Round 3 WAFL PreviewFriday, April 21, 2023 - 11:25 AM - by Chris Pike

ANZAC Round in the WAFL will take place this weekend with Claremont, Peel Thunder and East Perth all trying to continue their unbeaten starts to the 2023 season, and West Coast and Perth just trying to find a way to be competitive.

The third round of the 2023 WAFL season will see the clubs commemorate ANZAC Day across the weekend with five fascinating match ups to be held over Saturday and Sunday.

Round 3 begins on Saturday afternoon with the undefeated Claremont looking to improve to 3-0 to start the season by hosting the 1-1 Subiaco at Revo Fitness Stadium.

The other Saturday afternoon match up takes place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle at home to Peel Thunder. The Bulldogs are looking for a measure revenge on a Peel team who has started the season impressively with the first two wins.

Saturday evening at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park will then see two teams who were looking for fresh starts in 2023 coming into the game in vastly contrasting form. 

Perth hosts East Perth with the Demons kicking just one goal last week against Peel while the Royals piled on 12 in the first half on the way to a second straight win to open the season.

The last two matches of the round take place on Sunday afternoon beginning with Swan Districts playing West Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval. 

Swans are still chasing their first win of the season despite a combined losing margin of five points with the Falcons fresh off hammering West Coast by 169 points to open their account for the season.

It's then the West Coast Eagles playing host to East Fremantle at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park with the Eagles just trying to find a way to compete while the Sharks are out to make it consecutive wins following last Saturday's win against Swan Districts.

WAFL TEAM OF THE WEEK – ROUND 2

ROUND 2 WAFL WRAP

Meanwhile, Round 3 of the Reserves will see South Fremantle take on Peel Thunder at 11.20am on Saturday, Subiaco face Claremont at 11.30am and Perth play East Perth at 2.20pm. Swan Districts will then face West Perth at 11.10am on Sunday at Steel Blue Oval.

The weekend will also see the Colts Super Round take place on Saturday at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium starting with Subiaco playing Claremont before South Fremantle faces Peel Thunder, and finally Perth takes on East Perth.

Swan Districts and West Perth will play on Sundy at 8.40am at Steel Blue Oval.

 

SUBIACO v CLAREMONT – SATURDAY 2.10PM

Subiaco's task of returning to the WAFL winner's list is a significant one with the Lions hosting the undefeated Claremont at Leederville Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Subiaco did start off the new season well beating Perth by 26 points at Lathlain in Round 1 on the back of a dominant second half. 

The Lions again produced a strong second half last week against East Perth, but it wasn’t enough to make up for a big half-time deficit as they still went down by 23 points to start the new season at 1-1 coming into hosting the Tigers on Saturday.

Coming off losing two of the past three grand finals, Claremont looks suitably motivated to go one better in 2023 on the back of wins to start the season against the two teams they lost those premiership deciders to, West Perth and South Fremantle.

It's a fascinating recent history that Subiaco and Claremont share against one another. The Tigers won both clashes in 2022 by a combined 22 points including a remarkable Round 2 win when COVID wiped out almost the entire Tigers regular squad.

However, prior to that and the Lions have enjoyed a remarkable dominance over the Tigers including winning both meetings in 2021 on their way to another premiership triumph.

While Claremont did score a win in the shortened season of 2020 against Subiaco, prior to that the Lions had won the last 10 meetings with the Tigers by an average of 36.8 points dating back to 2015.

So even though Claremont has played in two of the last three WAFL grand finals, much success in recent times against Subiaco has eluded the Tigers with the Lions coming into Saturday's clash having won 12 of the last 15 clashes between the two clubs.

Subiaco is looking to bounce back from last Saturday's loss to East Perth looking for a second win of the season but that cause won't be helped with the loss of reigning fairest and best winner Stefan Giro who has started the season twice being named to the WAFL Team of the Week.

Robert Hansen Jr, Jaimon Alone, Ryan Borchet, Corey Hitchcock, Luker Kentfield and Koltyn Tholstrup are all added to the squad from the team that lost to East Perth last Saturday.

Claremont is out to continue its hot start to the season with a third consecutive win with Bailey Bennett, Ben Clarke, Ben Edwards, Sam Gilbey, George Graham and Louis Passera all added to the Tigers squad to take on the Lions.

Going out of the Claremont team from the line-up that beat South Fremantle so emphatically last Saturday are Jason Carter and Jack Lewsey.

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SOUTH FREMANTLE v PEEL THUNDER – SATURDAY 2.10PM

South Fremantle will be attempting to stop Peel Thunder's undefeated start to the 2023 WAFL season when the two teams meet at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday.

