Round 16 Optus WAFL PreviewFriday, July 23, 2021 - 2:01 PM - by Chris Pike

WE are getting towards the business end of the WAFL season and what a Round 16 awaits this weekend with top spot going on the line with any of three teams being capable of finishing there by Sunday night.

Round 16 in the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season is split over Saturday and Sunday afternoons with Subiaco, Claremont and South Fremantle all fighting over top spot while West Perth can break into the top three and it's last chance saloon time for Peel, East Fremantle, East Perth and Perth.

Four of the five Round 16 matches take place on Saturday afternoon with Claremont taking on East Fremantle at Claremont's Revo Fitness Stadium.

West Perth is also at home to Peel Thunder at Joondalup's Provident Financial Oval while East Perth takes on the West Coast Eagles at Leederville Oval and Swan Districts plays Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

The round then concludes with a monster match up with top spot going on the line in a rematch of the 2019 Grand Final with Subiaco hosting South Fremantle at Leederville Oval with the last two premiership teams locking horns.

Claremont and East Fremantle might be separated by five games on the WAFL ladder coming into their clash at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday, but there's every sign of a closer contest than that suggests.

Claremont maintained their top two position with a hard earned nine-point win against Peel Thunder in Mandurah last Sunday following a one-point defeat to South Fremantle.

But the Tigers do need to keep winning to hold onto that top two spot as they come into the round equal at 9-3 with Subiaco and South Fremantle, and behind the Lions on percentage and ahead of the Bulldogs.

East Fremantle might have lost its past three matches to West Coast, Peel and West Perth, but their performance last week at Joondalup against West Perth showed there's a lot of heart and spirit left in this Sharks outfit.

If they want to remain in the finals hunt they do need to get some wins on the board, though, and it has to start on Saturday against Claremont with them coming into the round three games and percentage out of the top five with a 4-8 record.

East Fremantle needs to turnaround a rough recent record against Claremont to come away with the win as well.

The Tigers have won nine in-a-row against the Sharks, but at least for East Fremantle four of those nine have been by just 10 points or less.

But it's been a dominant stretch for Claremont against East Fremantle with the Sharks' last win against the Tigers coming by five points in Round 10, 2016. That was before Claremont Oval had even been redeveloped and took place at the Showgrounds.

The last win for East Fremantle at Revo Fitness Stadium came way back on Round 9, 2011 with the Tigers having won the last five games at the venue over the Sharks.

Claremont beat East Fremantle by nine points last Sunday and from that team the Tigers have made just the one change with Jack Lewsey into the line-up with Jared Hardisty going out.

East Fremantle put in perhaps their best performance of the season last week even though it was a five-point loss to West Perth.

From that team, the Sharks welcome back Jonathon Marsh while Brynn Teakle goes out.

West Perth and Peel Thunder is another clash on Saturday afternoon featuring one team fighting for a spot near the top of the WAFL ladder and the other just trying to somewhat stay in the finals race.

The Falcons could very well lay claim to being the form team in the WAFL right now having won five matches in-a-row having them knocking on the door of a top two position coming into Round 16.

Peel, meanwhile, has lost six of its past seven matches but have been vastly more competitive than that suggests including last week with a narrow nine-point loss to the second placed Claremont.

With its five wins in-a-row, West Perth has struck some impressive form to see the Falcons improve to an 8-4 record on the season coming into Saturday's game against Peel at Provident Financial Oval.

A sixth straight win for the Falcons and depending on other results, could see them finish Round 16 as high as in second position on the ladder as they build their premiership contentions after a slow start to the year.

Peel might have won just once in its last six games to slip to a 4-8 record, but the Thunder have had their chances in just about all those games and that's highlighted by the fact that still have the best percentage of teams outside the top five, and better than Swan Districts who sit fifth.

West Perth comes into Saturday's clash having won its last three meetings with Peel. The Thunder's last win against the Falcons was Round 1, 2019 at David Grays Arena. Their last win at Joondalup was Round 16, 2017.

West Perth won at the death last Saturday over East Fremantle and from that team, Tom Medhat and Jason Salecic come into the side to take on Peel Thunder while Mitch Antonio and Kris Shannon go out.

Peel lost narrowly to Claremont last Sunday but there are a whole host of changes for the Thunder for the clash with the Falcons.

Blake Acres, Ryan Bennell, Jaxon Egan, James Ewing, Roy George, Stephen Hill, Bodie Kitchingman, Jackson Knight, Brayden Lawler, Zach Rankin, Jack Sears and David Yaccob have all been added to the squad.

Blair Bell, Connor Blakely, Mitch Crowden, Ben Howlett, Lloyd Meek, Nathan O'Driscoll, Joel Western and Hayden Young go out for Peel.

East Perth will be looking to replicate their last up performance against the West Coast Eagles when the two teams meet at Leederville Oval on Saturday.

The Royals broke through for their first win of the season back in Round 7 to beat the Eagles by 57 points, and they have been a vastly improved team for the most part since then.

East Perth has now won three of its past four matches to be finding some form but the Royals do need to keep winning if they want to remain any chance of staying in the finals hunt.

They come into Saturday's game with a 4-8 record but with a dismal percentage so nothing but wins is going to keep them in the finals hunt from here.

