Round 1 Optus WAFL PreviewFriday, July 17, 2020 - 4:20 PM - by Chris Pike

ABSENCE can make the heart grow fonder and it's fair to say the delayed start to the 2020 Optus WAFL Premiership Season has built the excitement to fever pitch for four massive contests in Round 1 across the four venues this Saturday.

There is so much to look forward in Round 1 of the 2020 WAFL season but really it is just exciting to have action back on the field for the players, coaching and staff to be involved in, and indeed for the fans to be able to turn out in droves once more to attend the games.

In the end, what the 2020 season will look like is that it will feature nine teams playing over nine rounds in the home and away season. 

Each team will play one another once and each week one team will have the bye due to the inability of the West Coast Eagles to field a WAFL team in 2020 on the back of AFL-listed players being unable to participate in any state league action across the country due to COVID-19.

From there, the top four teams will participate in a three-week finals series culminating in a Grand Final to be played in October.

There will be a slight change to the way the game is played on the field too with the WAFL deciding to follow the AFL's lead to shorten the game to 16-minute quarters plus time on, rather than the usual 20 minutes meaning games should in theory be 16 minutes shorter across the contest.

But with a shortened season and given each team only plays one another once brings greater significance to every contest. It will be mighty difficult to overcome a string of losses in such a short season, but at the same time stringing wins together will go a long way to locking you into finals.

And now almost four months after the initially scheduled start to the 2020 season, it is finally upon us this Saturday and there couldn’t be four more exciting match ups to look forward to.

Everyone is encouraged to head to your favourite WAFL venue or to cheer on their team as well with crowds of up to 6000 people allowed into each ground.

The first match to get underway is at Mandurah's David Grays Arena with Peel Thunder hosting Perth with bouncedown at 2pm.

Then at 2.30pm, Subiaco takes on Claremont at Leederville Oval in a battle between two of last year's top three teams while at the same time, Swan Districts hosts West Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

And finally, at Fremantle Community Bank Oval will be the televised contest of the round from 2.35pm and it's the only Fremantle Derby of 2020 with South Fremantle hosting East Fremantle.

It's hard to imagine a more exciting set of fixtures to open the 2020 WAFL season and if that wasn't enough, there's plenty of individual milestones across the board with South Fremantle's Haiden Schloithe and Swan Districts' Alex Howard reaching 150 games, and Perth's Christian Eyres and Claremont's Ryan Lim bringing up the century.

Starting with the earlier starting game in Mandurah, both Peel and Perth are looking to get their seasons off to fast starts in an attempt to return to finals action in 2020. 

The Thunder's drought has only been the last two years since they won back-to-back premierships but for the Demons, they still have not appeared in a finals series since 1997 despite going heartbreakingly close in 2019.

MCINNES RETURNS TO DEMONS HUNGRY FOR FINALS
HOWLETT BUOYANT OVER YOUNG THUNDER PROSPECTS
REFRESHED, MOTIVATED MASTEN EXCITING FOR DEMONS

It's going to be a fascinating and challenging season for Peel who will not have the service of any AFL-listed players from the Fremantle Dockers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They have had to move quickly to try and shore up their playing list and for Saturday's game against Perth, their team includes the returning Josh Bootsma, Brad Holmes and Hayden Ballantyne along with new faces including Hayden Yarran, Oliver Walton and Jack Sears.

However, with some strong experience on top of those players with Ben Howlett, Jackson Merrett, Blair Bell, Ben Hancock, Brayden Lawler and Corey Morris, and Peel deserve to remain confident of being competitive.

There's a great sense of excitement surrounding Perth coming into 2020 as they chase that elusive finals appearance in what will be Earl Spalding's last season in charge as coach before Garry Moss takes over.

The recruitment of West Coast Eagles premiership wingman Chris Masten already provided a significant boost for the Demons and he's since been joined by Eagles WAFL trio Fraser McInnes, Brady Grey and Andrew Fisher – all of whom will play on Saturday.

It's a strong looking Perth side for Round 1 and as if they needed added motivation, ruckman Christian Eyres will also be playing his 100th game for the Demons having earned universal respect along the way for his competitive nature and to battle against the odds.

Then at Steel Blue Oval in Bassendean, Swan Districts and West Perth continue their budding rivalry in what shapes as a contest between two sides hoping to be strong contenders for finals action in 2020.

HOWARD'S DREAMS KEEP COMING TRUE WITH SWAN DISTRICTS
PROLIFIC FALCON NELSON STILL LOOKING TO IMPROVE  
SWANS COACH LOOKS AT POSITIVES FOR 2020 WAFL SEASON

Swans might have ended up falling away in 2019 to finish with the wooden spoon, but there are plenty of reasons to suggest they can bounce back strongly in 2020.

The black-and-whites team still features strong experienced leaders in the form of Alex Howard, Jesse Turner, Matt Riggio, Brayden Noble, Tony Notte, Corey Gault and Steven Payne who have been selected for Round 1. George Hampson and Nathan Blakely can be added to that when in the side.

There's then a promising emerging group coming up under coach Adam Pickering that includes Brandon Erceg, Anthony Stephens, Aidan Clarke, Callum Garcia, Jiah Reidy, Josh Cipro, Mitch Bain, Patrick Farrant, Jackson Beck and Jak Watson.

