Round 7 Optus WAFL PreviewFriday, May 24, 2019 - 1:11 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 7 of the 2019 Optus WAFL Premiership Season sees all five matches take place on Saturday afternoon with Subiaco trying to respond to a loss for the first time in over two years while South Fremantle tries to keep winning and East Fremantle attempts to make it consecutive wins.

There are five matches in Round 7 of the WAFL and all have plenty of reasons to be fascinated by in a full round of Saturday fixtures ahead of the WA Day long weekend.

Four of the five matches on Saturday all begin at 2.15pm with Swan Districts and the West Coast Eagles battling at Steel Blue Oval in a contest between two teams desperate for a win.

South Fremantle is the hottest team in the competition coming off the win against Subiaco and the Bulldogs host East Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

East Fremantle won its first game in almost a year last week and now look to back that up against Perth at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park.

Claremont also hosts Subiaco at Claremont Oval with the Lions having to deal with coming into a home and away WAFL fixture for the first time since Round 2, 2017 after a loss. 

The round then concludes with the later starting game at Joondalup's HBF Arena with West Perth hosting Peel Thunder.

TABTOUCH TEAM OF ROUND 6
OPTUS WAFL ROUND 6 WRAP

Round 7 in the WAFL gets underway at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval with Swan Districts taking on the West Coast Eagles for the first ever time.

Both teams come into the game needing a win too with Swans having lost their past two games and five of their first six of the season.

But up until last week, the Black Ducks had been playing reasonably well. However, the loss to East Fremantle leaves them with plenty to want to make up for this Saturday at home to the Eagles.

West Coast comes into the game following a couple of heavy losses too against South Fremantle by 59 points and East Perth by 34 points.

From the Swans team that lost to East Fremantle last Saturday, Tristen Raynor, Jacob Coniglio, Chad Daniels, Dylan Smith and Patrick Italiano come into the squad. At this stage, David Ellard and Ethan Maguire are the only players to go out.

South Fremantle and East Perth both bring winning form into their contest also on Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Bulldogs are the form team in the WAFL having now won their past four matches including becoming the first team to beat Subiaco since the 2017 Grand Final when they prevailed by 22 points at Leederville Oval.

That has South Fremantle holding a 5-1 record coming into Saturday's game against East Perth.

The Royals were impressive in their own right last Thursday night beating the West Coast Eagles by 34 points at Leederville Oval to improve to a 2-4 record on the season.

From the South Fremantle team that beat Subiaco last Saturday, Tom Blechynden, Zac De San Miguel, Jonathon Frampton and Zane Sumich come into the squad. Blayne Wilson, fresh off his 150th WAFL appearance, is the only out at this stage.

There are plenty of changes at East Perth with Sharrod Wellingham, Jackson Ramsay, Jordan Busher, Matthew Johnson and Nathan Eaton coming into the squad.

There are some significant outs too for the Royals including Nathan Blee and Kyle Anderson.

East Fremantle and Perth do battle at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park in another fascinating battle.

While the Sharks have won just once this season and the Demons have only lost once, East Fremantle's lone win came last week over Swan Districts and Perth suffered its first defeat following a five-game winning run at the hands of West Perth.

That adds plenty more interest into a contest that seven days ago might have seen Perth enter as unbackable favourites.

East Fremantle will also enter the game with the confidence of having won its past 12 straight matches on home soil by an average of 32.7 points against Perth. 

The Demons' last win at Shark Park came back in Round 7, 2009 when they won by 13 points. But that was just one of 20 wins only Perth has accumulated at East Fremantle Oval.

Josef Hebiton, Matthew Burton and Dillon O'Reilly come into the East Fremantle squad from the team that beat Swan Districts.

From the Perth line-up that lost to West Perth, Ethan Hansen, Jacob Payne, Zac Hill and Zareth Roe come into the team at the expense of Shaun Smith, Sam Garstone, Kasey Nicholas and Daniel Horan.

Subiaco is in unfamiliar territory entering Saturday's clash with Claremont at Claremont Oval. 

The Lions lost for the first time since the 2017 Grand Final last Saturday against South Fremantle in what was also their first home and away season defeat since Round 1, 2017.

So while they had a whole summer before trying to recoup that Grand Final loss, it has been more than two years since they have had to attempt to rebound from a regular season contest but that's the situation they find themselves in against the Tigers.

Subiaco still sits on top of the ladder at 5-1 coming into the game but Claremont will be attempting to make its own statement coming off a win against Peel Thunder last week.

It's no surprise given Subiaco's winning run in recent years, but the Lions have won their past eight matches against the Tigers. Claremont last beat the Lions in Round 21, 2014.

Callan England, Jesse Laurie and Jack Bradshaw come into the squad for Claremont to take on Subiaco. 

From the Subiaco team that lost to South Fremantle last week, Clancy Wheeler, Daniel Leach, Michael Braut, Travis Cleggett, Ben Newton, Jack Beverley and Drew Rohde come into the squad while Josh Deluca, Jacob Miller, Jack Mayo and Joel Latham go out.

The last game of the round is a twilight fixture at Joondalup's HBF Arena between West Perth and Peel Thunder, starting at 4.30pm.

The two teams already met back in Round 1 where Peel held on for a three-point victory in Mandurah over West Perth.

The Thunder come into the contest in fifth position at 3-3 following a loss to Claremont last Saturday while the Falcons have won their last two games against East Fremantle and Perth after starting the season with four consecutive defeats.

Connor West, Tyson Moulton and Tom O'Donnell come into the squad for West Perth from the side that beat Perth last week.

Jordan Boullineau, Lloyd Meek, James Sturrock, Corey Morris, Keegan Power, Matt Bogensperger, Ryan Nyhuis, Harley Bennell, Lachlan Cullen and Haydn Matthews have all been added to the Peel squad.

Mitch Crowden, Brett Bewley, Bailey Banfield, Hugh Dixon and Cam McCarthy go out for the Thunder.
 

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 7

SWAN DISTRICTS (1-5, 9th) v WEST COAST EAGLES (2-4, 7th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Live scores, stats
Broadcast – Livestream 

SOUTH FREMANTLE (5-1, 2nd) v EAST PERTH (2-4, 8th) – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Live scores, stats
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM

EAST FREMANTLE (1-5, 10th) v PERTH (5-1, 3rd) – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Live scores, stats

CLAREMONT (4-2, 4th) v SUBIACO (5-1, 1st) – CLAREMONT OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Live scores, stats
Broadcast – KIX Digital 

WEST PERTH (2-4, 6th) v PEEL THUNDER (3-3, 5th) – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 4.30PM
Live scores, stats