TABtouch Team of Round 19Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - 3:57 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 19 of the WAFL set the table for a mouth-watering final round with six teams in contention to reach the finals in 2019 after Subiaco, South Fremantle, Perth, West Coast Eagles and Swan Districts scored victories over the weekend.

The penultimate season of the 2019 Optus WAFL Premiership Season produced some fascinating results and outstanding individual performances setting the stage now for a thrilling finish to the home and away campaign.

Round 19 got underway on a cold and wet Friday night at Leederville Oval with the West Coast Eagles beating East Perth 4.11 (35) to 1.5 (11).

Then on Saturday afternoon also at Leederville Oval, Subiaco made it 10 straight wins against West Perth winning 19.8 (122) to 7.10 (52) while Swan Districts ended Peel Thunder's season with a 7.6 (48) to 6.8 (44) win at Steel Blue Oval.

Perth then went a step closer to ending its 22-year finals drought by beating East Fremantle 13.15 (93) to 11.14 (80) at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park and then South Fremantle all but locked away second position defeating Claremont 14.7 (91) to 8.10 (58) at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Those results leave Subiaco (16-1) clear on top of the ladder and guaranteed of a fifth straight minor premiership while South Fremantle (12-5) is all but locked into second for a fourth consecutive year with Claremont (11-6) third.

West Perth (9-8) is still fourth, Perth (9-8) and West Coast Eagles (8-9) sixth with those three fighting over those last two finals positions with the Falcons closing the season against South Fremantle, the Demons against Peel Thunder and the Eagles against East Fremantle.

Peel Thunder (6-11), East Fremantle (5-12), East Perth (5-12) and Swan Districts (4-13) then round out the ladder.

PLAYER OF THE ROUND – JESSE TURNER
Jesse Turner is one player who has taken his game to another level in 2019 to become an inside and outside midfielder, and he put all that on show in Saturday's win against Peel Thunder.

Turner is one player whose role is becoming of increasing importance at Swan Districts with the black-and-whites still possessing a strong group of senior, experienced players and exciting youngsters, but it's in that middle tier that they are somewhat lacking.

The 23-year-old is likely having the best and most consistent season of his league career since making his debut back in 2015.

He put together a tremendous 2018 season where he was even named to the WAFL Team of the Year at the end of it having spent most of his time on the wing, but now in 2019 he has graduated to spending more time as an inside midfielder.

He has still spent time on the outside as well to take advantage of his running ability, but the dual roles have resulted in him now averaging 21.3 disposals a game and with him playing a more and more valuable role for the team.

Turner has now played 76 WAFL games so aside from George Hampson, Matt Riggio, Steven Payne, Tony Notte and Alex Howard, he is the most experienced player each time he steps out onto the field for Swan Districts.

That means not only does he now have to focus on his own performances, but he has to take on a bit of a leadership role to show the way for the players who have played 50, 60 or 70 games fewer than him at league level.

But he is embracing that role and it all came together in a career-best display on Saturday as Swans' kept their hopes of avoiding the wooden spoon alive with the win against Peel at Steel Blue Oval.

Turner finished the afternoon with 38 possessions, six marks, four tackles and four inside-50 entries as he continues to prove that Swans' midfield is in good hands to be built around him moving forward.

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)
Round 16 – Jye Bolton (Claremont)
Round 17 – Ben Sokol (Subiaco)
Round 18 – Jonathon Griffin (East Fremantle)
Round 19 – Jesse Turner (Swan Districts)

TABtouch TEAM OF THE ROUND
BACK: Haydn Busher (C), Aaron Heal (S), Noah Strom (SF)
HALF-BACK: Greg Clark (S), Matthew Jupp (EF), Chad Pearson (SF)
CENTRE: Jesse Turner (SD), Corey Yeo (P), Clint Jones (P)
HALF-FORWARD: Matt Riggio (SD), Ryan Borchet (S), Max Walters (S)
FORWARD: Dylan Main (SF), Ben Sokol (S), Tyler Keitel (WP)
RUCK: Lachlan Delahunty (S), Ben Howlett (PT), Haiden Schloithe (SF)
INTERCHANGE: Bailey Banfield (PT), Drew Rohde (S), Warrick Wilson (SD), Jake Florenca (SF)

UNLUCKY BUNCH
There were plenty of players who delivered tremendous performances across Round 19 but couldn’t quite fit into the Team of the Round, including:

East Perth's Angus Scott, Jackson Ramsay, Stan Wright, Nathan Blee, Mitch Dobson, Kye Willcocks and Shayne Hille.

West Coast Eagles' Nathan Vardy, Nick Reid, Chris Masten, Hamish Brayshaw, Brendon Ah Chee, Andrew Fisher, Liam Duggan, Kurt Mutimer and Matthew Allen.

Subiaco's Leigh Kitchin, Kyal Horsley and Harry Marsh.

West Perth's Corey Chalmers, Shane Nelson, Aaron Black, Trent Manzone, Aidan Lynch and Blake Wilhelm.

Swan Districts' George Hampson, Nathan Blakely, Steven Payne, Josh Cipro and Jackson Beck.

Peel Thunder's Travis Colyer, Tom North, Brett Bewley and Jackson Merrett.

Perth's Cody Ninyette, Josh Burke, Matthew Rogers, Blake Johnson, Brant Colledge, Michael Sinclair, Lachlan Dennis and Matthew Taylor.

East Fremantle's Cameron Eardley, Jarrad Jansen, Tom Bennett, Jeremy Sharp, Kyle Baskerville and Jonathon Griffin.

South Fremantle's Kade Stewart, Steve Verrier, Matthew Ward, Zac Dent and Andrew Haydon.

Claremont's Kane Mitchell, Jared Hardisty, Jye Bolton, Alec Waterman, Bailey Rogers, Ryan Lim and Oliver Eastland.