Round 2 WAFL Preview

FOLLOWING a brilliant start to the 2022 WAFL season with five matches all up for grabs in the last quarters, we get ready for Round 2 across this weekend and there's every reason to expect another five tantalising match ups.

You couldn’t have asked for a better start to the WAFL season than what we got over the Easter Weekend with South Fremantle, Claremont, East Perth and Perth all scoring wins by less than 10 points while Peel Thunder had to come from behind to beat East Fremantle.

Now looking ahead to Round 2 and there is the Bulldogs, Tigers, Thunder, Demons and Royals all looking to string victories together including two of those Round 1 winners locking horns while the Eagles, Swans, Sharks, Lions and Falcons are looking to avoid an 0-2 start to the new season.

Three of the Round 2 matches take place on Saturday afternoon beginning at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle hosting the West Coast Eagles from 1.10pm.

The Bulldogs will be looking to back up their win over Subiaco last Saturday in their first home game of the season while the Eagles will be out to make up for a two-point loss to Perth also a week earlier.

Next up on Saturday at 2pm will be two of the losers from Round 1 trying to open their accounts for 2022 when Swan Districts hosts East Fremantle at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval. Swans lost a tight one to East Perth on Good Friday with the Sharks being overrun in Mandurah by the Thunder.

The last game on Saturday bounces down at 2.10pm with Claremont and Subiaco battling at Revo Fitness Stadium. 

The Tigers have been hit hard by COVID just as the Lions were as they attempt to back up last Friday's win against West Perth with Subiaco looking for a first win its premiership defence after a narrow defeat to South Fremantle last Saturday.

The other two Round 2 matches take place on Sunday starting at 2.10pm with Peel Thunder back at home in Mandurah at Lane Group Stadium to host West Perth.

Peel kicked seven of the last eight goals back on Good Friday to open their season with a win against East Fremantle while West Perth is attempting to rebound from a tight defeat at the hands of Claremont at home also on Good Friday.

The final game of the rounds begins at 5.10pm on Sunday evening with Perth and East Perth locking horns at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

Both teams are looking for improved seasons in 2022 and made winning starts with the Demons beating the Eagles and the Royals overcoming the Swans.

WAFL TEAM OF THE WEEK – ROUND 1

ROUND 1 WAFL WRAP

SOUTH FREMANTLE v WEST COAST EAGLES

South Fremantle is at home at Fremantle Community Bank Oval looking to make it two wins from two matches to start the 2022 season on Saturday but the West Coast Eagles arrive with the same goal in mind.

The Bulldogs opened the 2022 season last Saturday beating Subiaco by eight points on the back of kicking the three goals of the game at Leederville Oval to earn a measure of revenge for last year's Grand Final defeat.

Now South Fremantle is at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday afternoon to host the West Coast Eagles with bounce down to take place at 1.10pm.

There was a lot to like in South Fremantle's win against Subiaco last Saturday to open the new season including impressive debuts from Steely Green, Jordan Boullineau, Lachlan Taylor, Josh Cuneo and Riley Colborne.

It was the first ever WAFL games for Green, Taylor and Colborne while Boullineau and Cuneo were playing their first games for South Fremantle having previously played at Peel Thunder and East Fremantle respectively.

Brandon Donaldson, Ben Rioli and Caleb Datson also made their returns for the Bulldogs after missing the latter part of the 2021 season while leaders Haiden Schloithe, Jake Florenca, Tom Blechynden, Nick Suban, Chad Pearson, Zac Strom, Dylan Main, Mason Shaw, Jimmy Miller and Noah Strom all made good starts to the new season.

Saturday's opponent for the Bulldogs is an Eagles team who played a thriller last Saturday as well to open the season before losing to Perth by two points.

Jake Waterman and Jack Williams kicked two goals each for West Coast in that game while Xavier O'Neill had 27 possessions, John Levien 25, Josh Browne 23, Brady Hough 19, Greg Clark 18, Harry Creasey 18 and Joey Deegan 18.

The Eagles are also being captained this year by former South Fremantle player Zane Sumich who had 16 touches and six marks last week down back against the Demons.

The two teams have only played four times previously in the WAFL with South Fremantle winning three of those four clashes.

The Bulldogs won the two meetings in 2021 by 66 and 45 points while West Coast won by 21 points back in Round 12, 2019. 

