Round 4 WAFLW PreviewFriday, March 31, 2023 - 12:23 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 4 in the WAFLW is spread over Saturday and Sunday this weekend with four fascinating match ups with Claremont attempting to remain undefeated and Swan Districts and East Perth still searching for their first victories of 2023.

The Round 4 WAFLW action begins on Saturday afternoon at 4pm with South Fremantle taking on Swan Districts at Fremantle Community Bank Oval. The Bulldogs are yet to lose so far in 2023 with two wins and a draw while Swans are still hunting their first win.

The other game on Saturday bounces down at 4.45pm with Subiaco playing host to the undefeated reigning premiers Claremont at Leederville Oval.

The other two Round 4 matches take place on Sunday afternoon beginning at 1pm with West Perth playing host to Peel Thunder at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

The last game of Round 4 in the WAFLW takes place on Sunday at 2pm with East Perth playing East Fremantle for the first ever time when they lock horns at Leederville Oval.

WAFLW TEAM OF THE WEEK – ROUND 3

ROUND 3 WAFL WRAP

Meanwhile in Round 4 of the Rogers Cup Youth Girls competition, two matches take place on Saturday with Subiaco playing Perth at Leederville Oval at 2.45pm. Then at 6pm at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, South Fremantle plays host to Swan Districts.

The other two Round 4 Rogers Cup matches take place on Sunday with West Perth playing Peel Thunder from 11am at Pentanet Stadium, and then East Perth taking on East Fremantle at Leederville Oval from 12pm.

 

SOUTH FREMANTLE v SWAN DISTRICTS – SATURDAY 4.00PM

South Fremantle is yet to beat Swan Districts during its first three years of being in the WAFLW competition but the Bulldogs will be looking to change that at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday.

The Bulldogs play host to Swans on Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval at 4pm with South Fremantle still yet to taste defeat so far in 2023 while Swans are yet to record a victory.

Throughout the first three seasons South Fremantle has been in the WAFLW competition, Swan Districts have beaten them on all six occasions and outscoring them 44.31 (295) to 11.10 (76) in those six meetings.

However, things could be different coming into this Saturday's game with South Fremantle having two wins and a draw from the opening three matches while Swan Districts have lost all three matches to date of 2023.

South Fremantle opened the 2023 season with a draw in Round 1 with Subiaco before beating East Perth by 66 points in Round 2 and backing that up with a 28-point win also at home last Saturday against West Perth.

From that win last week against the Falcons, Bethany Bond, Tahleah Mulder, Zoe Huggett and Lauren Vecchio were all named to the Team of the Week.

Bond ended up kicking three goals in the win for the Bulldogs while Huggett kicked 1.4 from 14 possessions and seven marks while Mulder gathered 23 disposals, Vecchio 19, Luci Gilchrist 18, Kloe Bassett 16 and Charli Wicksteed 16.

Swan Districts is still chasing a first win for the 2023 season on the back of beginning with a five-point loss to Peel Thunder in Round 1 before a 47-point defeat at home to Subiaco and then last week also losing to Claremont by 24 points at Steel Blue Oval.

In that loss last week to the reigning premiers, Carys D'Addario and Ruby Mahony both were named to the Team of the Week for the first time.

The goals for Swans came from Courtney Zappara and Riley Fisher while D'Addario racked up 21 possessions, Mahony 17, Kayley King 16, Jaime Henry 16 and Sarah Wielstra 15 to go with 13 hit outs.

South Fremantle is yet to defeat Swan Districts in its first three seasons in the WAFLW competition. Going back to when the Bulldogs entered in 2020, Swan Districts beat South Fremantle by 42 points in Round 5 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Then in 2021, Swan Districts had a thumping 53-point win over South Fremantle also down at the port with Swans then also winning by 37 points at Steel Blue Oval in Round 9 having held the Bulldogs to just one behind for the game.

Their third meeting of 2021 was also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in Round 15 with Swan Districts winning by 63 points.

South Fremantle became significantly more competitive in 2022 highlighted in Round 7 when Swan Districts scored just a 14-point win under lights at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The second meeting of 2022 took place in Round 15 at Steel Blue Oval and it was another more competitive affair even with Swan Districts still winning by 20 points on the way to another finals campaign.

South Fremantle has added Megan Bain, Hunter Cronin, Leila Fotu, Makaela Tuhakaraina, Zoe Wakfer and Ella Ward to its squad from the team that beat West Perth last week.

Cali Hunt and Molly O'Hehir are the two players going out of the South Fremantle team at this stage.

With Swan Districts chasing a first win of the season, the black-and-whites have made four changes from the team that lost to Claremont last week.

Erin Brown, Chanti McHenry, Cassie McWilliam and Ava Stewart coming into the Swan Districts team.

Going out are Riley Fisher, Demi Liddle, Jasmine Ware and Courtney Zappara.

 

SUBIACO v CLAREMONT – SATURDAY 4.45PM

Subiaco has made an encouraging start to the 2023 WAFLW season but will now face the ultimate test against the undefeated reigning premiers Claremont on Saturday afternoon at Leederville Oval.

Claremont has made the perfect start to its premiership defence winning the first three matches of the 2023 season and while Subiaco has just the one win so far, the Lions have had an encouraging start to set the scene for what could be a fascinating contest at Leederville Oval.

Subiaco opened up the season with a draw with South Fremantle in Round 1 before beating Swan Districts by 47 points in Round 2 and then losing in a tight affair with East Fremantle last Saturday at Leederville Oval.

From that game last week against the Sharks, Beth Schilling, Tiah Toth, Amy Mulholland and Tarni Golisano were all named to the Team of the Week.

