Round 10 WAFLW PreviewFriday, May 12, 2023 - 8:46 AM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 10 of the 2023 WAFLW season has the last two premiers doing battle with Peel Thunder at home to Claremont while South Fremantle looks to put further pressure on the league-leading Tigers and East Fremantle and Subiaco lock horns over third position.

It's set to be a fascinating Round 10 of the WAFLW season with the Tigers looking to get back to winning after the draw last week while it's last chance time for the Thunder to stay in the finals race, and the Bulldogs have a chance to stay in touch for the minor premiership.

The Sharks and Lions are jostling over third position while West Perth and Swan Districts are also attempting to break into the top four.

Three of the four Round 10 matches take place on Saturday afternoon beginning at 12pm with Peel Thunder at home to Claremont at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium.

Next up at 12.10pm is the winless East Perth up against the on-fire and second placed South Fremantle at Leederville Oval.

The last game on Saturday begins at 2pm at the WACA Ground where East Fremantle is playing host to Subiaco with the winner to finish the round in third position on the WAFLW ladder.

The final match of the round will be played on Sunday at 1pm with West Perth taking on Swan Districts at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

WAFLW TEAM OF THE WEEK – ROUND 9

ROUND 9 WAFLW WRAP

Meanwhile, in Round 10 of the Rogers Cup Youth Girls competition the action gets underway on Friday evening at Fremantle Community Bank Oval at 6pm with East Perth taking on South Fremantle.

There is then just the one game on Saturday with Peel Thunder playing Claremont at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium at 10am.

The other two matches will be happening on Sunday beginning at 9.30am with Subiaco hosting East Fremantle at Leederville Oval. Last up at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium will be West Perth playing Swan Districts.

 

PEEL THUNDER v CLAREMONT – SATURDAY 12.00PM

Peel Thunder and Claremont might have combined to win the past three WAFLW premierships, but it's the Tigers who appear as though they will be tough to stop on Saturday in Mandurah.

The Thunder have found the going challenging so far in the 2023 WAFLW season as they prepare to host the league-leading Claremont at Lane Group Stadium with the Tigers looking to hit back from not winning for the first time this season.

Peel comes into the game needing a win to cling to any prospects of playing finals this season with the Thunder currently having won just two of their eight matches including losing to Swan Districts by 29 points at Steel Blue Oval last Sunday.

Claremont, meanwhile, won its opening seven matches of 2023 on the back of winning last year's premiership but the Tigers didn’t win last Saturday night at the WACA Ground.

They didn’t lose either with a draw against East Fremantle and that leaves the Tigers still on top of the ladder but only with a one-game lead now over South Fremantle heading into Round 10.

This will be the second meeting between the two teams this season with Claremont beating Peel by 18 points back in Round 2 at Revo Fitness Stadium.

While the Tigers only kicked two goals to one in that game, they dominated the Thunder with 15 scoring shots to two while having 95 more possessions for the day, 44 inside-50 entries to 16 and keeping Peel scoreless in the second half and to one goal which came in the opening quarter.

Peel suffered another loss to Swan Districts last Sunday and from that team, Ava Cristodero, Tessa Kongras, Ashlee Norwood and Anna Watts have been added to the squad to face Claremont this Saturday.

There are no outs at this stage at the Thunder from the team that lost to Swans at Bassendean last Sunday.

Claremont didn’t lose its first game of the season last Saturday night, but didn’t win either with the draw with East Fremantle at the WACA Ground.

From that team, the Tigers have added Juliet Kelly, Jayde Musika, Kate Orme, Rachel Ortlepp and Charlotte Tompkin to the squad to face Peel this Saturday in Mandurah.

Going out of the Claremont team from the one that drew with East Fremantle last Saturday night are Tess Blackburn, Hayley Colvin, Emily Elkington, Matilda Husband and Andie Payne.

 

EAST PERTH v SOUTH FREMANTLE – SATURDAY 12.10PM

The form team of the WAFLW competition now locks horns with the struggling newbie when South Fremantle plays East Perth at Leederville Oval on Saturday afternoon.

It has been a challenging introduction to the WAFLW competition for East Perth in 2023, but it's something South Fremantle experienced itself back in 2020 and West Perth went through last year too when added to the league.

If you look at the Bulldogs now and they are knocking on the door of top spot by 2023 and the Falcons are also challenging for a finals berth, so while it's tough going right now for East Perth, the signs are all there that they won't be down for too long.

South Fremantle comes into Saturday's game with six wins, a loss and a draw for the season so far to now only be a game and percentage behind the league-leading Claremont, but two games ahead of the third and fourth placed Subiaco.

East Perth is winless and only kicked six goals in the eight games so far this season so the Royals will be up against it to take on the in-form Bulldogs even on home soil on Saturday afternoon.

This will be the second ever meeting between East Perth and South Fremantle in the WAFLW competition after the Bulldogs beat the Royals by 66 points back in Round 2 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

It was 11 goals to one in that Round 2 win for South Fremantle where Noa McNaughton kicked three goals, Makaela Tuhakaraina two and Zoe Huggett two.

Tahleah Mulder also racked up 21 possessions for the Bulldogs, Luci Gilchrist 18, Bethany Bond 18, Lauren Vecchio 16 (11 tackles) and ruck Ariana Hetherington 14 to go with 25 hit outs, five tackles and five inside-50 entries.

East Perth's lone goal on that day came from Matilda Bennett while Madeleine Goodman gathered 12 possessions, Jess Valvasori 12, Lillian Ninyett 11, Emily Boothman 10, Julia Uhe 10 and Chloe Sauzier 10.