South Fremantle won the first ever game the teams played by 59 points back in Round 5, 2019 with all those previous four clashes also played at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

From the South Fremantle team that beat Subiaco last Saturday, Aiden Hall and Manfred Kelly come into the team this week to face the Eagles. Jordan Boullineau and Glenn Byron are the two players to make way.

There are mass changes at West Coast after last week's narrow loss to Perth with Rhett Bazzo, J Eastough, Josh Edwards, Luke Edwards, Lachlan Feeney, Cooper Nitschke, Jack Petruccelle and Brandan Young all coming into the side.

Going out for the Eagles are Ryan Ambrose, Harry Creasey, Callum Jamieson, Xavier O'Neill, Luke Strnadica, Jake Waterman, Nick Watson and Isiah Winder from that side that took on the Demons.
 

 

SWAN DISTRICTS v EAST FREMANTLE

Swan Districts and East Fremantle are both hunting their first wins of the 2022 season when they clash on Saturday afternoon at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

Swans returned to finals action in 2021 before a heartbreaking elimination final loss to West Perth and while the Sharks did miss finals to continue a run that dates back to 2014 without taking part, they did finish the season with some momentum.

So both teams came into 2022 with high hopes of what they might be capable of but a loss for Swans to East Perth and the Sharks to Peel Thunder weren’t what they were hoping for to kick things off.

Swan Districts had a tight battle all afternoon on Good Friday with East Perth at Leederville Oval before eventually losing by four points.

There were some good signs, though, including Brayden Noble kicking five goals, Tony Notte taking 14 marks and Jesse Turner racking up 28 possessions and Jarvis Pina 27 to also go with 14 marks.

East Fremantle was doing well for a lot of the game also on Good Friday against Peel in Mandurah before conceding seven goals to one in the fourth quarter to end up losing by 32 points.

Bill Monaghan would have seen plenty to build on with the Sharks, though, with Jonathon Marsh kicking three goals and Blaine Boekhorst gathering 31 disposals, Cam Eardley 30, Milan Murdock 27 and Kyle Baskerville 23 to go with 10 tackles.

It has been a seesaw battle in recent meeting between the two teams and they split their encounters in 2021. Swan Districts won by 44 points at Steel Blue Oval in Round 8 while East Fremantle won by seven points at New Choice Homes Park in Round 17.

Going back beyond that, Swans won by 31 points in their only meeting of 2020 with the Sharks winning both games of 2019, and the black-and-whites both match ups in 2018.

There is just the one change at Swan Districts from the team that narrowly lost to East Perth last week with Lachlan Riley coming in and Round 1 debutant Elijah Hewett going out.

There are three changes at East Fremantle as they chase their first win of 2022 with Jeremy Goddard coming in to lead the ruck along with Jarrad Jansen and Tom Monaghan coming into the line-up.

Lachlan Bailey, Cody Smith and Durak Tucker go out from the Sharks outfit that lost to the Thunder on Good Friday.
 

CLAREMONT v SUBIACO

Claremont and Subiaco were of the WAFL's top three teams last year and will be hoping to do so again, but there are plenty of questions surrounding both teams early on in 2022.

Subiaco had COVID sweep through their club in the lead up to Round 1 and now Claremont has had similar happen this week meaning that it's a great unknown who could be available on Saturday, and how the teams are going to shape up.

That adds another level of intrigue to what is a crucial clash on Saturday afternoon between the Tigers and Lions at Revo Fitness Stadium.

Claremont comes into 2022 on the back of another heartbreaking finals exit last year at the hands of South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, but they made a winning start on Good Friday.

The Tigers beat West Perth at Joondalup by just the four points with Alex Manuel kicking four goals and Jye Bolton racking up 38 possessions, Lachlan Martinis 35, Sam Alvarez 29, Ronin O'Connor 28, Ryan Lim 27 and Ben Edwards 27.

Subiaco were leading most of the way last Saturday at Leederville Oval in their Grand Final rematch with South Fremantle before conceding the last three goals to lose by eight points.

There were still plenty of encouraging signs for the Lions with Ben Sokol kicking two goals and Leigh Kitchin gathering 28 possessions, Stefan Giro 28, Ben Golding 22 and Abraham Clinch 20.

Subiaco won both meeting between the two teams in 2021 by 40 points in Round 6 and then just five points in Round 18. 

While Claremont did beat the Lions on the way to a Grand Final appearance in 2020, Subiaco had won the previous 10 clashes so coming into Saturday's game they have won 12 of the last 13 against the Tigers.

