WAFL RD 7 weekly review

WAFL
Chris Pike

West Perth made a flying start at home on Saturday but Peel Thunder fired back from a 39-point deficit to kick the game's next seven goals to end up winning by nine points.

West Perth opened up a 39-point lead by midway through the second quarter at Pentanet Stadium in Joondalup on Saturday, but from there the Thunder took charge of the contest including kicking the next seven goals.

That helped Peel set up the 11.11 (77) to 9.14 (68) victory with the Thunder remaining a game and percentage clear only top of the WAFL ladder with a 6-1 record. West Perth remains in fifth position now with a 4-3 record as reigning premiers.

Sebit Kuek continues to develop nicely as a key forward target for Peel after now being on Fremantle's AFL list for almost a full 12 months. He kicked three goals from 14 touches and seven marks.

Josh Corbett and Liam Henry also kicked two goals apiece with the latter also finishing with 22 disposals, six marks and three tackles.

Corey Wagner is one Peel player banging down the door for an AFL opportunity with his impressive run and carry he's providing out of the back line. He also did well limiting the influence of Keegan Knott on Saturday and finished with 33 possessions. 

Neil Erasmus racked up 28 possessions as well for Peel and captain Ben Hancock had 28 disposals on the day as he set a new games played record with the Thunder in his 140th appearance.

Will Brodie racked up 27 touches, Nathan Wilson 23, Jacob Blight 20, Brady Grey 19 and Joel Hamling 19 to go with 10 marks.

The Falcons had made a strong opening against Peel, leading by 25 points after 15 minutes.

Peel had yet to hit the scoreboard but did eventually at the 20-minute mark with a goal to Josh Corbett and another to Liam Henry, but West Perth consolidated the 18-point edge by quarter-time thanks to a late goal to Ben Johnson.

It was a similar story to start the second quarter with West Perth dominating the first 15 minutes with Keitel adding a second goal in his 150th match before Nelson also added a second, and then Keitel kicked a third to extend the lead to 37 points.

The margin got out to as much as 39 for the Falcons and it looked a long road back for the Thunder, but Peel did make some inroads before half-time with goals to Ben Middleton, Tom Emmett and Sebit Kuek.

West Perth was still 21 points up at half-time but Peel had grabbed some of the momentum with those last three goals and kept it going with a dominant third term.

The Thunder kicked the only four goals of the quarter starting with one to Jack Sears before Jonathon Ietto, Corbett and Kuek all added others and suddenly it was Peel turning into three quarter-time leading by five points.

West Perth briefly regained the lead to start the final with a goal, but it wouldn’t last long. Kuek kicked another to put the Thunder back in front and Henry added his second of the day to make sure of the nine-point win to keep Peel in top spot.

Ben Hancock's game against West Perth set a new milestone for the most senior men's games played at the club by a single player. 

Ben was interviewed by Curtin Students after the game, reflecting on Peel's round 7 win & his career at the club.

Ben speaking on the win against West Perth:
"We knew it was going to be a tough hard fought game and that it would go right down to the wire which it did... it was a great win to come back from behind against the reigning premiers."

"I don't think I've ever won here before in my career" 

Ben speaking on his career at Peel:
"Its awesome, the loyalty they have shown me I just want to repay it."

"Growing up in the region everyone supports [Peel], I strived to play one league game for Peel let alone 140"

COLTS

Peel 6.7 43 def by West Perth 14.8 92

Our second road trip to Pentanet Stadium this season saw us take on the home squad in West Perth, a team in a similar position having a young group navigating their way through Colts football. Six players would debut for the visitors, the most since round one. This would also take the season total of debutants to seventeen, exposing an extensive group to the top flight in junior football. An interesting contest would ensue with an arm wrestle developing over the first half where a late Falcons goal had them up by that margin at halftime. The second half proved challenging when the home team took advantage of critical mistakes and put the Thunder to bed late in the contest, running away easy victors.

The Good

• Youngsters Hitting the Scoreboard – Some of our first gamers were our most productive on the day, particularly when it came to hitting the scoreboard. Of our first three goals, we saw a brace from Kyelan Sanders and a single goal from Jack Watson.
• Desperate Defenders – Darcy Petersen and Kody Sharpes were strong in key defensive posts, making life difficult for the key forwards. Unfortunately, it was the mosquito fleet that did the damage for the home side.

The Bad

• Fade Out – Extremely competitive until half time, we didn’t manage to maintain the rage in the second half. A lack of focus and concentration saw us fall into old habits and West Perth took advantage, particularly in the last quarter where they piled on five goals to one.

Six games in and 2-4. Some would say it’s not where we want to be, but sometimes hardship brings out the best in us. Hopefully, the hunger and drive of this group has results like this burned into their memory and use it as fuel in the coming weeks. The beauty of Colts football that is anyone can beat anyone on any given week, so if we come with the right attitude and effort we will be in most games. This Sunday we will get a chance to test that theory against Subiaco at Lane Group Stadium.

Peel Thunder's WAFL teams face off against Subiaco this Sunday at Lane Group Stadium.