity for our young group!