Thursday night a winner all round for top placed LionsWednesday, July 27, 2016 - 6:00 PM - by Chris Pike

SUBIACO enjoyed Thursday night football last week beating South Fremantle at Medibank Stadium to move two games clear on top of the WAFL ladder and doing so while making do in the ruck with a young star shining up forward and veterans leading through the middle.

The top two teams did battle last Thursday night as the Lions hosted the Bulldogs in a third night fixture on a Thursday between the two clubs this decade, but it was the first televised live on 7mate.

It turned out to be a ratings hit and a crowd of 1441 was also impressive considering the terribly wet, cold and windy conditions. It was a win-win for the WAFL in the Thursday night experiment and for Subiaco it looks set to go a long way to securing another minor premiership.

Subiaco kicked the first five goals of the game in the opening 16 minutes and then dominated the final quarter to hold off South Fremantle to win by 11 points to improve to a 12-4 record on the season with games remaining against Swan Districts, West Perth, East Perth and Peel Thunder.

It would take a poor finish to the season now and a dominant end by either South Fremantle or West Perth for Subiaco to avoid a second straight minor premiership in the hunt of a third straight flag.

But coach Jarrad Schofield's focus is much more narrow than that and he was happy to beat the second placed team South Fremantle last Thursday night.

"We got off to a bit of a flier and as true to their form on how far South Fremantle have come this year, they fought back and we probably went away from a few things that made us play some good footy in the first quarter," Schofield told 91.3 SportFM.

"That made for a tough game in the second half but I thought our guys really finished strongly.

"Obviously we couldn’t put the score on the board in the last quarter but I thought the way we played was a testament to the character of the boys to finish off well. We're just glad that we got away with a great win."

While Subiaco is coming off two premierships and sits two games clear on top of the ladder so it would easy to think from the outside that the Lions are doing it easy, but it has been a 2016 season that has had plenty of obstacles thrown in the way.

That started before the season began with gun recruit Sam Grimley taken away by Essendon and the Lions were lucky to find a replacement for Hamish Shepheard who has gone on to be equal leader in the Bernie Naylor Medal race with 37 goals.

Premiership forwards Kyle Halligan and Rhys Waters, midfielder Scott Hancock and defender Hayden Kennedy have all had their seasons ended early while Kyal Horsley, Brett Robinson, Wayde Twomey, Greg Broughton, Greg Clark, Jordan Lockyer and Brad Stevenson have spent time sidelined.

The Lions have done well to cope with that but the ruck does remain a concern and it's hardly surprising given Andrew McDougall and Frank Stockley never played another game after the 2014 grand final.

David Madut showed good signs for much of 2015 but hasn’t played a league game now since Round 15 last year.

Lachlan Delahunty and Clancy Wheeler stood tall in the finals last year to lead Subiaco to the premiership but now Delahunty has been struggling with his body having missed six of the past seven games.

In his absence, Wheeler with help from Sean Bradley have battled hard but again last Thursday it showed to be an area Subiaco can still get better in against South Fremantle's Brock Higgins.

Schofield, though, is happy with the competitiveness Bradley is providing and hopes Delahunty isn’t too far away from returning.

"We'd love to have our No. 1 ruckman David Madut on the park there's no doubt about that and even more so with Delahunty being out, but we should get him back in the next couple of weeks. But in saying that Sean Bradley has shown some good signs over the last four or five weeks," he said.

"We performed well against the likes Giles, Johnson, Clarke and Hannath, but Brock Higgins is a player I looked closely at a few years ago before he went to South.

"He's a strong sort of fella and Sean's more of a mobile type so maybe the conditions suited Brock, but it just means our midfielders at ground level need to stay engaged at the contest a bit more.

"We felt that Brock had the better of the duel in the first half and that's why we looked to Clancy Wheeler to go in the ruck and give us some grunt around the ball. At the end of the day I think it was a pretty even battle all-round."

Subiaco had a big task to try and replace the majority of its forward-line from last year with Shane Yarran drafted to Fremantle, Chris Deluca moving on and Matt Boland returning to Melbourne.

Shepheard has ended up doing well in the role of Boland and while it was Ben Sokol and Shaquille McKenzie standing up in the first part of the season, the second of 2016 has seen Liam Ryan come from nowhere to star for the Lions.

The 19-year-old has played some exciting and outstanding football and not only because of his 24 goals in 10 matches, but his poise and accurate kicking, ability to take big marks and put on plenty of pressure has been outstanding and put him in contention to be drafted into the AFL.

Schofield couldn’t have been happier with what he's provided after arriving with the season already underway. 

"He keeps getting talked about and he seems to save his best marking attributes for the TV games because he took a great mark out on the far wing and he did the same thing against Claremont at the Showgrounds," he said.

"He is a ripping young talent that came from a long way back. It's his first senior season of WAFL football and he is dead-eye in front of goals. If there is anyone in our side that you want to ice the game or kick that goal after the siren it's Liam Ryan.

"For a 19-year-old kid to have so much composure is a credit to him. He is still learning and he's a long way off in terms of where we would like him to be as a polished footballer, but he's developing. It's a credit to him how much he has come along."

It's not just the young players standing up either for Subiaco and there has been nobody in better form in recent weeks than reigning fairest and best winner Chris Phelan.

The 28-year-old dual premiership player and veteran of 136 games has averaged 30 possessions the past three games and over 25 the entire season to again make himself one of the leading contenders for the Sandover Medal.

Schofield is delighted with the way his form has picked up the longer the season has gone on, and was also happy with the performances of Leigh Kitchin and Adam Cockie in tight last Thursday against South Fremantle.

"He's (Phelan) been in some ripping form over the last month. He's really coming into his own. I suppose his form is showing where he was at early on in the year because he missed a fair chunk of the pre-season having travelled a little bit," Schofield said.

"He's now coming into his own and playing inside, and it's great to see him show the form that saw him win our fairest and best last year.

"Kitchin and Adam are good inside players for us. Adam hasn’t been in his best form over the last month but I thought his second half was a turning point for him.

"He's been working hard to get himself back into some good form and that's what we want from our senior players. It was good to see them finish off well.