Round 16 WAFLW PreviewThursday, June 22, 2023 - 10:33 PM - by Chris Pike

IT is the last round of the 2023 WAFLW season this weekend with Subiaco needing a minor miracle to replace East Fremantle in a finals position while West Perth, Peel Thunder and East Perth will be making their farewell appearances of the year.

Coming into the last round of the WAFLW season and Claremont is guaranteed of finishing in top spot, South Fremantle secure in second and then Swan Districts is assured of making the top four.

That leaves East Fremantle simply needing to beat Peel Thunder to confirm their place. However, a loss for the Sharks and things get interesting if Subiaco is able to beat West Perth. 

If those two scenarios take place, then it will all come down to if East Fremantle lost by enough and Subiaco won by enough to see the Lions overtake the Sharks on percentage.

The round begins at midday on Saturday at Yanchep's Splendid Park with West Perth playing host to Subiaco. The Lions must win by as much as possible to be any chance of playing finals.

The other game on Saturday is at 2pm with East Perth at home to Claremont with the winless bottom team taking on the undefeated top side.

The other two matches are on Sunday at 2pm with Peel Thunder hosting East Fremantle. The Sharks just need to win and they will be assured of a finals place.

Then there is Swan Districts playing host to South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval with both teams locked into a finals spot coming into the contest.

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Meanwhile, in the last round of the Rogers Cup Youth Girls competition, there is still a battle over the fourth and last finals position with West Perth, Claremont and South Fremantle already locked away.

Coming into the last round and East Perth and East Fremantle are both locked on seven wins so that fourth position is all going to be decided this weekend.

First up on Saturday at 10am will be Perth still searching for a first win up against the second last placed Subiaco at Mineral Resources Park.

Next up at midday is East Perth playing Claremont. The Royals just need to win and they will be guaranteed of finishing fourth and making finals. However, the Tigers also need to win to stay in second position.

The other two matches are on Sunday at 12pm with Peel Thunder hosting East Fremantle at Lane Group Stadium. By that point, the Sharks will know the situation if they can still make finals or not. They need the Royals to lose to the Tigers, and then if that happens on Saturday, East Fremantle will play finals with a win in Mandurah.

Then it's Swan Districts hosting South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval. Swans can't play finals but the Bulldogs could still finish second with a win if Claremont lost to East Perth on Saturday.

 

WEST PERTH v SUBIACO – SATURDAY 12.00PM

West Perth will be out to play spoilers on Saturday at Yanchep when taking on Subiaco in the final round of the WAFLW season.

The Falcons will be attempting to win a second game this season against the Lions when the teams do battle at Splendid Park with West Perth also having the chance to end the finals hopes of Subiaco.

Subiaco comes into the game still being an outside chance of playing finals if the Lions are able to score a big win against the Falcons and then on Sunday if East Fremantle suffers a hefty defeat at the hands of Peel Thunder.

Last time the two teams met was in Round 8 this season at Leederville Oval with West Perth scoring a first ever win against Subiaco 6.5 (41) to 4.6 (30).

In that win for the Falcons, Bianca Webb kicked two goals for West Perth to go with 13 possessions, eight marks and seven tackles while Emily Bennett picked up 23 disposals, Grace Betti 19, Jess Roper 16 and Kayla Van Den Heever 15.

Jess Ritchie kicked two goals for Subiaco with captain Tarni Golisano collecting 28 touches, Grace Hahnel 17 and Jess Pillera 15.

Prior to that, Subiaco and West Perth played one another twice in the 2022 WAFLW season with the Lions winning by 68 points in Round 6 at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

The second meeting took place at Leederville Oval in Round 14 and on that occasion it was again Subiaco prevailing by 35 points with both teams ending up missing out on finals action in 2022.

Following last week's loss to Claremont where West Perth failed to score, the Falcons have made two changes to take on Subiaco in the last game of the season this Saturday.

Grace Betti and Claire Norbury are the two players coming into the Falcons line-up while going out following that loss to Claremont are Cameron Dawson and Jeevna Heer.

Subiaco is coming off a 19-point loss last week that made it a challenge for the Lions to reach finals, but there is still some hope should they beat the Falcons on Saturday at Joondalup.

Coming into the Subiaco side from that one that lost to South Fremantle is Liana Burchell while Kelsey Patterson goes out for the Lions.

 

EAST PERTH v CLAREMONT – SATURDAY 2.00PM

It's top against bottom to close the WAFLW home and away season for East Perth and Claremont at Leederville Oval on Saturday afternoon.

The Royals will be finishing their first season in the WAFLW competition which has been rough going, but if you look at the first seasons of South Fremantle and West Perth previously, it's a similar thing they have gone through.

The Bulldogs are now going to finish second and the Falcons are significantly more competitive, so there's still hope of rapid improvement moving forward from the Royals, but it has been a tough 2023 season and Saturday might not get any easier.

