WAFL Preliminary Final WrapSunday, September 25, 2022 - 9:37 PM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT was able to turn around two disappointing performances recently against East Fremantle when it mattered most to deliver a commanding preliminary final performance on Saturday to win by 28 points.

The Sharks had beaten the Tigers twice over the past five weeks including two weeks ago in the qualifying final by 48 points. That was on the same venue as well as Sunday's preliminary final with East Fremantle on home turf at New Choice Homes Park.

It was always going to be a case of East Fremantle either continuing its recent success over Claremont or the Tigers finding a way to turn it around, and the latter came to fruition.

Claremont delivered a stunning performance especially in the first half kicking eight of the game's first nine goals. 

The Tigers' lead got out to as much as 56 points during the third quarter and despite a scoreless last quarter, Claremont was never seriously threatened to go on and win 10.11 (71) to 6.7 (43).

The win sees Claremont book in a Grand Final appearance against West Perth this coming Saturday at Leederville Oval with the Tigers attempting to win a first premiership since 2012.

Jason Carter and Max Minear kicked two goals each for Claremont with Jye Bolton racking up 29 disposals, Ben Elliott 24, Ben Edwards 23, Bailey Rogers 21 and Callan England 21.

Jed Hagan and Tom Monaghan kicked two goals each for East Fremantle with Cam Eardley finishing with 23 possessions, Kyle Baskerville 22 and Jamie Meade 21.

The day at Shark Park got underway on Sunday with the colts preliminary final which saw Peel Thunder book its place in the Grand Final against West Perth by beating Subiaco 10.9 (69) to 9.5 (59).

The son of goalkicking legend, Rod, Corey Tregenza kicked five goals in the win for Peel with Ethan Donaghy adding two while Reece Torrent had 21 touches, Scott Tuia 19 and Clay Hall 19.

Tyzreise Clark and Richard Bartlett kicked two goals for Claremont with Ky Franceschini gathering 26 touches, Jack Gouge 19 and Toby McDonald 18.

Meanwhile in the reserves preliminary final, it was Subiaco advancing to the Grand Final against West Perth by defeating Claremont 11.6 (72) to 4.9 (33).

Corey Robinson kicked three goals for Subiaco and Chayse Paparone two while Jaxon McGowan gathered 27 possessions, Noah Ash 20, Rylie Morgan 18 and Lachlan Vanirsen 18.

Jack Beeck finished with 20 touches for Claremont, Sam Alvarez 19, Talon Delacey 16 and Kieran Gowdie 16 to go with 32 hit outs.

With West Perth having already qualified for the Grand Finals in all three grades, the Falcons will now take on Claremont in the league, Subiaco in the reserves and Peel Thunder in the colts deciders this coming Saturday at Leederville Oval.

WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – PRELIMINARY FINAL

EAST FREMANTLE 6.7 (43) lost to CLAREMONT 10.11 (71)

Claremont turned around two rough recent showings against East Fremantle to dominate the first two and-a-half quarters of Sunday's WAFL preliminary final to win by 28 points.

The Tigers lost by a combined 93 points in two games against the Sharks over the previous five weeks but were able to turn things around in stunning fashion in Sunday's preliminary final at New Choice Homes Park.

With a Grand Final berth up for grabs, Claremont weren’t about to let the opportunity slip having lost preliminary finals in 2019 and 2021 to South Fremantle.

The Tigers have won at least one final in each of the past five seasons following last week's first semi-final win against Peel Thunder but are still chasing that elusive first premiership since 2012.

However, the Sharks were on home turf and had the chance to win into a first Grand Final since losing that decider to Claremont a decade ago.

East Fremantle has overcome plenty of personnel blows right throughout 2022, but the biggest of all might have come prior to Sunday's game when they lost their midfield terrier Milan Murdock.

The way the game panned out meant that any one player would have made the complete difference, but the areas Claremont got on top with through the middle were all aspects of the game where Murdock could have made a significant different.

Instead once Claremont got on top with some impressive ball movement on top of having their intensity and pressure on song there would be no stopping them.

The Tigers went on to kick eight of the game's first nine goals and by early in the third quarter the margin was 56 points before they went on to win 10.11 (71) to 6.7 (43) to book in a Grand Final berth against West Perth.

