Round 3 Optus WAFLW PreviewSaturday, May 18, 2019 - 2:00 AM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 3 of the inaugural Optus WAFL Women's Premiership Season takes place on Sunday after with two games at 2pm with East Fremantle facing Swan Districts, and Claremont taking on Peel Thunder.

It has been an exciting opening to the first ever season of the new WAFLW competition which has been created in 2019 on the back of the momentum from the AFLW national competition and the work to break the ground done in recent years by the WA Women's Football League.

Subiaco has started the WAFLW season impressively winning their opening two matches and now the Lions will have the Round 3 bye leaving the other four teams to battle it out to build some momentum.

The game to be livestreamed at the WAFL Facebook page and on www.wafl.com.au will take place at Claremont Oval between Claremont and Peel Thunder.

Also with a 2pm bouncedown, East Fremantle will be playing Swan Districts at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park.

OPTUS WAFLW ROUND 2 WRAP
OPTUS WAFLW ROUND 1 WRAP

The clash between East Fremantle and Swan Districts at New Choice Homes Park is a contest between two traditional powerhouse clubs in female football in Western Australia.

East Fremantle won the last WAWFL league premiership in 2018 while back in 2017 Swan Districts dominated the competition to win the Youth Girls, reserves and league premierships.

So both teams were natural choices to be two of the five teams to begin the WAFLW competition and now they meet for the first time on Sunday afternoon at Shark Park.

East Fremantle started the season with a win on home turf against Peel Thunder by 37 points with plenty of impressive performers with Roxanne Roux kicking three goals and Stephanie Sparke two while Larissa Versaci, Katrina Tinson, Sharon Wong and Kimberley Bowey were terrific.

Then last Sunday for East Fremantle it was a Grand Final rematch against Subiaco from last year and it was the Sharks narrowly going down by 11 points. Wong, Roux, Julie-Anne Norrish, Philipa Seth, Versaci and Ashleigh Gomes were all strong performers again for the Sharks.

Swan Districts, meanwhile, started its life in WAFLW with a loss to the unbeaten Subiaco by 29 points at Steel Blue Oval back in Round 1. That was despite goals to Imahara Cameron and Shannon Matthews, and strong performances from Lauren Osborne, Naomi Baker, Aimee Ralph and Jessica Cox.

Swans bounced back strongly last Sunday, though, with Kara Donnellan getting her first win since taking over officially as senior coach with the Black Ducks. 

Swan Districts looked good beating Claremont by 36 points also at Steel Blue Oval and there were plenty of things to like for the black-and-whites. 

Mikayla Hyde and Emily McGuire kicked two goals each for Swans while Ralph, Emma O'Driscoll, Taylor Pescud, Lauren Osborne and Mikayla Hyde were all tremendous performers.

With both East Fremantle and Swan Districts having gone 1-1 to start the season and looking to get some winning momentum, it should be a tremendous contest featuring plenty of star power at Shark Park on Sunday afternoon.

The game to be livestreamed on Sunday takes place at Claremont Oval with Claremont hosting Peel Thunder from 2pm.

Both the Tigers and Thunder have both suffered one defeat and already had a bye each over the opening two rounds of the WAFLW season.

That means that when they run out onto Claremont Oval on Sunday afternoon, they will both be searching for their first wins ever in the WAFLW competition.

Peel had the bye in Round 2 after starting the season in the opening round with a 39-point defeat at the hands of East Fremantle.

Ebony Dowson and Abby Barnden kicked the goals for the Thunder with Lauren Quaife, Sarah Verrier, Shannon Whale, Jaide Britton and Courtney Rowley among their best performers. 

Claremont, meanwhile, had the bye in the opening round and then made their debut appearance against Swan Districts last Sunday, finishing with a 36-point defeat.

Despite the loss, Zoe Timmers, Ashlee Hardisty, Allana Dickie and Amy Szeliga kicked goals for the Tigers and Bella Zadnik and Sophie McDonald played well.

OPTUS WAFLW ROUND 3

EAST FREMANTLE v SWAN DISTRICTS – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SUNDAY 2.00PM
Live scores, stats  

CLAREMONT v PEEL THUNDER – CLAREMONT OVAL, SUNDAY 2.00PM
Live scores, stats