Latest News
Round 22 – Swan Districts v Claremont Match ReportMonday, August 21, 2017 - 11:25 AM - by Chris Pike
THE WAFL finals race heated up further on Saturday thanks to Claremont keeping its season alive with a 24-point victory against Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval.
The equation was relatively simple coming into Saturday's clash at Steel Blue Oval with a win to book in Swan Districts to play finals in 2017 and ending Claremont's slim hopes in the process.
But it wasn’t to be with Claremont being in control for much of the afternoon and then making up for an inaccurate first half with nine goals to four after half-time to come away with the 13.17 (95) to 11.5 (71) victory.
That means that not only are Swans not yet guaranteed of a return to finals in 2017 but that the Tigers do remain in hunt at the same time.
Swan Districts stays in fourth position but now must beat East Fremantle back at Steel Blue Oval this Saturday to play finals or face the prospect of being leapfrogged by East Perth and West Perth if both win their games respectively this Saturday.
Claremont can now beat West Perth at home on Saturday and if that happens and East Perth loses to Subiaco, there's every chance the Tigers end up making the finals despite having so far only won eight games and two of their past seven.
It was a dominant performance in most aspects by Claremont and had the Tigers converted better than the 13 goals from 30 scoring shots, the margin could have been greater than the eventual 24 points.
Claremont finished the game with 154 more possessions than Swan Districts, 27 more marks, 19 extra inside-50 entries and then the 30 scoring shots to 16.
As a result of the 426 possessions Claremont had as a team, the Tigers had plenty of big ball winners and none better than reigning Sandover Medallist Jye Bolton.
A knee injury he played through might have hindered his opening eight rounds of the season, but since then he has been right back to the form of 2016 and had another 41 possessions, nine inside 50s and six tackles.
Bailey Banfield also gathered 28 disposals for the Tigers, Jared Hardisty 26 (two goals), Jake Murphy 26, Lachlan Martinis 23, Ryan Lim 23 and Matt Guelfi 20 (two goals).
Claremont's defence held up well to concede only 11 goals but also provided great set up from the back-line too led by 33 possessions and 10 marks from Haydn Busher. Ryan Murphy also had 31 disposals and seven marks, and Keifer Yu 22 touches and five marks.
Ian Richardson had a strong game for Claremont too up forward kicking three goals from 15 possessions and five marks.
Matthew Palfrey came in for his third league game of the season and booted three goals as well while Oliver Eastland made a strong contribution as a tall target with 18 disposals, seven marks and a goal.
Ricky Cary returned for Swan Districts and made the most of his rare chances in attack kicking five goals from seven kicks.
That gives the tall forward 39 goals on the season for the black-and-whites after his second five-goal haul of the season with the other in Round 7 also coming against Claremont at Steel Blue Oval.
Emerging small forward Taryce Stewart also grabbed his chances kicking three goals from five kicks to give him 29 goals in 2017 for the black-and-whites.
Adam Faulkner worked tirelessly against the tide in the midfield for Swans ending the afternoon with 33 possessions and five tackles.
Corey Gault was again impressive in the ruck with 20 disposals and 34 hit outs opposed to Claremont's state ruckman Mitch Andrews who did have 44 hit outs himself.
Jesse Turner also gathered 19 possessions for Swan Districts while laying seven tackles with Jamie Bennell having 18 touches and returning co-captain David Ellard 17 and five tackles.
Tobe Watson had a strong league debut for Swans with 10 possessions and seven tackles while former West Perth player Ben McGillivray also did well in his first league appearance for Swan Districts with 13 disposals and five marks.
Swans' cause wasn’t helped with an ankle injury to co-captain Tallan Ames in his 260th game for Swans with Matt Riggio, Xavier Ellis, Freddie Clutterbuck and Matthew Rogers already among those sidelined.
Claremont was kicking the aid of the breeze in the opening quarter and had plenty of opportunities creating nine shots on goal. But the Tigers kicked just two goals through Ian Richardson and Oliver Eastland either side of a major to Ricky Cary.
Swans then had the breeze in the second term and played some impressive football. Cary kicked two goals in the opening six minutes and then Jake Nuich added another for the black-and-whites to put them seven points in front.
Claremont drew back level soon after with a goal to Matt Guelfi but Swans remained on top for the quarter with goals to Ryan Crowley and then two to Stewart as they led by 17 points and then still 11 by half-time.
But it was all Claremont in the third quarter with the Tigers piling on the only six goals thanks to Mitch Andrews, Jared Hardisty, Matthew Palfrey, Palfrey again and Richardson. When Palfrey kicked his third of the third term, Claremont was well on top leading by five goals at the last change.
Swans did have the breeze again in the last quarter and managed to kick four goals to three, but all that did was cut Claremont's final winning margin to 24 points.
Everything is on the line now on Saturday for Swan Districts against East Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval with a win required to guarantee a finals place for 2017.
Claremont can give itself a real chance of playing finals with a win at Claremont Oval against West Perth on Saturday as well.
SWAN DISTRICTS 1.1 7.2 7.3 11.5 (71)
CLAREMONT 2.7 4.9 10.15 13.17 (95)
SWAN DISTRICTS – Goals: Cary 5; Stewart 3; Wityk, Nuich, Crowley.
Best: Faulkner, Gault, Stewart, Cary, Turner, T Watson, McGillivray.
CLAREMONT – Goals: Palfrey, Richardson 3; Hardisty, Guelfi 2; Lim, Andrews, Eastland.
Best: Bolton, Busher, Richardson, R Murphy, Palfrey, Banfield, Hardisty.
Join Our Newsletter
Subscribe Now!
Join our WA Footy family to receive all the latest news and results.