Round 4 Optus WAFL PreviewThursday, April 25, 2019 - 6:27 AM - by Chris Pike

IT is a short turnaround from WAFL action on Easter Sunday to close Round 3 to ANZAC Day to open Round 4 but the stage is set for a tremendous clash to mark the occasion between traditional rivals Perth and East Perth.

Round 3 of the WAFL was spread right across Easter with Subiaco beating West Coast and Peel Thunder defeating East Fremantle on Good Friday before Perth held off Swan Districts, and Claremont proved too good for East Perth on Saturday.

The round concluded on Easter Sunday with South Fremantle beating West Perth, and now four days later Round 4 gets underway on ANZAC Day with what should be a tremendous clash between two long-time rivals.

Perth will host East Perth on ANZAC Day from 4.10pm at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

Round 4 will then resume with the other four games on Saturday afternoon starting at 1pm with Claremont playing the West Coast Eagles at Claremont Oval.

The other three matches all take place at 2.15pm with West Perth playing Swan Districts at Joondalup Arena, South Fremantle hosting East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, and Subiaco battling Peel Thunder at Leederville Oval.

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ANZAC Day WAFL action takes place at Mineral Resources Park with Perth looking to continue its impressive start the season while East Perth will want to get back on the winner's list.

The Demons have looked tremendous opening the new season with wins against the Eagles, Bulldogs and Swans to remain undefeated coming into the clash with the Royals.

East Perth has won just one of its three games to date, beating Swan Districts but losing to Subiaco and Claremont, but the Royals have done a good job to be instantly competitive returning to being a standalone club in 2019.

It should be a tremendous match up on Thursday afternoon with the new lights at Lathlain being in full effect for the first time in an official WAFL fixture.

Perth will also have a milestone to celebrate with 2017 fairest and best winner Michael Sinclair playing his 100th game. He is honoured to get to celebrate the mark on ANZAC Day.

"Playing on Anzac Day is always a privilege and celebrating the 100 games in an Anzac Day match is a bit of a cherry on top as well," Sinclair said.

"I'm looking forward to the day. It's obviously a great honour to be able to play on such a special day for so many reasons and I'm looking forward to it."

The Saturday Round 4 WAFL action begins at Claremont Oval with the Tigers putting their undefeated record on the line against the Eagles.

Claremont has started the season impressively beating East Fremantle, West Perth and East Perth to sit on top of the ladder after three rounds.

But playing West Coast is always an interesting prospect with the Eagles starting their life in the WAFL winning one of three games, but their form could largely depend on who is available from West Coast.

With Claremont out to keep their unbeaten streak going and West Coast to stay in touch with the top five, it looms as a fascinating battle with the chance that Alec and Jake Waterman will be playing on opposing sides as brothers as well.

Two winless teams then lock horns at Joondalup Arena on Saturday with West Perth hosting Swan Districts.

West Perth made the Grand Final last year but has struggled to start 2019 losing to Peel Thunder, Claremont and South Fremantle to be 0-3 coming into Saturday's clash where they will still be without superstar veteran Andrew Strijk through injury.

Swan Districts might have lost its opening three games, but only by a combined margin of 25 points and the Black Ducks have had their chances each week against South Fremantle, East Perth and Perth.

Swans will be desperate to get that first win on the board of the season at the expense of the Falcons, but coach Adam Pickering knows it's going to take everyone doing the right things for longer.

"That's the challenge of coaching because you are so invested in it and even as an individual you are really flat and down after a loss. But the reality is we are only three games into the season so it may look all doom and gloom in terms of being 0-3, but there's still a long way to go," Pickering said.

"You play everyone twice this year so if you can turn it around and keep the energy and positivity up, we are not in too bad of a position given the losses we've had have all been by small margins. The message to the group has to be that we haven’t been blown away. 

"I didn’t think we were great the first two weeks but we started to click the second half this week and we've been in every game. If we can just bring four quarters of that we should start to win some games of footy."

The first derby of 2019 then takes place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval when South Fremantle hosts East Fremantle.

The clashes around ANZAC Day for the first derby of the season has now become an annual event and this year's occurrence will put two former West Perth coaches, Todd Curley and Bill Monaghan, up against one another for the first time in charge of the Fremantle clubs.

Despite the loss of star veteran personnel over the summer, South Fremantle has started the season well with wins over Swan Districts and West Perth while only suffering a narrow loss to Perth.

East Fremantle, meanwhile, coming off its two-win season of 2018 is yet to taste a victory in 2019 under Monaghan losing its first three games to Peel Thunder, Claremont and Subiaco to be on a 13-game losing run dating back to last year.

South Fremantle is also enjoying a great run of recent success against East Fremantle having won the past seven derbies, and 10 of the past 11. 

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley knows nothing will come easy in any derby though. 

"No doubt and they were pretty good against Peel," Curley said.

"They competed pretty well and probably should have won the game. They've got some class coming back into the team and have some dangerous forwards. It looked like they competed pretty well. Derbies are always a scrap and this one will no doubt be the same I'd say."

A Grand Final rematch from 2016 and 2017 will then take place at Leederville Oval on Saturday with the league's last two premiers, Subiaco and Peel, doing battle.

Subiaco is on a 22-game winning run dating back to that 2017 Grand Final loss to Peel having started the new season strongly with wins against East Perth, East Fremantle and West Coast.

Peel has won two of its first three games of the new season too as they attempt to return to finals action in 2019 setting the stage for what should be a tantalising battle.
 

ROUND 4

PERTH (3-0, 3rd) v EAST PERTH (1-2, 7th) – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, ANZAC DAY 4.10PM
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Broadcast – 7mate, 91.3 SportFM

CLAREMONT (3-0, 1st) v WEST COAST EAGLES (1-2, 6th) – CLAREMONT OVAL, SATURDAY 1.00PM
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WEST PERTH (0-3, 9th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (0-3, 8th) – JOONDALUP ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM

SOUTH FREMANTLE (2-1, 4th) v EAST FREMANTLE (0-3, 10th) – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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Broadcast – KIX Digital

SUBIACO (3-0, 2nd) v PEEL THUNDER (2-1, 5th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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