Peel to honour club legends

PEEL will look to honour skipper and stalwart Brendon Jones on the occasion of his 200^th game this weekend when it takes on East Fremantle at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Despite fielding a strong line-up, the Thunder fell just short of an accurate West Perth by seven points at HBF Arena last week, with the Falcons blowing the game apart in the third quarter with six goals to one.

It faces a Sharks side determined to rebound from its 47-point defeat to reigning premiers Subiaco last week.

Peel has not beaten the Sharks since Round 16, 2011, and in their last meeting East Fremantle outlasted a plucky Thunder side to register a 24-point win.

On the eve of his 200^th game, Jones urged his side to maintain focus for the whole game.

“I think we played some really good footy against West Perth, obviously only going down by 7 points, we had a real bad run in that third quarter,” he said.

“So if we can stay mentally sharp for the full 4 quarters, and bring our best defensive game, sort of choke their midfielders up and stop their running game, we’ll definitely be every chance of a win this week.”

Peel will welcome star Essendon recruit Leroy Jetta for his first outing as a Thunder player, and he will reinvigorate the side with his class and experience in the forward 50.

A fit and firing Jetta could be hard to contain for the Sharks, as the high half-forward has put in a massive pre-season and could combine well with fellow recruit Gerald Ugle.

While it is anticipated that the likes of Michael Barlow, Paul Duffield and Danyle Pearce will return to the Fremantle line-up, Jones said the experience of playing alongside those players would help his young teammates immensely.

“The beauty of playing WAFL footy is you’re always trying to learn off different guys,” he said.

“Everyone has different techniques at stoppages, and on the ground too, and with guys like Barlow and Duffield and their presence and leadership, you always learn off them and take different pieces off every player and try put into your game the best you can.”

Peel will wear black armbands to pay tribute to foundation player and WAFL legend Steve Bazzo, who passed away during the week.