Round 17 Optus WAFL PreviewFriday, July 30, 2021 - 1:40 PM - by Chris Pike

ANOTHER fascinating weekend in the WAFL resumes and without doubt Subiaco hosting West Perth in the battle of two on-fire teams is the highlight but all five encounters have reasons to tune in.

It's Round 17 of the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season with the five matches spread across Saturday and Sunday afternoons with two games taking place at Leederville Oval.

With Subiaco having the chance to extend its lead on top or West Perth to join them on 10 wins, Perth and West Coast trying to avoid bottom place, South Fremantle needing to respond and then even Swan Districts trying to maintain the gap in fifth to the chasing pack, there's plenty to look out for.

Subiaco takes on West Perth at Leederville Oval to highlight proceedings on Saturday afternoon with both teams putting significant winning streaks on the line.

Also on Saturday afternoon with each match beginning at 2.10pm, sees East Fremantle play Swan Districts at New Choice Homes Park, Peel Thunder host South Fremantle at David Grays Arena, and Perth and the West Coast Eagles lock horns at Mineral Resources Park.

Round 17 in the WAFL then concludes on Sunday afternoon with East Perth playing Claremont at Leederville Oval.

Swan Districts can go a long way to further guaranteeing their place in the finals for 2021 but East Fremantle can keep whatever slim hopes they have of staying in contention when the two teams meet at New Choice Homes Park on Saturday.

The East Fremantle venue will play host to the fascinating contest with Swans having the chance to move five games clear of the Sharks with a win. However, the Sharks keep their ever so slim chances still alive if they can close the gap to three games with the victory.

Working against East Fremantle's cause is the fact that they come into the game on a four-game losing streak including a 43-point defeat at the hands of Claremont last Saturday at Revo Fitness Stadium.

Swan Districts, meanwhile, comes into the game on the back of a solid performance to beat Perth by 24 points last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval in a solid bounce back outing from the black-and-whites following the previous week's home loss to South Fremantle.

Swan Districts comes into the game having won its last two meetings against East Fremantle as well including a 44-point win earlier this season at Steel Blue Oval and a 31-point win at Shark Park in Round 9 last season.

East Fremantle continues to have a horror run in terms of personnel available and their cause to try and get the win on Saturday won't be helped with the loss of key former AFL players Blaine Boekhorst and Nick Kommer.

Corey Holmes, Dillon O'Reilly, Jordan Snadden, Brynn Teakle, Durak Tucker and Tom Wallis are the players added to the extended squad for Sharks to take on the Swans on home turf on Saturday.

There's little reason for much change at Swan Districts on the back of the win against Perth but Warrick Wilson is available to return after missing that victory over the Demons last Saturday.

Tarir Bayok, Jake Dugan and Greg Ottaviano have also been added to the extended squad with a chance of breaking into the team on the back of solid reserves form but nobody has been named out at this stage.

The undoubted Match of the Round then takes place at Leederville Oval on Saturday afternoon with the league-leading Subiaco hosting West Perth.

Subiaco comes into the game having maintained top spot on the WAFL ladder with three straight wins since falling to Swan Districts by a point back in Round 12, but the Lions do need to continue winning to remain where they are.

West Perth is the hottest team in the competition, though, and that continued with a 24-point win against Peel Thunder last Saturday on the back of a seven-goal haul from Tyler Keitel, and veteran on-ballers Shane Nelson and Aaron Black continuing to dominate through the middle.

That all means that Subiaco enters Saturday's game on top with a 10-3 record while West Perth has improved to third-place with a six-game winning streak at 9-4.

That highlights the importance of Saturday's contest. A win for the Lions and they will maintain top position ahead of Claremont thanks to percentage and will move two games clear of the Falcons to go close to locking in at least a top two finish.

However, a win for West Perth and suddenly the Falcons are right in the hunt for a top two finish. In fact, if Claremont loses as well on Sunday, West Perth could end the round in second position and only be percentage behind Subiaco. 

It's unlikely the Falcons could win by a big enough margin to overtake the Lions' percentage on Saturday, but they sure could set up a cracking final five weeks.

