Preliminary Finals Reserves and Colts WrapWednesday, September 20, 2017 - 2:16 PM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT's colts and Subiaco's reserves both won their respectively WAFL preliminary final matches on Sunday at Leederville Oval to book their places in the 2017 Grand Final.

Preliminary final day at Leederville Oval began on Sunday morning with Claremont qualifying for a fourth consecutive Grand Final, beating East Perth 8.9 (57) to 6.9 (45).

It is a remarkable performance by the Tigers who lost the 2014 Grand Final to Swan Districts but have won the past two premierships and now have the chance to make it a hat-trick this Sunday.

Standing in the way for Claremont this Sunday is the minor premiers East Fremantle who advanced straight to the Grand Final by beating the Tigers in the second semi-final.

Then in the reserves preliminary final at Leederville on Sunday, Subiaco beat Claremont for the second time in three weeks prevailing 10.11 (71) to 6.14 (50) to qualify for the 2017 Grand Final.

Subiaco will face South Fremantle in the Grand Final at Domain Stadium on Sunday with the Bulldogs having finished the home and away season on top of the ladder and then beating the Lions in the second semi-final.

STANDOUT RESERVES PERFORMERS
With South Fremantle awaiting in the reserves Grand Final of 2017, Subiaco did battle with Claremont in the preliminary final on Sunday.

The two teams had already met two weeks earlier and played out a thrilling qualifying final at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with the Lions prevailing by two points.

Subiaco then ended up losing to South Fremantle in the second semi-final while Claremont beat Swan Districts in the first semi-final to set up Sunday's preliminary final.

The Lions made a flying start with the only four goals of the first quarter which proved a match-winning advantage with the Tigers' inaccuracy costing them any serious chance of mounting a comeback with Subiaco ending up winning by 21 points.

With Subiaco's league side later winning the preliminary final to also qualify for the Grand Final, the players in the reserves for the Lions had plenty of motivation to perform well to put themselves in the mix still to break into that side for the Grand Final on Sunday.

All eyes were on the return of Chris Phelan who was playing his first game back from a knee injury. The dual fairest and best winning, two-time premiership player hurt his knee initially in Round 10 against East Fremantle in his 150th game.

He then had a slight hiccup in his recovery delaying his return until now but the prolific midfielder got better as the game went on. Despite being caught a couple of times uncharacteristically, he finished with a solid 22 possessions to put his hand up for a league berth this Sunday.

Adam Creeper was the one player from the league side the week before to come back for the reserves but he wasn’t able to have an impact.

Dylan Nelson took his chances well as a mid-size forward kicking three goals for Subiaco while Ray Daniels was also impressive kicking three majors.

Matt Bogensperger was impressive with his hard-running racking up 32 possessions as well while Bailey Matera collected 24 disposals, Dylan Clarke 24, James Garcia 23, Nick Menegola 21, Simon Parry 20, Jacob Miller 18 and Brayden Ainsworth 18 to go with seven tackles.

Claremont's quest for back to back reserves premierships came to an end with the preliminary final loss despite three goals, 14 possessions and eight marks from emerging big man Eddie Simpson.

Tom Shanahan was also impressive for the Tigers with 41 possessions and 13 marks while Lachlan Martinis finished with 32 disposals, Bailey Rogers 26, Oliver Eastland 22, Harry Sinclair 19, Jacob Sideris 19, Ben Rushforth 19 and Luke Maddock 18.

Jeremy Goddard also had 37 hit outs in the ruck.

REDiMED COLTS SHINING LIGHTS
The colts preliminary final took place Sunday morning at Leederville Oval and it was teams taking part familiar with doing battle in September with Claremont having also played East Perth in last year's Grand Final.

Claremont won that premiership last year at the expense of the Royals and the Tigers again qualified for the Grand Final of 2017 with the 12-point victory on Sunday in the preliminary final.

Claremont did have to come from behind to win though. East Perth led by five points at half-time and still by five at three quarter-time. But the Tigers went on to kick four goals to one in the final term to record the victory and advance to a fourth consecutive colts Grand Final.

Jacob Orr and Callan England kicked two goals apiece for Claremont with England also compiling 26 possessions, six marks and six inside-50 entries.

Jake Patmore also finished with 25 disposals for the Tigers, Declan McNamara 22, Jack Blaauw 19, Edward Aitken 19, Rhett Lloyd 18, Shaquille Morton 17 and Jack Monaghan 16.

Lewis Davis ended up with 11 disposals, five marks, nine tackles and 24 hit outs in the ruck.

Liam Martin kicked three goals for East Perth from three kicks and two marks.

Matthew Young collected 19 possessions, seven tackles, six inside 50s and a goal as well for the Royals.

Brandon Starcevich also gathered 19 disposals, Christian Ameduri 18 (10 tackles), Jaxon Cahill 18, Nathan Arbon 17, Thomas Baulch 16, Mitchell Gupanis 16 and Louis Miller 16.

Sam East finished with 12 possessions and 15 hit outs in the ruck.