How the WAFL clubs are shaping up for 2017Sunday, February 19, 2017 - 10:55 AM - by Chris Pike

EXCITEMENT is beginning to build ahead of the 2017 McDonald's WAFL Premiership Season that is now a month away and as always there has been plenty of movement between the nine clubs.

The WAFL season for 2017 will begin on Saturday March 18 with East Fremantle hosting Claremont, East Perth taking on Peel Thunder, Swan Districts facing Perth and then South Fremantle battling Subiaco in a twilight fixture at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Before that there will be three weeks of pre-season fixtures starting on Saturday February 25. That will see Peel play Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium, Swan Districts face Subiaco at Steel Blue Oval, East Perth take on South Fremantle at Leederville Oval and West Perth host East Fremantle at HBF Arena.

A week later on Saturday March 4, East Fremantle hosts Swan Districts at East Fremantle Oval, Subiaco takes on Claremont at Leederville Oval and West Perth faces Perth at HBF Arena.

Before finally on Saturday March 11, East Fremantle takes on East Perth at East Fremantle Oval, Peel Thunder faces West Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium and South Fremantle plays Claremont at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

There have been plenty of comings and goings at all nine clubs coming into the new season with Peel Thunder looking to repeat its maiden premiership performance while the other eight clubs want to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Starting with Peel, the Thunder will again be aligned with Fremantle and subsequently see plenty of new faces that have arrived at the Dockers while a host of their premiership players including Tendai Mzungu, Clancee Pearce, Matt de Boer, Shane Yarran and Alex Silvagni have moved on.

As for their own WAFL players, Peel will be strengthened with the return of former Essendon small forward Leroy Jetta after he missed all of 2016 through suspension. On return to the WAFL in 2015, he kicked 39 goals and will be looking for a similar impact now back with the Thunder in 2017.

Subiaco made a third consecutive grand final last year just falling short of a premiership hat-trick by losing to the Thunder in the decider, and the Lions have now had plenty of changes coming into 2017.

From that grand final team of last year, Subiaco loses Greg Broughton and Brett Robinson to retirement while Hamish Shepheard has headed to the Southport Sharks.

They were three key players in their line-up with Broughton returning from his AFL career to settle across half-back while Robinson played well across half-forward and through the middle, and Shepheard was outstanding at full-forward.

Defender Daniel Leishman is another to move on from the Lions along with Simon Moore.

However, there are plenty of positive for Jarrod Schofield with the Lions with plenty of handy looking players coming on board.

The headline act is Angus Litherland with the key position player arriving at Subiaco having played 25 games in the past three seasons in the AFL with Hawthorn. That included 13 games back in the premiership year of 2014 before missing out on selection during the finals.

Two more former AFL-listed players have joined Subiaco as well with former West Coast rookies Rowen Powell and Corey Adamson signing on board. Powell spent last year back at Claremont but managed just two league appearances.

Adamson, meanwhile, is an ex-baseballer who was developing well in his time at West Coast playing some outstanding football with East Perth in the WAFL as a tough midfielder.

Subiaco has also signed Bailey Matera, the brother of Gold Coast Suns' Brandon and son of Wally, from South Fremantle along with another ex-Bulldog Sam Lowrie.

Former Swan Districts pair Dylan Nelson and Simon Parry have also joined the Lions along with former Royal Daniel Perkins and ex-Shark Nick Menegola who is the younger brother of Subiaco premiership player Sam.

South Fremantle returned to finals action last season for the first time since 2011 and will now be looking to build on that preliminary final appearance in 2017 in Todd Curley's third season as coach.

The Bulldogs will welcome back Cory Dell'Olio from suspension last year with the premiership small forward having kicked 142 goals in his 74 WAFL appearances.

The Bulldogs also welcome back exciting pair Jarrod Garlett (Gold Coast) and Jermaine Miller-Lewis (Hawthorn) from the AFL along with ruckman Jake Solomon from East Fremantle.

South Fremantle does lose young key defender Brad McPhail to Perth while Bailey Matera has gone to Subiaco, Jordan Matera back to Melbourne and key forward Jesse Mirco to the Sharks.

West Perth again made finals in 2016 and the Falcons will be looking to remain a premiership contender in 2017 with the impact that key position recruit Scott Simpson can have a key to that.

Simpson was former on Geelong's list in the AFL before a strong VFL career that included a state game appearance against the WAFL in 2013 in Northam.

In recent seasons he has been among the best performers in the Nepean Football League with Somerville, and whether it's at centre half-back or centre half-forward he will be a key to West Perth's prospects this season.

Former Subiaco, Swan Districts and Peel Thunder hard-running utility Jarrhan Jacky will also make his return to West Perth in 2017 while Mitch van Berlo is back after not playing in 2016.

Former East Perth product Riley Hutchinson has also joined the Falcons along with midfielder Cale Delbridge on deck as well from Mines in Kalgoorlie.

West Perth has lost plenty of experience and quality, though, including 2013 premiership players Laine Rasmussen, Luke Tedesco, Rohan Kerr and Matt Fowler. Max Duffy, Drew Rohde and Matt Johnson also won't be with the Falcons in 2017.

Like Peel, East Perth will have plenty of natural movement in their player stocks from the changes made at West Coast, but the Royals have a new coach in Luke Webster who takes over from Jaymie Graham.

East Perth will also be without star veterans Craig Wulff and Paul Johnson who retired following last year's finals exit at the hands of Peel. The Royals have secured the signature of midfielder Patrick McGinnity, though, who has been named co-captain alongside Kyle Anderson.