While West Perth got a rare win over Subiaco last year by 19 points at Joondalup with the Lions having a rare absence from finals in the shortened and delayed season, the Falcons have found the going tough in recent times against them.

The two teams met earlier this season with Subiaco winning a thriller by three points when Greg Clark kicked the winning goal just before the siren at Provident Financial Oval.

Prior to splitting those last two games, Subiaco had won 10 straight matches over West Perth by an average of 43.1 points including an 81-point hammering in the 2018 Grand Final.

The last time West Perth beat Subiaco at Leederville Oval, their old home ground, was Round 10, 2016.

There is just one change at Subiaco coming off last Sunday's dominant 44-point win over South Fremantle with the return of superstar Sandover Medallist Lachlan Delahunty.

Josh Robbins is the unlucky player to make way as Delahunty returns having been forced to serve two weeks in quarantine.

West Perth is coming off a tremendous win over Peel to make it six straight and from that team, the Falcons welcome back Mitch Antonio and Kris Shannon while Nathan Alexandre and Tom Medhat are the two players to make way.

Peel Thunder has one last chance to try and keep whatever slim finals hopes alive they have on Saturday but awaiting them is a reigning premier South Fremantle determined to bounce back from a poor last up showing.

That sets up a fascinating contest at Mandurah's David Grays Arena on Saturday between the Thunder and Bulldogs, but not helping Peel's cause is that the majority of the Fremantle-listed players will be unavailable to them for at least the next two weeks.

Peel's percentage remains strongly highlighting their competitiveness through the WAFL season so far but the Thunder have just been unable to string wins together and they have now lost their past two including a four-goal defeat to West Perth last Saturday.

South Fremantle remains solid in terms of a finals position but the Bulldogs dropped out of the top three last Sunday as a result of a 44-point loss to Subiaco where they only managed to kick two goals the rest of the match after opening the game with the first two majors of the contest.

That result ended a three-game winning streak for the reigning premiers where the Bulldogs did appear to be building some momentum, but there's no doubt the disappointment they had in that performance against the Lions.

It's going to be tough for Peel to keep themselves in any sort of chance to make the finals especially in the absence of most Fremantle-listed players with the Thunder also ready sitting on a 4-9 record to be four games outside of fifth place.

They will need other results to go their way and should Swan Districts also lose on Saturday and Peel wins, that three-game gap could be made up over the last five weeks especially considering Peel's strong percentage.

So a win on Saturday and Peel keeps its season alive somewhat, but a loss and finals do appear well and truly out of reach.

It's a critical game for South Fremantle too in a number of ways. The Bulldogs must bounce back and respond swiftly to that loss to Subiaco but in the context of the season, it's crucial too.

South Fremantle can return to third, and potentially even second position with a win depending on other results to mean that finishing anywhere in the top three remains a strong probability.

However, a loss for the Bulldogs and they are going to have to play well over the last five weeks to still end up at least in a top three finish as reigning premiers.

Peel Thunder did beat South Fremantle in the qualifying final of 2017 and preliminary final of 2016, but the Bulldogs have had the better of recent meeting between the two clubs.

South Fremantle has now won the last four games against Peel including back in Round 3 of this year in Pingelly by 18 points.

There are a whole host of changes for Peel coming out of the loss to West Perth last week and most involve the loss of Fremantle-listed players.

The forced changes see Blake Acres, Taylin Duman, Stefan Giro, Stephen Hill, Ethan Hughes, Nathan O'Driscoll, Jarvis Pina and Tobe Watson all go out of the Peel line-up.

Blair Bell, Ryan Bennell, Jackson Broadbent, James Ewing, Jake Howes, Luke Polson, Zach Rankin and David Yaccob are the players to come in for the Thunder to face the Bulldogs in Mandurah on Saturday.

South Fremantle has made just the two changes from the team that lost to Subiaco with captain Dylan Main and reigning fairest and best winner Zac Strom both back to take on Peel.

Jarrod Salmeri and Matthew Ward go out for the Bulldogs but that means premiership pair Brock Higgins and Ben Rioli remain sidelined.