East Perth is fresh off another goalless performance last week against Subiaco with the Royals with the job ahead of them up against South Fremantle on Saturday.

The Royals have made plenty of changes for the clash with the Bulldogs once more with Kasey Bindon, Holly Gill, Melisha Hardy, Leah Keating and Kelsey Lang all coming into the line-up.

Going out from the East Perth team that lost to Subiaco last week are Jessica Davidson, Tahlia Dawson-Gibbs, Bramley Haran, Jaymii Karapetkov and Ebony Thompson.

South Fremantle is fresh off a strong win against West Perth and to take on East Perth this Saturday, the Bulldogs have added Trinity Brown, Dakoda Hallam, Zoe Huggett, Taite Lantzke and Kiara Templeman to the squad.

The only out at this stage from the Bulldogs team that beat the Falcons last week is Noa McNaughton.

 

EAST FREMANTLE v SUBIACO – SATURDAY 2.00PM

Third place in the WAFLW goes on the line on Saturday afternoon at the WACA Ground with East Fremantle playing host to Subiaco.

Precious little separates the Sharks and Lions coming into the Round 10 contest which will see the winner consolidate third position and remain in touch for a top two position while the loser could find themselves outside the top four altogether should Swan Districts beat West Perth on Sunday.

It's remarkable how closely matched the two teams are coming into the match up. Subiaco currently sits in third position and East Fremantle is fourth but both teams have four wins, three losses and a draw over the opening eight matches.

The Lions are only ahead of the Sharks by 9.63 percentage points so they couldn’t possibly be much more evenly matched coming into the contest on Saturday.

Subiaco is fresh off a 46-point win against East Perth in a bounce back performance after losing to West Perth while East Fremantle hasn’t won a game since beating Peel Thunder in Round 6.

Since then the Sharks have lost to South Fremantle and Swan Districts, and drew last week with Claremont in a grand final rematch.

The two teams have already met earlier in the 2023 season with East Fremantle beating Subiaco by six points in a thriller at Leederville Oval back in Round 3.

On that occasion, Anjelique Raison kicked two goals in the win for the Sharks while Ashleigh Gomes racked up 21 possessions, Sharon Wong 19, Beth Beckett 18 and Taya Chambers 15 while Emmelie Fiedler had 22 hit outs.

Amy Mulholland kicked two goals in the narrow loss for Subiaco while captain Tarni Golisano compiled 23 possessions, Tiah Toth 22, Clare McCarthy 14, Beth Schilling 14 and Joanne Cregg 14.

East Fremantle is fresh off the draw in the grand final rematch last week with Claremont, and from that team the Sharks have added to their squad to take on Subiaco Ashleigh Gomes, Tara Maciupa, Samara Pluschke, Ridma Ratnakele and Nicola Rutty.

The only out at this stage for East Fremantle from the team that drew with Claremont last Saturday night also at the WACA Ground is Katelyn Catalano.

Subiaco had a big win against East Perth last week to improve to third position on the ladder and now for Saturday's clash with East Fremantle, the Lions have called up Liana Burchell, Tarni Golisano, Kelsey Patterson and Kate Pocsidio.

There are no outs at this stage at Subiaco from the team that kept East Perth goalless last week.

 

WEST PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS – SUNDAY 1.00PM

Swan Districts can shoot into the top four for the first time this WAFLW season on Sunday but it's a West Perth trying to strengthen its own finals push they come up against.

Both the Swans and Falcons sit outside the top four coming into Round 10 of the 2023 WAFLW season, but they are right in the finals hunt ahead of the contest on Sunday afternoon at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

Swan Districts comes into the round sitting in fifth position on the WAFLW ladder with four wins and four losses, and a win on Sunday will see them move ahead of the loser of the Subiaco and East Fremantle match up on Saturday into the top four.

West Perth, meanwhile, sits in sixth position with three wins and five defeats but a win on Sunday will keep the Falcons right in the finals hunt.

It's been quite the dramatic turnaround this season for Swan Districts. They lost the opening four matches of the season but have now scored four successive victories against West Perth, East Perth, East Fremantle and Peel Thunder since the Round 5 bye.

West Perth comes into Saturday's game following a 20-point loss to South Fremantle last Sunday but prior to that had beaten Subiaco to keep themselves in the finals hunt.

Sunday's match will be the second time that the two teams have met so far in 2023 with Swan Districts scoring its first win of the season in that contest back in Round 6 at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans would end up beating the Falcons 10.12 (72) to 3.3 (21) which saw the black-and-whites open their account in style for the season on the back of losing the opening four matches.

Swan Districts came out of the Round 5 general bye to score the 51-point win at home on the back of Taylah Edwards producing a match-winning performance made up of 20 possessions, eight marks and three goals.

Lily Paterson also kicked two goals for Swans in the win while Ruby Mahony finished with 20 touches and 10 tackles with Jaime Henry compiling 20 disposals, Abbygail Bushby 18, Isabella Edgley 17, Jasmine Ware 16 and Sarah Wielstra 14 to go with 23 hit outs in the ruck.

In that same game, West Perth's goals were kicked by Grace Betti, Elissa Price and Katherine Bennett. 

Kayla Van Den Heever also picked up 20 possessions to go with eight tackles on the day with Karla Stagg picking up 17 touches, Emily Bennett 16, Taylor Ferguson 16 and Jeevna Heer 15.