TABtouch Team of Round 15Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - 10:05 PM - by Chris Pike

THERE might have been just the two matches in Round 15 of the WAFL season but with all four teams trying to stay in the final hunt, it proved a season-defining one with wins in the finish for Peel Thunder and West Perth.

The four teams who were in action as part of Round 15 of the 2019 Optus WAFL Premiership Season all still had hopes of breaking into the top five so there was plenty at stake in the two match ups on Saturday afternoon.

It got underway at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park with Peel Thunder staying right in the finals hunt with an 11.14 (80) to 9.5 (59) victory against East Fremantle.

Then later in the afternoon was the second Perth Derby for the season with the Polly Farmer Shield on the line and it was West Perth who prevailed with a thrilling 12.6 (78) to 11.6 (72) win against East Perth at Joondalup's HBF Arena.

The WAFL's top five teams Subiaco, Claremont, South Fremantle, Perth and the West Coast Eagles all had the bye in Round 15 along with the bottom placed Swan Districts.

Those top four teams all remain in those position with the Lions at 12-1, Tigers at 9-4, Bulldogs at 8-5 and Demons at 8-5, but the Eagles lost their fifth spot at the expense of West Perth (7-7).

Peel Thunder (6-8) also jumped to sixth spot in front of West Coast (6-7), East Perth (5-9), East Fremantle (4-10) and Swan Districts (2-11).

The four teams who played in Round 15, West Perth, East Perth, East Fremantle and Peel Thunder, all now have the bye in Round 16 while South Fremantle plays Swan Districts, Claremont faces Perth and Subiaco hosts the West Coast Eagles.

PLAYER OF THE ROUND – BAILEY BANFIELD
He is already a fairest and best winner in the WAFL and had an encouraging debut AFL season, but while he can't quite break into the Fremantle team in 2019, he couldn’t be doing much more to impress with Peel Thunder.

The inside midfielder produced a standout 2017 season at Claremont which saw him despite still being a teenager winning the fairest and best award in a team that still included dual Sandover and Simpson Medallist Jye Bolton.

That form couldn’t be ignored by AFL clubs and he was subsequently picked up by Fremantle and went on to impress at the top level in 2018 during his 20 appearances with the Dockers.

The now 21-year-old then played the first three games of 2019 with Fremantle but has played only one game since but is now in some outstanding form with the Thunder at WAFL level.

That continued with another standout performance in Saturday's victory against East Fremantle at New Choice Homes Park.

Coming off collecting 50 possessions over the past two games, he went up another level again against the Sharks finishing the afternoon with 30 possessions, 12 tackles, seven marks, four inside-50 entries and two goals.

It was a tremendous best-on-ground display from someone who couldn’t be possibly do any more to get another call up into an inconsistent Dockers line-up.  

Players of the Round
Round 1 – Kyal Horsley (Subiaco)
Round 2 –  Anton Hamp (Claremont)
Round 3 – Haiden Schloithe (South Fremantle)
Round 4 – Brant Colledge (Perth)
Round 5 – Tony Notte (Swan Districts)
Round 6 – Rohan Kerr (East Perth)
Round 7 – Mitch Peirce (West Perth)
Round 8 – Clint Jones (Perth)
Round 9 – Lachlan Delahunty (Subiaco)
Round 10 – Nick Suban (South Fremantle)
Round 11 – Tyler Keitel (West Perth)
Round 12 – Josh Smith (West Coast Eagles)
Round 13 – Jackson Ramsay (East Perth)
Round 14 – Kane Mitchell (Claremont)
Round 15 – Bailey Banfield (Peel Thunder)

TABtouch TEAM OF THE ROUND 
BACK: Jaxon Cahill (EP), Matthew Jupp (EF), Ryan Nyhuis (PT)
HALF-BACK: Blake Wilhelm (WP), Tobe Watson (PT), Jackson Ramsay (EP)
CENTRE: Blaine Boekhorst (EF), Aaron Black (WP), Jackson Merrett (PT)
HALF-FORWARD: Jeremy Sharp (EF), Joel Houghton (EP), Corey Chalmers (WP)
FORWARD: Rudy Riddoch (WP), Blair Bell (PT), Mitch Dobson (EP)
RUCK: Ajang Ajang (EP), Shane Nelson (WP), Bailey Banfield (PT)
INTERCHANGE: Aidan Lynch (WP), Kye Willcocks (EP), Mitch Crowden (PT), Tom Bennett (EF)

UNLUCKY BUNCH
There were plenty of players who delivered tremendous performances across Round 15 but couldn’t quite fit into the Team of the Round, including:

West Perth's Trent Manzone, Tyler Keitel, Michael Lourey, Kris Shannon and Mark Hamilton.

East Perth's Eddie Simpson, Tom Gorter, Nelson Waite, Matthew Young, Julian Ameduri and Stan Wright.

Peel Thunder's Hugh Dixon and Jason Carter.

East Fremantle's Morgan Davies, Kody Manning, Cameron Eardley and captain Jonathon Griffin.