Round 8 Optus WAFL PreviewSaturday, May 29, 2021 - 2:40 AM - by Chris Pike

ANOTHER wet Saturday afternoon awaits a fascinating Round 8 of WAFL action and with five teams five teams all locked on identical 3-3 records with four of them facing one another, it's a real chance to be a day of statements being made as well.

Round 8 in the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season sees all five matches take place on Saturday afternoon and every one of the contests has plenty of intrigue, and plenty riding on the result.

Subiaco will take on Peel Thunder at Leederville Oval with the Lions out to maintain their hold on a top two position while Peel is one of the teams stuck in the mix on a 3-3 record and they can maintain their top five position with a win.

East Perth's reward for recording its first win of the season last week is to take on the league-leading Claremont this Saturday at Revo Fitness Stadium. The Tigers need to win to maintain that top spot but it's a real chance for the Royals to also show they are still a threat in 2021.

Reigning premiers South Fremantle haven’t been overly convincing so far in 2021 despite a 4-2 record and the Bulldogs are back home to Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday to host the winless West Coast Eagles.

Swan Districts and East Fremantle are then two teams locked on 3-3 records ahead of their clash with one another at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval. Swans have now lost two straight and with the Sharks coming off a loss to Claremont last week, both will be determined to bounce back.

Then there are two more teams on 3-3 records that lock horns at Joondalup's Provident Financial Oval with West Perth hosting Perth. The Falcons are on a two-game winning run while the Demons are fresh off a strong win against South Fremantle last Saturday at home.

It shapes as a fascinating contest at Leederville Oval between Subiaco and Peel Thunder as part of the Round 8 WAFL action.

The Lions have lost just the once so far this season and that was to South Fremantle when they were down two men on the bench before half-time, but even then they finished strongly and they gave themselves a sniff of a comeback victory.

That has Subiaco sitting on a 5-1 record now after the opening six matches to be only the narrowest of percentages behind Claremont.

Peel, meanwhile, is a significantly more dangerous offensive force than they were even in their premiership years and that's why their percentage is the strongest of all the teams currently holding 3-3 records.

The Thunder did go down at home to West Perth last week and will be hungry to bounce back on Saturday against Subiaco to keep a hold of their position inside the top four.

Subiaco has three significant inclusions for the clash with the Thunder with the returns of Ben Sokol and Koby Fullgrabe while former Gold Coast Suns and Fremantle Dockers small forward Bailey Matera will be making his first appearance for the Lions.

Traye Bennell, Ben Howlett and Zachary Rankin come into the Peel line-up while Lloyd Meek, Ben Middleton and Joel Western go out.

Claremont is back home at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday to host East Perth with both teams coming off strong wins a week ago.

The Tigers bounced back from their first loss of the season prior to the State Game break to Subiaco by being too good for East Fremantle last week winning by 42 points.

East Perth had been battling hard through the first part of the season but broke through for a first win last Saturday finishing all over the top of the West Coast Eagles, and now they look to back that up against the league-leading Tigers.

Claremont has made a couple of changes from the team that beat East Fremantle last week with Jake Patmore to return from injury while Sam Alvarez will make his league debut.

Harry McCracken and Rylie Morgan go out of the Tigers outfit.

And for East Perth who is coming off their first win of the season, Adam Boules, Shaquille McKenzie, Harley Sparks and Josh Underwood come in for the Royals against Claremont while Jaxon Cahill, Tom Edwards-Baldwin, Rohan Kerr and Nick Robertson go out.

South Fremantle's 4-2 record so far for the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season still might look solid enough as the Bulldogs look to defend their premiership of last year, but it's fair to say coach Todd Curley has been anything but happy with their performances in recent weeks.

He wasn’t that thrilled with a hard fought win over Subiaco where they were almost overrun in the final quarter with a goalless final term. It was a similar story a week later against an East Perth team who had yet to win a game as well leading into the State Game break.

Then last Saturday against Perth at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park, South Fremantle started well enough with six goals in the opening quarter, but managed just the one goal the rest of the way to end up losing by 20 points to the Demons.

