West Perth too good for Thunder

Keep the faith Thunder fans! There will be some short-term pain but there will be longer term benefits for the younger brigade, as two more young-guns Isiah Winder and Zach Rankin made their debut in the 5.9 (39) to 20.11 (131) loss at the hands of West Perth on Saturday afternoon. 

The Falcons weren’t taking any prisoners as they stormed out of the blocks, kicking 8-goals to none in the first quarter with 19 inside 50’s to 5. Shane Nelson opened the scoring just over a minute in, goals from Trent Manzone and Luke Meadows soon followed before a late quarter barrage from Tyler Keitel put the game out of reach by the end of the first term adding 3 of his own. Michael Lourey added insult to injury with another right on quarter-time to put the visitors 52-points to the good.

Ben Hancock playing his 100^th game for the club started brightly with 8 first quarter disposals. Captain Ben Howlett tried to stem the tide in his usual workman-like fashion with 6 opening quarter tackles. It just wasn’t enough as the Thunder just couldn’t get their hands on the footy, accentuated by +17 contested possession and +33 in overall disposals for the quarter.

The Thunder had chances throughout the goal-less first half, set-shot misses to James Sturrock and Hayden Ballantyne in particular were gettable. The Falcons continued on their way adding 3 goals to their quarter time total to go in at the half leading 11.8 (74) to 0.5 (5).

Tyrone Thorne finally arrested fears of a goal-less game midway through the third, converting a set-shot from directly in front set-up by Jackson Merrett. Brad Holmes added another later in the term, in a quarter that the Thunder had both more inside 50’s and disposals but weren’t able to capitalise losing the quarter 2.2 – 5.1 to leave them 86-points adrift at the end of the third.

Blair Bell saw some reward for effort as he added 2 goals to go along with 9 last quarter disposals, including a rare highlight for the day - a long-set shot goal from outside 50. The Thunder couldn’t quite end the game with a last quarter win, with West Perth extending their lead by goal to win 20.11 (131) to 5.9 (39) by a margin of 92-points.

Jackson Merrett was impressive once again, stacking up 33 disposals at 61%, 4 tackles, 3 spoils and 4 score involvements. Blair Bell finished strongly with 20 disposals, 12 contested, 2-goals and 5 score involvements. Ben Hancock in his 100^thhad 18 disposals and 7 tackles, while Tyrone Thorne with limited opportunity was effective with 9 disposals at 89%, with 5 score involvements and a goal. 

Zach Rankin and Isiah Winder were both ok on debut, Rankin playing a less familiar role than previous weeks at Colts – off half-back picking up 7 disposals with 4 spoils. Isiah played wing half-forward and got involved in a few passages of play with 10 disposals, 3 tackles and 2 score involvements.

For the visitors, Keitel finished with 5-goals, while Luke Meadows (27 disposals, 8 score involvements, 2 goals), Aaron Black 27 disposals at 81%, 12 score involvements), Connor West and Shane Nelson all had strong performances. 

The Thunder will regroup and go again this week as they travel to Claremont to take on the Tigers, who are coming off an 8-point loss to South Fremantle.