Claremont is yet to lose so far this season despite a draw with East Fremantle and the Tigers are locked in to top position and taking out the minor premiership already as the reigning premiers in 2023 before Saturday's clash with East Perth.

The two teams have met just the once previously in the WAFLW competition and that took place back in Round 8 this season with Claremont beating East Perth 12.13 (85) to 0.0 (0).

In that win for the Tigers, Adele Arnup kicked three goals and Brooke Whyte two while Whyte also collected 23 possessions with Jayme Harken finishing with 22 touches, Matilda Sergeant 20, Sarah Viney 20 and Kate Orme 19.

East Perth might not have scored in that game but still had some players who fought valiantly with Sarah Madden leading the charge with 18 possessions.

The task couldn’t be bigger for East Perth to try and score its first ever win in the WAFLW in its inaugural season. 

Coming off last week's 18-point loss to Peel, the Royals have made two changes for their last game of 2023 with Bramley Haran and Leah Keating coming into the team to take on Claremont.

Going out from the Royals side that lost to Peel last week are Kelsey Lang and Eliza Van De Velde.

Claremont is guaranteed of the minor premiership already but will want to remain unbeaten this season heading into the finals. 

The Tigers have made two changes for Saturday's clash with East Perth with Jayde Musika and Mackenzie Webb the two players coming into the team.

Going out from the Claremont line-up that beat West Perth emphatically last week are Kate Orme and Charlotte Adams.

 

PEEL THUNDER v EAST FREMANTLE – SUNDAY 2.00PM

Peel Thunder has the chance to also play spoilers on Sunday afternoon in Mandurah taking on East Fremantle in the last round of the WAFLW season.

It has been a disappointing season for the Thunder who were the WAFLW premiers back in 2020 and 2021 with two of the three wins they have recorded coming against the winless East Perth, including last week's 18-point win that snapped their nine-game losing run.

The Thunder might be well out of the finals hunt, but they could put a halt on East Fremantle's plans of playing finals.

Should Subiaco beat West Perth on Saturday, then East Fremantle will need to beat Peel on Sunday at Lane Group Stadium to guarantee themselves a finals position in 2023.

The last time the two teams met was back in Round 6 and on that occasion it was East Fremantle beating Peel 7.11 (53) to 3.0 (18) at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium as well.

On that day, Ashlee Atkins and Anjelique Raison kicked two goals each for East Fremantle while Ashleigh Gomes had 28 possessions, Sharon Wong 23, Larissa Versaci 21 and Samara Pluschke 20.

Peel's goals came from Bridey Jackman, Sophie Johansen and Ebonee Hardie with Ebony Dowson racking up 25 touches, Kayla Bradshaw 19 and Krystal Carter 18 to go with seven tackles.

Before that, given Peel and East Fremantle combined to win the first three WAFLW premierships, there's a fascinating recent history between the two teams in the competition.

The most recent match up last year with both teams on the way to the finals came in Round 12 at East Fremantle Oval with the Sharks beating the Thunder by 15 points.

Prior to that, East Fremantle also defeated Peel by 34 points in Round 8 in Mandurah while the Sharks also won by 13 points in a high-scoring affair at Lane Group Stadium in Round 4.

Peel's last win over East Fremantle came back in Round 10, 2021 to the tune of 29 points also in Mandurah.

 

SWAN DISTRICTS v SOUTH FREMANTLE – SUNDAY 2.00PM

Swan Districts and South Fremantle will gear up for their finals campaign this season by locking horns against one another on Sunday at Steel Blue Oval.

It's a match up between two teams guaranteed of being part of finals action that begins next week so it should be a terrific match up.

Swans have won those eight of the last nine games to be guaranteed of playing finals and they will be assured of third position with a win on Sunday against the Bulldogs.

As for South Fremantle, this is their fourth season in the competition and they can't be budged from second position and a finals double chance no matter the result on Sunday having so far won nine matches, lost three and drawn one in 2023.

The last time the two teams played was back in Round 4 of this year when South Fremantle scored a first ever win against Swan Districts. 

The Bulldogs won 12.8 (80) to 4.3 (27) at Fremantle Community Bank Oval but Swans are now playing much better football than back then in what was their fourth consecutive loss. Swans have only lost one game since then which was against Claremont.

In that Round 4 match up, Noa McNaughton kicked five goals for South Fremantle with Makaela Tuhakaraina, Zoe Huggett and Casey Byrne all adding two each. Charlie Wicksteed also gathered 17 disposals, Kahra Sprlyan 17 and Lauren Vecchio 17.

Carys D'Addario kicked two goals in that game for Swans while Jess Cox picked up 21 possessions, Emma Nanut 16, Jaime Henry 16 and Hope Ugle-Hayward 14 along with eight tackles.

Prior to that, throughout the first three seasons South Fremantle has been in the WAFLW competition, Swan Districts beat them on all six occasions outscoring them 44.31 (295) to 11.10 (76).

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.