Mulholland finished up kicking two goals for Subiaco with Golisano collecting 23 possessions, Toth 22, Clare McCarthy 14, Schilling 14, Joanne Cregg 14, Grace Hahnel 13 and Madison Dodd 13.

Claremont opened up its premiership defence beating East Fremantle by a goal at Joondalup before defeating Peel Thunder by 18 points at home and then downing Swan Districts by 24 points last Sunday at Steel Blue Oval.

From that win against Swan Districts last week, Claire Ortlepp, Jayme Harken and Jacinta Valentini were named to the Team of the Week from Claremont.

Ella Smith kicked two of Claremont's five goals in the win with Claire Ortlepp gathering 25 disposals, Harken 20, Jasmin Stewart 19, Hayley Bullas 18, Brooke Whyte 17, Valentini 16 and Kate Orme 16.

The last time the teams did battle was in Round 16 last year and even though Subiaco was on the way to missing finals and Claremont was about to win the premiership, it was the Lions who scored the upset 14-point victory at Leederville Oval.

Prior to that, Claremont beat Subiaco by 13 points in Round 10 at Revo Fitness Stadium in another competitive affair where the Lions did actually have more scoring shots than the Tigers.

Their first meeting of 2022 saw Claremont score the biggest win between the teams last season beating Subiaco by 45 points at Leederville Oval in Round 2.

On the back of Subiaco's narrow loss to East Fremantle last week, Lauren Bilaloski, Meg Brown, Liana Burchell, Hanna Dethlefsen, Dahna Lee, Agnes Monisse and Jess Pillera have been added to the squad for Saturday's clash with Claremont.

Going out from the Lions team from last week are Hayley Corlett, Kate Pocsidio and Tiah Toth who was named to the WAFLW Team of the Week after that clash with East Fremantle.

Claremont kept its unbeaten run going last week beating Swan Districts but from that team for this week, Taylah Angel, Sarah Garstone, Tazma Hutson, Juliet Kelly, Madeleine Scanlon, Matilda Sergeant and Charlotte Tompkin are all added to the squad to play Subiaco.

Going out of the Tigers team to play the Lions are Tess Blackburn, Hayley Bullas and Ella Smith.

 

WEST PERTH v PEEL THUNDER – SUNDAY 1.00PM

Peel Thunder will be looking to continue its strong start to the WAFLW season but West Perth will be back on home turf and out to make a statement on Sunday afternoon.

While Peel has dominated the meetings so far with West Perth in the WAFLW, the Falcons are vastly improved in 2023 and will be looking to showcase that on Sunday at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

West Perth started the new season recording its first ever WAFLW victory by beating East Perth before a 28-point loss at home in Round 2 to East Fremantle and then going down to South Fremantle by 28 points last Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

From that game against South Fremantle, Brooke Hongell was named in the WAFLW Team of the Week from West Perth on the back of 25 possessions from down back.

West Perth's goal scorers were Grace Betti, Tia Bergin and Elissa Price while Taylor Ferguson collected 19 possessions, Kayla Van Den Heever 18, Jess Roper 18 and Emily Bennett 17.

Peel started the 2023 season with a tight home win against Swan Districts before a loss to the undefeated reigning premiers Claremont and then bouncing back to beat East Perth by 25 points last Sunday at Leederville Oval.

From that win for the Thunder over the Royals, Chloe Wrigley, Tanisha Anderson and Jaide Britton were named to the Team of the Week.

Wrigley finished with 23 possessions and 17 tackles while Britton had 17 disposals and nine tackles, and Anderson kicked three of her team's five goals in the victory.

The last time the two teams met was back in Round 10 of last year where Peel scored a 70-point victory at Joondalup on the back of kicking the only 10 goals of the game and restricting the Falcons to just two behinds.

Their other clash in West Perth's first season in the WAFLW competition took place in Round 7 in Mandurah and that also saw Peel keep the Falcons goalless, and to just three behinds on the way to a 118-point victory.

 

EAST PERTH v EAST FREMANTLE – SUNDAY 2.00PM

East Perth and East Fremantle meet for the first ever time in the WAFLW competition on Sunday afternoon at Leederville Oval.

The Royals will be playing host to the Sharks to close Round 4 of the 2023 WAFLW season with the game to bounce down at Leederville Oval at 2pm.

It's a significant test for East Perth team who has kicked just the four goals in the first three games of the season upon entering the WAFLW competition up against an East Fremantle team building momentum on the back of their undefeated 2022 home and away campaign.

It has been tough going so far in the WAFLW competition for East Perth kicking just a combined 4.10 across their opening three games which has seen them lose to West Perth by 48 points, South Fremantle by 66 points and Peel Thunder by 25 points.

Going back to last week and a loss at home to Peel, East Perth's goal was kicked by Bronwyn Hansen while Chloe Sauzier was named to the WAFLW Team of the Week on the back of 16 possessions, six marks and five tackles.

Coming off last season where East Fremantle went through undefeated before losing the Grand Final to Claremont, the Sharks did lose a rematch with the Tigers in Round 1 but have since defeated West Perth by 28 points and Subiaco by a goal to be building some momentum once more.

From that win over the Lions last Saturday at Leederville Oval, Taya Chambers, Ashleigh Gomes and  Emmelie Fiedler were named to the Team of the Week.

Anjelique Raison ended up kicking two goals in the win for East Fremantle with Gomes racking up 21 possessions, Sharon Wong 19, Beth Beckett 18, Chambers 15, Gabby O'Sullivan 14, Amber Kinnane 14 and Larissa Versaci 14.