Claremont only narrowly missed out on playing finals last year on the back of a host of losses by two goals or under. With some of those losses being wins, the Tigers could have made finals and had an impact there, but it wasn’t to be.

Now Claremont has a new coach for 2017 with Darren Harris returning to the WAFL for the first time since leaving West Perth after the 2005 season. He went on to work with West Coast and Carlton before returning to Perth and coaching the WAFL state side successfully the past two years.

He has been able to recruit former unlucky Fremantle Docker Anthony Morabito to Claremont and if he can stay fit, he has the ability to be one of the most damaging WAFL players.

The Tigers also welcome back dual Subiaco premiership defender Charles LeFanu who didn’t play in the WAFL in 2016 while Claremont premiership players Tom Lee and Jesse Laurie are all back as well along with Nick Winmar.

East Fremantle looked promising for much of 2016 before fading out in coach Rob Wiley's first season in charge and now he will be looking to lead the Sharks back into the finals in 2017.

To help in that cause he will have the services of former Collingwood AFL defender Jonathon Marsh while also having signed up Tom Omodei from East Perth who continued to put together outstanding reserves form for the Royals but couldn’t break into the league line-up.

Jesse Mirco also arrives from South Fremantle to join the Sharks after the forward kicked 40 goals in the reserves in 2016.

East Fremantle has also signed former Peel Thunder key position player Nathan Fahey to add some depth and size for the 2017 season.

Perth was able to show plenty of signs of improvement for most of 2016 and now coach Earl Spalding will be looking for further gains to be made as the Demons try to push towards a first finals appearance in the WAFL since 1997.

While the signing of Tendai Mzungu didn’t eventuate after he was picked up by the GWS Giants for a second crack in the AFL, the Demons have welcomed back two of their products from the AFL in the form of Brant Colledge and Clem Smith.

Both will be handy pick ups but it's the key position stocks Perth really needed to bolster. That will naturally happen with Spencer White fully fit after missing almost half of 2016 having come to the Demons from St Kilda.

Perth has also added former South Fremantle defender Brad McPhail and East Perth key position player Clayton Giblett with both to now have key roles to play in the side.

The Demons have lost Brett Wolfenden and Dene White from the midfield but have managed to retain Clint Jones, Aidan Tropiano and Julian Jacobs with that trio among the best ball winners of the competition in 2016.

Swan Districts had a disaster of a season in 2016 for a number of reasons ending up with a wooden spoon.

It all began when Ryan Crowley was signed up to play and be an assistant coach, but then ended up going to Essendon for the year instead. But the former Fremantle best and fairest winner stayed true to his word and is back at the black-and-whites for 2017.

Swans have also welcomed back several homegrown products from the AFL in Clancee Pearce, Jamie Bennell, Corey Gault and David Ellard, but unfortunately Pearce's season is already over with a knee injury.

Swan Districts will also have the playing and assistant coaching services of Hawthorn premiership player Xavier Ellis. They have lost premiership centre half-forward and state defender Justin Simpson but Swans look to have a vastly improved list for 2017.

CLAREMONT
Arrivals – Anthony Morabito, Tom Lee, Charles LeFanu, Nick Winmar, Jesse Laurie
Departures – Rowen Powell, Darcy Cameron, Francis Watson, Jake Waterman

EAST FREMANTLE
Arrivals – Jonathon Marsh, Tom Omodei, Jesse Mirco, Nathan Fahey
Departures – Jake Solomon, Mitch Boyle, James Bristow, Brock O'Brien

EAST PERTH
Arrivals – Patrick McGinnity
Departures – Paul Johnson, Craig Wulff, Garry Moss, Clayton Giblett, Tom Omodei, Sam Powell-Pepper

PEEL THUNDER
Arrivals – Leroy Jetta
Departures – Nathan Fahey

PERTH
Arrivals – Brant Colledge, Devin McFarlane, Clayton Giblett, Brad McPhail, Nelson Ansey, Tim Sutherland
Departures – Brett Wolfenden, Dene White, Matthew Taylor, Zac Fisher, Angus Graham

SOUTH FREMANTLE
Arrivals – Cory Dell'Olio, Jarrod Garlett, Jake Solomon, Jermaine Miller-Lewis
Departures – Jordan Matera, Brad McPhail, Jesse Mirco, Bailey Matera, Tim English

SUBIACO
Arrivals – Angus Litherland, Rowen Powell, Corey Adamson, Bailey Matera, Dylan Nelson, Daniel Perkins, Simon Parry, Sam Lowrie, Nick Menegola 
Departures – Greg Broughton, Brett Robinson, Hamish Shepheard, Simon Moore, Shaquille McKenzie, Hayden Yarran, Daniel Leishman, Dylan Elliott, Mitch McPhee

SWAN DISTRICTS
Arrivals – Ryan Crowley, Clancee Pearce, Jamie Bennell, Corey Gault, David Ellard, Xavier Ellis
Departures – Justin Simpson, Griffin Logue, Nelson Ansey, Rudy Riddoch, Albert Dean

WEST PERTH
Arrivals – Scott Simpson, Cale Delbridge, Mitch van Berlo, Riley Hutchinson
Departures – Max Duffy, Drew Rohde, Laine Rasmussen, Luke Tedesco, Rohan Kerr, Matt Johnson, Matt Fowler, Joel Leeson, Keegan Knott