The Eagles are now a much competitive team than the one that lost to East Perth back in Round 7. They might have lost their last two games to Swan Districts and Subiaco, but they have been strong showings against top five teams.

East Perth has decided to stick with the same 22 that held on to beat Perth by nine points last Saturday while there are plenty of changes at West Coast to the team that went down to Subiaco.

Will Collins, Jarrod Garlett, Michael Humble, Jackson Nelson, Ty Sears and Brandan Young all come into the Eagles team at the expense of Seb Bentley, Jarrod Brander, Luke Foley, Xavier O'Neill, Jake Waterman and Alex Witherden.

Swans suffered their fifth loss of the season last Saturday at home to South Fremantle but the black-and-whites remain in fifth position on the ladder coming into this week's clash against Perth back on home turf at Bassendean.

Swan Districts holds a 7-5 record on the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season and Saturday's game against Perth will be a significant one in the context of where Swans end up going this year.

A win for the black-and-whites and they could potentially even end the round up in fourth position again depending on other results but either way they will maintain at least a three-game hold on that position inside the top five.

A victory against the Demons at Steel Blue Oval would go a long way to securing a first finals appearance for Swan Districts under the coaching tenure of Adam Pickering.

Perth comes into the game barely clinging to staying any chance of playing finals for a second straight season. The Demons sit second last with a 4-8 record and with the second worst percentage in the competition.

A loss for Perth on Saturday and their finals hopes would just about be officially over, but an upset win for the Demons against Swans and they do keep their slimmest of hopes of another top five finish just alive.

Perth might have played finals last year and Swan Districts didn’t, but Swans have won the last two meetings between the two teams including by 50 points back in Round 2 this year and then by 27 points in Round 8 last year at Steel Blue Oval.

Prior to that, Perth had won three games in-a-row against Swan Districts between Round 14, 2018 and Round 8, 2019.

Swan Districts has made three changes to the team that lost to South Fremantle by 36 points last Saturday also at Steel Blue Oval.

Frank Anderson, Nathan Ireland and Nelson Waite come into the team for Swan Districts this week to take on Perth while Mitch Bain, Seb Bright and Corey Gault go out.

Perth has made two changes from its team that lost to East Perth last Saturday to take on Swan Districts. The Demons have suffered two more injuries to key players with Fraser McInnes and Kasey Nicholas going out hurt.

Sam Perkusich and Jack Steel are the two teams to take their place for the Demons.

The Bulldogs have now strung three wins together to be in some impressive form coming into Sunday's clash with the Lions at Leederville Oval to close Round 16 of the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season.

The winner of the game could end up sitting a game clear on top of the ladder after 16 rounds depending on how other results go to open the round on Saturday afternoon as well heightening the significance of the match up.

Both Subiaco and South Fremantle come into Sunday's clash at Leederville Oval with 9-3 records after 12 matches in 2021 while the Lions are only holding top spot with the Bulldogs in third thanks to percentage.

The two teams have combined to win the last three WAFL premierships as well with the Lions winning flags in 2018 and 2019 while the Bulldogs broke through to triumph in 2020.

Sunday's game also is a rematch of that 2019 Grand Final when Subiaco beat South Fremantle by 96 points, but the Bulldogs have won the last two meetings over the past two years firstly in 2020 by 50 points at Leederville Oval and earlier this season by 18 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

South Fremantle comes into Sunday's game on a three-game winning streak with wins over Perth, Claremont and Swan Districts while Subiaco has won two straight against Perth and the West Coast Eagles for both to enter the contest at 9-3.

While South Fremantle's attack is ranked higher than Subiaco's with 83.7 points a game opposed to 80.7, the Lions have just made themselves remarkably hard to score against so far in 2021.

The Lions are only conceding a league best 57.6 points a game this season but the Bulldogs are actually ranked second best in that area at 69.0 points.

Subiaco is coming off a solid 20-point win over the West Coast Eagles and from that team, the Lions have added James Faraone, Ben Golding, Lachlan Henderson, Jack Mayo and Lewis Putt to their extended squad.

Jakob Atkinson is the only player to go out at this stage.

South Fremantle is coming off an impressive 36-point win against Swan Districts but the Bulldogs will once again be without captain Dylan Main, premiership ruckman Brock Higgins and the versatile Ben Rioli against Subiaco on Sunday.

Zac Dent and Zac Strom also picked up injuries last week against Swans and now go out of the South Fremantle line-up this week with Kye Barker, Jaxon Bellchambers, Jarrod Salmeri, Regan Spooner, Jacob Warne and George Wessels the players added to the squad.
 

OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 16

CLAREMONT (9-3, 2nd) v EAST FREMANTLE (4-8, 7th) – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats
Radio: SEN

WEST PERTH (8-4, 4th) v PEEL THUNDER (4-8, 6th) – PROVIDENT FINANCIAL OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: Front Row Screens

EAST PERTH (4-8, 8th) v WEST COAST EAGLES (2-10, 10th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: West Coast Eagles

SWAN DISTRICTS (7-5, 5th) v PERTH (4-8, 9th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: The West Australian
Radio: 91.3 SportFM

SUBIACO (9-3, 1st) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (9-3, 3rd) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SUNDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats
Livestream: Front Row Screens