The Bulldogs will now look to bounce back against the West Coast Eagles reserves team this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Eagles have struggled to be competitive so far in 2021 losing their six matches so far by an average of 65.2 points and that's without playing the top three teams Subiaco, Claremont and South Fremantle yet.

From the South Fremantle team that lost to Perth last Saturday, Jarrad Doney and another debutant Jarrod Salmeri will come into the side to take on the West Coast Eagles this Saturday.

Cam McCarthy and Blayne Wilson are the players to go out of the side while key defender Noah Strom remains sidelined.

The Eagles have made plenty of changes as well including having former South Fremantle excitement machine Jarrod Garlett called up to play his first game in the blue and gold.

Jak Cary, Ethan Hansen, Michael Humble and Cooper Nitschke are the other players to come in for West Coast while Jarrod Cameron, Luke Edwards, Luke Foley, Jalen McGee and Elliot Yeo go out.

Saturday's game at Steel Blue Oval shapes as a crucial one for both Swan Districts and East Fremantle with each of them coming into the contest on 3-3 records.

Swans lost narrowly at home to Subiaco last Saturday on the back of being overrun by West Perth prior to the State Game break while East Fremantle went down to Claremont at home last week but prior to that put on a 125-point hammering of the West Coast Eagles.

Neither team has been a real finals contender for several seasons now and that's highlighted by how even recent battles have been between them. Swans won their lone meeting last year at Shark Park but prior to that East Fremantle had won two in-a-row and before that Swan Districts won two straight.

Overall in the last 10 meetings they two teams can't be split either having won five games against one another apiece.

Swan Districts has made just the one forced change from the team that lost to Subiaco last week with Lewis Jetta going out while Jachlan Riley comes into the line-up.

There's also just the one change at East Fremantle with Jakob Ah Chee returning back into the side at the expense of Josh Schoenfeld.

Perth and West Perth are two of the teams locked on 3-3 records right now and attempting to break into the top five with a victory over the top of the other at Joondalup on Saturday.

Both teams are coming off strong wins last week too with West Perth beating Peel Thunder in Mandurah to give them consecutive wins for the first time in 2021 while Perth dominated South Fremantle in the second half to beat the reigning premiers by 20 points.

Last time these two teams met was in elimination final of last year and it was West Perth continuing their domination against Perth even with the Demons finally snapping their finals drought that stretched all the way back to 1997.

It has been a remarkable dominance of West Perth over Perth since 1997. The Falcons have won 45 of the 53 match ups between the two teams with Perth only winning seven with a draw thrown in there back in Round 9, 2008 at Lathlain.

That includes the Falcons winning the last 19 matches in-a-row against the Demons with Perth not having won over West Perth since Round 18, 2011. The positive out of that was that it was at least at the Joondalup venue.

West Perth has made a couple of changes from the team that beat Peel in Mandurah last week with Mitch Antonio and Jason Salecic back into the team while Jack Burke and Trent Manzone go out.

Perth hasn’t been able to regain any of their key players they were missing last week despite beating South Fremantle with Simon Hayward, Conor McPartland and Connor Sing into the team for the Demons to take on the Falcons.

Clayton Giblett, Connor Hitchcock and Jacob Peletier go out of the side for the Demons.
 

OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 8

SUBIACO (5-1, 2nd) v PEEL THUNDER (3-3, 4th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats
Livestream: Front Row Screens
Radio: SEN Radio 

CLAREMONT (5-1, 1st) v EAST PERTH (1-5, 9th) – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: The West Australian

SOUTH FREMANTLE (4-2, 3rd) v WEST COAST EAGLES (0-6, 10th) – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: The West Australian

SWAN DISTRICTS (3-3, 6th) v EAST FREMANTLE (3-3, 5th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM
Live scores, stats
Radio: 91.3 SportFM

WEST PERTH (3-3, 7th) v PERTH (3-3, 8th) – PROVIDENT FINANCIAL OVAL, SATURDAY 2.40PM
Live scores, stats ???????
TV: Channel 7