The last game for Round 17 on Saturday features Perth taking on the West Coast Eagles at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

Finals might not be a possibility for either club coming into the game but neither will want to finish with the wooden spoon by the end of Round 22 either and this game could go a long to determining who ends up in that last spot.

Perth comes into the game in second last place having lost six games in-a-row while West Coast is fresh off their third victory of the season against East Perth last Saturday to open up the prospect of getting off the bottom spot.

The Demons broke their finals drought last year in remarkable style by getting a taste of finals for the first time since 1997, but they won't be back there in 2021 having now lost six matches to hold a 4-9 record and to have the second lowest percentage in the league.

The Eagles had a horror start to their 2021 WAFL season losing their opening eight matches, but with better personnel available they have improved since and now won three of the last five games.

West Coast won't quite get off the bottom of the ladder with a win on Saturday just because of percentage but if that means they have won four in six games, and Perth would have lost seven straight, that the chances would be good of the Eagles leapfrogging the Demons in the run home.

However, a win for Perth on Saturday would have them two games and percentage ahead of West Coast and could very well be enough to help them avoid another wooden spoon.

Perth finished strongly in a 24-point loss to Swan Districts last week and from that team the Demons have made plenty of changes with Tarkyn Brogan-Henry, Marshall Jones, Doulton Langlands, Kasey Nicholas and Jayden Quill all into the team.

Jye Clark, Brodie Grey, Zac Hill, Matthew Rogers and Conor Song are the players to go out for the Demons.

The Eagles are able to maintain a relatively stable team from the one that beat East Perth last week with Jarrod Brander, Jak Cary and Zane Trew coming in while Brayden Ainsworth, Luke Foley and Nathan Vardy go out.

Sunday afternoon then sees East Perth host Claremont at Leederville Oval with the Tigers potentially looking to regain top spot while the Royals must win to stay any sort of chance of reaching the finals.

A lot of what this game means will be determined by what happens on Saturday and if Subiaco happens to lose to West Perth, then the Tigers can finish the round on top spot with a win against the Royals.

Similarly for East Perth, they will be hoping for a Swan Districts defeat to East Fremantle and that would mean a Royals win over the Tigers could keep their slim finals hopes just alive.

East Perth is coming into the game off a two-point loss to West Coast last week with the Royals storming home with the only five goals of the last quarter but just falling short.

That could prove pivotal still in their season and now they enter Round 17 with a 4-9 record and four games behind the fifth placed Swan Districts. They virtually would need to win every game the rest of the way and hope Swans don't win again to reach the finals.

Claremont, meanwhile, has now won its last two games since a narrow loss to South Fremantle with the Tigers looking to further lock away a top spot, and continue fighting over the minor premiership with Subiaco.

Claremont has certainly had the wood over East Perth in recent times with the Tigers having won seven in-a-row against the Royals including by six goals back in Round 8 this year at Revo Fitness Stadium.

The last win for East Perth against Claremont came back on Round 19, 2017 by just four points, that was at Claremont Oval. The Royals' last win over the Tigers at Leederville Oval was elimination final of 2015. 

Claremont has beaten East Perth on their last five visits to the venue.

From the team that lost to the Eagles last week, the Royals have added Ajang Ajang, Nathan Eaton, Sebit Kuek and Harley Sparks to their squad to face the Tigers.

Claremont has added Sam Alvarez, Timm House, Steven Miller, Max Minear and Ben Rushford while Dylan Smallwood goes out.
 

OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 17

EAST FREMANTLE (4-9, 7th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (8-5, 5th) – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats
Radio: SEN

SUBIACO (10-3, 1st) v WEST PERTH (9-4, 3rd) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats
Livestream: Front Row Screens
Radio: 91.3 SportFM

PEEL THUNDER (4-9, 6th) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (9-4, 4th) – DAVID GRAYS ARENA, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats

PERTH (4-9, 9th) v WEST COAST EAGLES (3-10, 10th) – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: The West Australian

EAST PERTH (4-9, 8th) v CLAREMONT (10-3, 2nd) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SUNDAY 2.10PM
Live scores, stats ???????
Livestream: The West Australian