Swans also have added a couple of exciting recruits in 2020 including Frank Anderson and Sam Fisher while there's great excitement surrounding young gun Denver Grainger-Barras.

Reliable defender Alex Howard will also earn life membership on Saturday against West Perth by playing his 150th game just if Swan Districts needed any added motivation.

West Perth have had another interesting off-season and while they've lost some important players including Andrew Strijk, Corey Chalmers, Rudy Riddoch, Jordan Mills and Aidan Lynch, the return of Luke Meadows is exciting along with a couple of recruits.

However, looking at the Falcons team for Round 1 and they will need the midfield to again be led strongly by Aaron Black, Shane Nelson, Trent Manzone and Mitch Peirce, and for Tyler Keitel to have a day out in attack if they hope to start the season victorious.

And at Leederville Oval, Subiaco's quest for a premiership hat-trick gets underway with the Lions hosting the preliminary finalists of last year, Claremont.

Subiaco rammed home its dominance of the competition in last year's Grand Final with a 96-point defeat of South Fremantle and that resulted in some restrictions being placed on them coming into 2020.

SUBIACO PLAYERS SET STANDARD EVEN DURING COVID-19
HARRIS BACKS TIGERS TO KEEP GROWING IN 2020

In the end as Subiaco now prepares for Round 1, that has meant they have lost some handy players including the retired Clancy Wheeler and departed Justin Joyce and Simon Moore but they still have an enormous talent pool to work with.

Looking at Subiaco's Round 1 team to face Claremont, it still features Kyal Horsley, Leigh Kitchin, Ben Newton, Max Walters and Greg Clark through the middle, Ryan Borchet, Ben Sokol and Rhys Waters up front and Jordan Lockyer, Aaron Heal, Hayden Kennedy, Drew Rohde and Angus Litherland down back.

Add in Sandover Medallist Lachlan Delahunty, versatile pair Rowen Powell and Harry Marsh, and emerging brigade Kyle Stainsby, Jakob Atkinson, Jack Beverley, Wil Hickmott and Nick Martin, and they appear ready and able to give that three-peat a real shake.

But Claremont were clearly among the best three teams in the competition in 2019 before losing to South Fremantle in the preliminary final, and the Tigers will be confident of continuing that upward trajectory in 2020.

The Tigers do lose Ian Richardson, Jake Murphy, Ryan Murphy, Jordan Law, Jesse Laurie and Jack Bradshaw from last year, but they didn’t get a lot out of some of those in 2019 despite long service over the years.

The Tigers have stocked up with a couple of recruits, though, headlined by Ryan Nyhuis after his delisting at the Fremantle Dockers, and with a midfield still of Kane Mitchell, Jye Bolton, Ryan Lim, Jared Hardisty and ruckman Jeremy Goddard, it gives them a good starting point.

Tom Lee hasn’t got up for Round 1 against Subiaco meaning fellow veteran Anton Hamp might play forward as a goal kicking option surrounded by the likes of Alec Waterman, Alex Manuel, Callan England, Isaac Barton and Harry McCracken.

It shapes as a tantalising Round 1 battle to see if Subiaco remains the benchmark or if Claremont has been able to start to close the gap.

Last up for Round 1 to open the 2020 WAFL seasons is the only Fremantle Derby for the year and it shapes as a tremendous battle between South Fremantle and East Fremantle.

The Bulldogs are coming off having reached the past four preliminary finals and the Grand Final last year, but will be spurred on by that 96-point loss to Subiaco while the Sharks will be desperate to put themselves back in the finals hunt for the first time since 2014.

PREMIERSHIP DRIVES SCHLOITHE AHEAD OF 150TH GAME
SHARKS COACH MONAGHAN WANTS WHAT'S BEST FOR WA FOOTBALL  
RETURNING EDWARDS WANTS TO HELP BULLDOGS TO THE ULTIMATE

For two such long and strong rivals, it's remarkable to think this will be the first time they have played one another since Round 8 last year which was more than a year ago now on WA Day.

That game produced a ninth straight derby win for the Bulldogs over the Sharks. Those wins have come at an average of 73.7 points. East Fremantle's last win over South Fremantle came back in Round 12 of 2016 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Going back further and South Fremantle has won 12 of the past 14 games over East Fremantle on top of nine straight.

Coming off last year's Grand Final appearance, South Fremantle welcomes back key defender Chris Luff to open the 2020 season while Ben Rioli will make his debut as will Jimmy Miller and Travis Abbott.

It has been tough going over the past five years for East Fremantle but the signs were encouraging in Bill Monaghan's first season as coach in 2019 and now they will look to build on that.

They have some new faces for Round 1 too including Brodie Riach, Cody Leggett and Jordan Mills, but they will be looking for especially big things from their leaders like Ryan Lester-Smith, Blaine Boekhorst, Cam Eardley, Nick Kommer, Matthew Jupp, Morgan Davies, Kody Manning and captain Jonathon Griffin.
 

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 1

PEEL THUNDER v PERTH – DAVID GRAYS ARENA, SATURDAY 2.00PM
Live scores, stats

SUBIACO v CLAREMONT – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM
Live scores, stats
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM

SWAN DISTRICTS v WEST PERTH – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM
Live scores, stats

SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST FREMANTLE – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.35PM
Live scores, stats
Broadcast – Channel 7, ABC Radio