The Bulldogs are looking to bounce back from last week's loss to Claremont and to also earn a measure of revenge on the Thunder after they ended their season with a strong finish also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in last year's elimination final.

Peel, meanwhile, has started the 2023 in impressive fashion with wins at home against East Fremantle and Perth with the Thunder looking to make it three consecutive wins to open the new season in their first game of the campaign away from Mandurah.

Coming into Saturday afternoon's clash at Fremantle Community Bank Oval and Peel has won its last two matches with South Fremantle after winning by 14 points in Round 17 last year before also overrunning the Bulldogs in the elimination final to win by nine points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

However, prior to that and South Fremantle had been on top of Peel since the Thunder won their back-to-back WAFL premierships in 2016 and 2017. 

After losing to Peel in the 2017 qualifying final, South Fremantle won seven of the next eight matches against the Thunder up until the last two games of 2022 between the two clubs.

Overall, South Fremantle has won 48 of the 64 clashes with Peel since the Thunder joined the WAFL competition in 1997. 

And at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, the Bulldogs have won 22 of the 31 meetings with Peel including three of the last four with the Thunder's lone win since the qualifying final being last year's elimination final.

Peel hasn’t won a home and away season game against South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval since Round 12, 2017.

South Fremantle is searching for the win to get back to square one to start the season and to both rebound from last week's loss to Claremont, and last year's elimination final defeat at the hands of Peel.

The Bulldogs welcome back some important players including Brendon Ah Chee with premiership ruckman Brock Higgins also available for the first time in 2023 after being suspended for the opening two weeks.

Jarrad Doney, Nathan Spooner and Robbie Turnbull are also in contention at the selection table to come into the South Fremantle team to take on Peel on Saturday.

Jackson Broadbent goes out after making his debut last week for South Fremantle after crossing from Peel in the off-season, but it was perhaps somewhat premature on limited preparation given the Bulldogs were without fellow ruckmen Solomon James and Higgins as well to take on Claremont.

Peel dominated its clash with Perth last Saturday in Mandurah with the Thunder to now play their first road game of the season on Saturday with plenty of changes.

Joel Hamling, Max Knobel, Liam Reidy, James Sturrock, Tyrone Thorne, Corey Tregenza-Cashell and Brody Wemm have all been added to the Thunder squad to take on the Bulldogs at the port on Saturday.

Going out of the Peel team from the side that beat Perth last Saturday are Josh Corbett, Josh Draper and Neil Erasmus.

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PERTH v EAST PERTH – SATURDAY 5.10PM

The starts to the season under new coaches couldn’t have been more contrasting for Perth and East Perth as they lock horns in what has become a traditional ANZAC Day commemoration battle between the old rivals.

The Demons will play host to the Royals on Saturday night at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park with Perth hunting a first win for the season while East Perth are aiming to remain undefeated.

Both teams have new coaches for 2023 but it's been vastly contrasting starts with Perth winless coming into Saturday night's clash and East Perth undefeated.

Perth started well under Peter German back in Round 1 but faded to lose to Subiaco by 26 points before then managing just one goal in the second quarter on the way to a 65-point defeat in Mandurah to Peel Thunder last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ross McQueen led East Perth to a thrilling one-point win against Swan Districts in Round 1 and then to an impressive 23-point victory against Subiaco at Leederville Oval last Saturday.

While the two teams only combined to win nine matches in 2022, two of East Perth's six victories came at the expense of Perth with the Royals winning by 81 points in Round 2 at Lathlain and then by 38 points in Round 13 at Leederville Oval.

East Perth also won the two meetings with Perth in 2021 so the Royals have won four straight against the Demons by an average of 38.3 points.

The last win for Perth against East Perth was by 21 points back in Round 2, 2020 at Mineral Resources Park. That was the culmination of a three-game winning run for the Demons against the Royals.

However, dating back further and East Perth has dominated Perth in recent times. Prior to losing those three straight matches over 2019 and 2020, the Royals had beaten the Demons 12 of the previous 13 times including going on a dominant 10-game winning streak.

So coming into Saturday night's clash at Lathlain with Perth looking for its first win since Round 18 last year, the Demons take on a Royals team who has beaten them on 16 of the last 20 occasions.

Perth is hunting its first win still under coach Peter German, but after a rough second half against Subiaco and disappointing showing against Peel last Saturday, the Demons will be just looking to be more competitive on Saturday night against the Royals.

From the team that kicked just one goal and lost to Peel in Mandurah last Saturday, the Demons have added Jack Avery, Jye Clark, Jack Cooley, Daniel Hill and Zach Jackson to the team to take on East Perth.