COVID has hit and struck hard at Claremont coming into Saturday's game with Sam Alvarez, Jye Bolton, Anthony Davis, Callan England, Logan Guelfi, Declan Hardisty, Jack Lewsey, Alex Manuel, Lachlan Martinis, Declan Mountford, Ronin O'Connor, Louis Passera, Bailey Rogers and Max Spyvee all ruled out.

That opens up plenty of opportunities with Marc Boyatzis, Jason Carter, Ben Clarke, Talon Delacey, Ben Elliott, Lawrence Evans, Kieran Gowdie, Ben Harding, Patrick Kitchener, Zac Mainwaring, Charlie Malone, Alex Pearce, Ollie Sheldrick, Tyron Smallwood all into the team for Claremont.

There are plenty of changes at Subiaco too with Kody Eaton, Wil Hickmott, Liam Hickmott, Jordan Lockyer and Jordan Snadden all coming into the team from the one that lost to South Fremantle a week ago.

Angus Dewar, Jordan Faraone, Lewis Putt, Josh Robbins and Kyle Stainsby go out for the Lions.
 

PEEL THUNDER v WEST PERTH

Peel Thunder finished strongly last week to open their season on a winning note last week while West Perth lost a thriller setting the stage for Sunday's clash in Mandurah.

The Thunder and Falcons do battle on Sunday afternoon at Lane Group Stadium with Peel trying to get consecutive wins to open 2022 and West Perth out to open their account.

Peel was locked in a tight battle with East Fremantle on Good Friday before kicking seven goals to one in the fourth quarter to win by 32 points while West Perth lost a tight affair at home to Claremont by four points.

There was a lot to like in that Good Friday win for the Thunder with Ryan Bennell kicking three goals and Karl Worner starring on debut with 31 possessions and two goals. Tyrone Thorne also had 32 disposals, Connor Blakely 31, Mitch Crowden 20, Joel Western 19 and Lloyd Meek 18 to go with 28 hit outs.

While it was a loss for the Falcons also back on Good Friday, there were encouraging signs in Darren Harris' first game back in charge with Tyler Keitel kicking two goals and Aaron Black racking up 32 possessions, Trent Manzone 32, Luke Meadows 30, Mitch Peirce 23 and Tristan Hobley 20.

Speak of coaches, should he be cleared from COVID protocols, Geoff Valentine will make his debut as coach of the Thunder only fittingly up against the team he was in charge of up until the end of last season.

He wasn’t able to coach last week against East Fremantle due to being in isolation with his assistant Mark Tilbury taking over for the day and leading them to the victory.

West Perth comes into the game having won the last five clashes they've had with Peel including both meetings in 2021 by 28 points in Round 7 and Round 16 by 24 points.

Peel's last win against West Perth was also on their home floor by just three points in the opening round of 2019.
 

PERTH v EAST PERTH

Perth and East Perth made winning starts to their quest to rise back up the WAFL ladder in 2022 and now one of them will have a perfect start after their clash on Sunday evening.

Neither had the seasons they were hoping for in 2021 with East Perth winning just the six games and Perth four to finish third and second last respectively.

However, both teams have had high hopes of vastly improved campaigns in 2022 and they made winning starts last weekend setting up a tantalising match up now to close Round 2 at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park on Sunday evening.

While both teams won last weekend, they were nail-biting victories and they will be hoping to improve further now in their second games of the season.

East Perth beat Swan Districts at Leederville Oval back on Good Friday with plenty of strong performers including Tom Medhat, Sebit Kuek and Eddie Simpson all kicking two goals, and Hamish Brayshaw gathering 30 disposals, Harley Sparks 26 and Angus Scott 25.

Perth, meanwhile, were in action at home on Saturday afternoon and ended up beating the West Coast Eagles on the back of three goals in the final quarter from co-captain Fraser McInnes.

Ajang Ajang also kicked two goals on debut for the Demons as he now prepares to play his former team for the first time after crossing from East Perth in the off-season.

Matthew Taylor also had 32 possessions, Andrew Fisher 26, Brayden Ainsworth 25 and Austin Davis 23 in that win last week for the Demons against the Eagles.

East Perth has won the past two meetings between the two teams winning both games in 2021 by nine points in Round 15 and then 25 points only a few weeks later.

Perth had won the three clashes prior to that and then East Perth the before that so the recent history between the Demons and Royals has been quite the rollercoaster ride.