Optus WAFLW Round 4 WrapTuesday, March 16, 2021 - 12:05 AM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts has kept its undefeated start to the 2021 Optus WAFLW Premiership Season rolling with a win on the road on Sunday to close Round 4 after Claremont and Peel Thunder had earlier won impressively as well.

Round 4 in the Optus WAFLW Premiership Season got underway on Saturday evening at Leederville Oval and Claremont continued its strong start to 2021 with a third straight victory. The Tigers handed Subiaco a third consecutive defeat in the process with the 7.4 (46) to 4.2 (26) win.

The other two matches of Round 4 then took place on Sunday afternoon starting at Mandurah's David Grays Arena with Peel Thunder bouncing back from their first loss last week to defeat South Fremantle 13.6 (84) to 7.1 (43) in front of their home fans.

The round then concluded at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park with a rematch of the 2019 Grand Final. That saw Swan Districts keep its undefeated run to open the 2021 campaign going with a 9.8 (62) to 5.4 (34) win against East Fremantle.

The Round 4 results mean that Swan Districts remains clear on top of the WAFLW ladder with a perfect 4-0 record.

Claremont has consolidated their second position on the ladder as well at 3-1 to be percentage still ahead of Peel Thunder with East Fremantle rounding out the top four with a 1-3 record but a decent percentage still.

Subiaco (1-3) and South Fremantle (0-4) are then outside the top four and both are struggling on losing runs with percentages well below 50 now.

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Round 4 in the WAFLW Reserves competition saw all three matches taking place on Sunday afternoon starting with Peel Thunder defeating South Fremantle 10.8 (68) to 5.5 (35).

Swan Districts made it another win too defeating East Fremantle 4.7 (31) to 2.2 (14) while West Perth defeated Claremont 4.2 (26) to 1.9 (15) at Joondalup's Provident Financial Oval.

Meanwhile, Round 4 in the Youth Girls Rogers Cup competition began on Saturday afternoon at Leederville Oval with Subiaco beating East Perth 6.7 (43) to 3.6 (24).

The other three match ups took place on Sunday starting with reigning premiers South Fremantle beating Peel Thunder 5.2 (32) to 4.3 (27).

East Fremantle also prevailed 10.9 (69) to 2.5 (17) over Swan Districts before on Sunday afternoon, West Perth downed Claremont 7.1 (43) to 2.2 (14) also at Provident Financial Oval.

OPTUS WAFLW PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 4

SUBIACO 4.2 (26) lost to CLAREMONT 7.4 (46)

Subiaco hosted Claremont on Saturday night with the Lions trying to snap a two-game losing streak, but in the end it was the Tigers that made it three wins on the trot.

Subiaco has been the benchmark team in the home and away season in the opening two years of the WAFLW competition finishing on top of the ladder both times, and reaching the 2020 Grand Final, but this Lions team doesn’t quite have the same level of talent to work with.

As a result after beating South Fremantle narrowly in Round 1, Subiaco had gone down to Peel Thunder and East Fremantle the previous two weeks ahead of Saturday night's home clash with Claremont at Leederville Oval.

The Tigers are the only inaugural WAFLW team not to reach one of the first two Grand Finals, but they are building impressive momentum now early in 2021.

They did lose narrowly to Swan Districts in Round 1 before wins against East Fremantle and South Fremantle before turning that into a three-game winning streak with the win against Subiaco on Saturday evening.

Subiaco actually had the better of the first quarter with three scoring shots to one from Claremont, but it was one goal apiece with the Lions leading by two points at quarter-time.

The Tigers then began to work their way on top in the second quarter with four scoring shots to one. They turned that into kicking two goals to one from the Lions and heading into half-time with a six-point advantage.

Subiaco did manage the one more goal in the third quarter but Claremont kicked further away with three goals of their own to be on top by 20 points at three quarter-time.

It was then a goal apiece in the final term with Claremont securing the 7.4 (46) to 4.2 (26) win against Subiaco at Leederville Oval.

Amy Franklin kicked three goals for Claremont with Sasha Goranova, Sarah Garstone, Kate Orme and Madeleine Scanlon all adding one each. It was a second career goal for Orme after she memorable kicked one in the AFLW a couple of weeks back for the West Coast Eagles.

Sasha Goranova, Amy Franklin, Brooke Whyte, Kate Orme and Matilda Dyke were among the best performers for Claremont.

Subiaco's goals came courtesy of Amy Hunt, Kia Buckley, Beatrice Devlyn and Abbey Dowrick.