Claremont had failed to come out of the blocks in the last two recent meetings with East Fremantle so the Tigers came out to make a statement early in Sunday's preliminary final.

And just if those last two games with the Sharks weren’t motivation enough, there's the memory that Claremont went goalless for three quarters in last year's preliminary final against South Fremantle, and that wasn’t going to happen again this time around.

The Tigers were simply outmuscled, outplayed and outhustled by East Fremantle both two and four weeks ago, but it was them this time around who came out the hungrier looking outfit.

The Claremont pressure around the contest was outstanding, their attack on the ball was brilliant and the intensity on shutting East Fremantle down all meant that the Tigers didn’t take long to just about put the game out of reach of the Sharks.

Claremont couldn’t make the most of three scoring attempts in the opening three minutes, but they kept on attacking and eventually Max Minear kicked the first goal of the preliminary final.

The move by coach Ash Prescott to play Jason Carter forward was proving a masterstroke too. He kicked the next goal while also playing a lockdown role on Cam Eardley before Max Spyvee was rewarded for a strong tackle and went back to kick another goal.

Ben Elliott soon added another for the Tigers before Carter added a second in a stunning opening quarter from the usual running defender.

Eventually East Fremantle got on the board after the quarter-time siren thanks to Tom Monaghan but it was the Tigers leading by 28 points.

Sharks coach Bill Monaghan declared that his team 'hadn't come to play' but before he could even get back to his seat for the second quarter Claremont had a sixth goal on the board courtesy of Alex Manuel.

It took 15 minutes for another goal and it was Claremont rewarded for the pressure their forwards were putting on the East Fremantle defence. That led to Tyron Smallwood pouncing and snapping truly.

Max Minear then got away with a bit of a push but took a strong mark to kick his second goal of the day before East Fremantle got one back through Eddie Simpson.

Claremont was still leading by 42 points at the main break before the perfect possible start to the third quarter. Reigning Sandover Medallist Bailey Rogers stormed out of the middle to kick a long goal on the run.

Callan England then added another and all of a sudden three minutes into the second half and the margin was 54 points. A couple more behinds and the Tigers' lead was 54 points and with two goals in the first two quarters and 10 minutes, and it was hard to see East Fremantle coming back.

Monaghan did manage a second goal and Jed Hagan added another just before three quarter-time, but Claremont was still on top by 43 points.

The Sharks made a brief flurry with goals to Hagan and Alex Montauban by the 13-minute mark of the last term, but they couldn’t carry on the momentum.

Despite Claremont going scoreless for the final quarter they still prevailed comfortable 10.11 (71) to 6.7 (43).

Claremont found some unusual avenues to goal as well in the preliminary final especially Jason Carter. 

Coach Ash Prescott threw him forward largely to play a defensive role on attacking Sharks defender Cam Eardley, but it paid extra dividends when Carter was able to bob up to kick two first quarters having not kicked a goal for the Tigers since 2019.

Max Minear was the other Tigers player to kick multiple goals with two as well as he provided a strong target despite having just kicked five goals in his previous nine matches.

Despite having kicked seven goals in the last two match ups with Claremont, Declan Hardisty and the Tigers held Jonathon Marsh goalless as well for the afternoon.

Jye Bolton spent much of the afternoon setting up play off half-back for Claremont finishing with 29 possessions while through the middle Ben Edwards was especially dynamic on his return after missing last week with 23 touches and six inside-50 entries.

Ben Elliott also collected 24 possessions, Bailey Rogers 21, Callan England 21, Ronin O'Connor 20, Lachlan Martinis 20, Ryan Lim 18 and Minear 18 while Oliver Eastland finished with 15 disposals, 25 hit outs and seven tackles.

Jed Hagan and Tom Monaghan kicked two goals apiece as small forward opportunists for East Fremantle.

Cam Eardley had a rough start as one of three East Fremantle players remaining from the 2014 preliminary final but he finished up as his team's leading ball winner with 23 possessions and six marks.

Kyle Baskerville also had 22 disposals, Jamie Meade 21, Josh Schoenfeld 18, Cody Smith 17, Ryan Lester-Smith 17 and Jackson McDonald 17 while Jeremy Goddard had 14 touches and 24 hit outs in the ruck.