From the side that lost to the Thunder a week ago, Liam Dellamarta, Brodie Gray, Cody Howard, Harry Quartermaine and Sam Stubbs are out for the Demons.

East Perth couldn’t have started life under new coach Ross McQueen any better with the two wins against Swan Districts and Subiaco with the Royals looking to continue the momentum against Perth on Saturday night.

The Royals have added Adam Boules, Sandon Page, Zach Raykos, Ethan Regan, Patrick Reilly and Riley Saunders to the squad to take on Perth at Lathlain in Round 3.

Going out from the East Perth team that beat Subiaco last Saturday are young gun Kade Dittmar and hard man Nick Robertson.

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SWAN DISTRICTS v WEST PERTH – SUNDAY 2.10PM

Swan Districts and West Perth both come into Sunday's clash at Steel Blue Oval with a strong rivalry and having had rollercoaster starts to the 2023 season setting up what should be a terrific contest.

Swan Districts and West Perth contests rarely disappoint and are generally difficult to predict, and this Sunday's match up at Steel Blue Oval is set up to be no different.

Swans are still hunting their first win of the season under new coach Andrew Pruyn, but the black-and-whites could just as easily been 2-0 after suffering a one-point loss to East Perth, and four-point defeat at the hands of East Fremantle.

The Falcons opened their premiership defence with a tough loss at home to Claremont but then hit back in the most emphatic fashion possible kicking 34 goals to hammer the hapless West Coast Eagles by 169 points last Saturday.

The Swan Districts-West Perth rivalry is right up there with one of the strongest in the WAFL competition over a period of about 15 years now, and that looks set to continue on Sunday with Swans hunting that first win of 2023 and the Falcons out to make it back-to-back victories.

West Perth has had the better overall of recent meetings with Swan Districts, but perhaps the best win Swans had in 2022 was in Round 19 last year at Steel Blue Oval by 12 points even though they went on to miss finals narrowly and the Falcons would ultimately win the premiership.

Prior to that and West Perth had won six straight against Swan Districts by an average of 24.2 points with the previous win by Swans coming back in Round 4, 2019.

Even going back beyond that and the Falcons had also won six of the past seven games with Swans.

So even though the majority of the games in the period have been tight and hotly contested affairs, West Perth has won 12 of the last 15 matches against Swan Districts dating back to 2015.

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WEST COAST EAGLES v EAST FREMANTLE – SUNDAY 2.10PM

The great mismatch of the round appears to be West Coast Eagles playing East Fremantle on Sunday afternoon, but underestimating a wounded opponent is a dangerous thing.

The Eagles have had a rough start to the 2023 WAFL season on the back of claiming the competition's last two wooden spoons. They lost to South Fremantle by 43 points in Round 1 but then things hit the fan last Saturday in a 169-point loss to West Perth.

With the injury woes for West Coast's AFL-listed players, the Eagles are struggling to field a competitive team but it would be dangerous to underestimate them and that's something that East Fremantle coach Bill Monaghan certainly won't allow his players to do.

The Sharks started the season with a frustrating loss to Peel Thunder on Good Friday after being 27 points up late in the third quarter. 

However, they bounced back for a narrow four-point win against Swan Districts last Saturday and will be looking to keep that momentum rolling now on Sunday against the Eagles at Mineral Resources Park.

Even though West Coast and East Fremantle have split their previous six meetings in the WAFL competition with three wins apiece, there are ominous signs from the emphatic nature of the three victories that the Sharks have won.

West Coast did win the first two games against East Fremantle back in 2019 in a season where the Eagles did go on to play finals for the one and only time while the Sharks were still in a building phase with the recent arrival of Bill Monaghan as coach.

Since then, the Sharks hammered the Eagles by 125 points in Round 6, 2021 but West Coast were able to turn the tide with a 51-point in Round 12 of that same season.

However, the Sharks dominated the Eagles in their two meetings in 2022 winning by 123 points in Round 4 with West Coast struggling even to field a team and having to borrow two players from East Fremantle.

The Sharks then won by 62 points as well in Round 13 last year as they made their return to finals for the first time since 2014 while the Eagles claimed a second straight wooden spoon.

It's the nature of the three wins that East Fremantle has scored against West Coast that is ominous coming into Sunday's clash at Mineral Resources Park considering the troubles the Eagles are having to put a team together, and to be competitive.

In East Fremantle's three wins against West Coast over the past two years, they have been by a combined 310 points with the Sharks outscoring the Eagles 56.43 (379) to 11.15 (81) with an average winning margin of 99.3 points.

Unfortunately, it's going to take something special from the 22 players West Coast put out on the field at Lathlain on Sunday to avoid East Fremantle delivering them another similar end result to those previous three match ups.

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