Caitlin Walker, Katelyn Pope, Amy Hunt, Kia Buckley and Claire Ortlepp fought hard for the Lions.
 

PEEL THUNDER 13.6 (84) defeated SOUTH FREMANTLE 7.1 (43)

It was the reigning premiers and wooden spooners of last year doing battle at Mandurah's David Grays Arena on Sunday, and it ended up being an entertaining affair despite the 41-point final margin.

Peel is coming off winning the premiership last year on the back of being wooden spooners back in 2019, and then the Thunder opened up 2021 with impressive wins against East Fremantle and Subiaco before their first loss at the hands of Swan Districts.

South Fremantle has been significantly more competitive already in 2021 than they were after being granted admission late into the competition in 2020. The Bulldogs only fell three points short of Subiaco in Round 1 before going down to Swan Districts and Claremont the past two weeks.

But Peel was hungry to bounce back from last week's loss to Swan Districts with them back on home turf to host South Fremantle on Sunday, and while they did that in the end, it was an attractive game of football featuring the 20 goals between the two teams.

The first quarter set the tone for the tremendous contest that was to come with seven goals kicked between the two teams.

Peel did start well with four goals but South Fremantle kept pace with their best ever first quarter in the WAFLW competition by kicking three goals to limit the Thunder's lead to just six points at the opening break.

Peel did manage to kick away a little more in the second term with three goals to one from South Fremantle and that saw the home team head into the half-time interval leading by 20 points.

The Thunder put the game pretty much out of reach of the Bulldogs in the third quarter by kicking four more goals to one and that saw their advantage grow to 39 points by three quarter-time.

Peel did add another two goals in the final quarter but so did South Fremantle as they continued to fight the game out before the Thunder recorded the 13.6 (84) to 7.1 (43) victory.

Kate Bartlett and Bailey Molloy kicked three goals apiece for Peel with Ella Roberts adding two and then one each to Chloe Wrigley, Kaitlyn Hayes, Courtney Rowley, Greta McKinley and Jade Briggs.

Ebony Bilcich, Courtney Rowley, Bailey Molloy, Kate Bartlett and Skipper Van Peer were all tremendous for the Thunder.

Ashleigh Reidy finished up kicking two goals for South Fremantle while Lauren Wafker, Aaliyah Ugle, Kiara Templeman, Zoe Huggett and Georgia Kowald added one each.

Kiara Templeman, Zoe Huggett, Pia Durk, Lauren Wafker and Makaela Tuhakaraina were among South Fremantle's best performers on the afternoon.
 

EAST FREMANTLE 5.4 (34) lost to SWAN DISTRICTS 9.8 (62)

East Fremantle and Swan Districts renewed their rivalry on Sunday to close Round 4 in the WAFLW Premiership Season, and it was the black-and-whites earning a measure of revenge over the Sharks.

The two clubs have long been powerhouses of female football in Western Australia and that has carried over into the first two seasons of the WAFLW competition.

They locked horns in the 2019 Grand Final before also doing battle in the first semi-final last year. East Fremantle won both those contests mean Swan Districts wasn’t shy on motivation coming into Sunday's clash as they looked to make it four consecutive wins to open the 2021 season.

Swan Districts started impressively too kicking the only two goals of the opening quarter while holding East Fremantle to just the one behind.

But as is so often the case at East Fremantle Oval, the breeze was playing a factor and East Fremantle put the advantage of it to good use in the second quarter to hold Swans to three behinds while kicking two goals themselves to only be a point behind at the major break.

Swan Districts did pull away a little further in the third quarter kicking three goals to two from East Fremantle, but Swans then made sure of the victory in the last term with four goals to one to end up beating the Sharks 9.8 (62) to 5.4 (34).

That improves Swan Districts to a perfect 4-0 record on the new season while East Fremantle is 1-3.

Mikayla Morrison put her hand up for an AFLW call up at the West Coast Eagles by kicking three goals for Swan Districts with Sarah Wielstra adding two. Dana East, Taylah Edwards, Bella Edgley and Hope Ugle-Hayward all kicked one apiece.

Bianca Webb, Dana East, Sarah Lakay, Aimee Ralph and Jessica Cox were all among the best players in the win for Swans.

Usual defender Evie Gooch enjoyed some greater freedom to get closer to goal for East Fremantle to kick three goals. Chloe Reilly and Gabby Radojkovich were the other goal scorers for the Sharks.

Evie Gooch, Sharon Wong, Marni Alston and Kahra Sprylan battled hard for East Fremantle.