WAFL Round 11 WrapMonday, June 26, 2023 - 9:45 AM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT and East Perth are now the top two teams in the WAFL after thumping victories in Round 11 on the weekend while Swan Districts kept its season alive by spoiling the party of Aaron Black's 250th game with West Perth.

There might have been just the three games in Round 11 of the WAFL on the weekend but they were all fascinating affairs in their own right with the Tigers and Royals winning by a combined 201 points to occupy the top two positions while Swans had a stirring win over the Falcons.

The lone game on Saturday afternoon took place at Revo Fitness Stadium and Claremont became the latest team to win big over the West Coast Eagles to prevail 22.15 (147) to 8.8 (56) to return to top spot in the WAFL.

Then on Sunday, East Perth continued its stunning run of form to move up into second spot in the WAFL with a fifth consecutive win with a 23.8 (146) to 5.6 (36) hammering of Perth at Leederville Oval.

The round then wrapped up with Swan Districts starting strongly and being on top all afternoon against the struggling reigning premiers with the black-and-whites beating the Falcons 11.6 (72) to 8.9 (57) in Aaron Black's 250th game at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium.

East Fremantle, Peel Thunder, South Fremantle and Subiaco all had the Round 11 bye.

Meanwhile, there were two matches in Round 11 of the Reserves with both games taking place on Sunday with East Perth beating Perth 16.15 (111) to 7.2 (44) at Leederville Oval.

Nick Bonomelli responded well to being dropped with four goals for East Perth while Josh Harris and Zak Tetlow kicked two goals each. Adam Boules picked up 32 touches, Riley Saunders 27, Patrick Reilly 25, Campbell Abbott 22, Darcy Craven 21, Taylor North 20 and Sandon Page 20.

Harry Quartermaine kicked four goals for Perth and Jack Bodle two with Jye Clark finishing with 25 disposals, Zach Moody 20, Jack Poole 20 and the returning Trent Manzone 19.

The other match saw Swan Districts win a thriller 7.6 (48) to 6.11 (47) at Pentanet Stadium.

Jack Saunders finished with 23 possessions for Swans, Jacob Sideris 22, Tarir Bayok 21, Noah Hannan 20 and Ayden Cartwright 17.

Jack Demarte and Jye Skender kicked two goals each for the Falcons with Griffith Julian collecting 24 disposals, Callum Johnson 23, Luke Reilly 21 and Blake Wilhelm 20.

The Colts matches also took place on Sunday morning with Perth scoring the narrow 8.8 (56) to 8.5 (53) victory against East Perth.

Ali Al-Shuweli kicked three goals for the Demons with Noah Cachard gathering 23 touches, Kalib Dempster-Park 22, Brodie McLean 17 and Samuel Cameron 17.

Brody Delaney kicked two goals for the Royals with Mitch Miller picking up 29 disposals, Will Cassidy 24 and Jude Mazzucchelli 22.

West Perth then beat Swan Districts 8.9 (57) to 4.4 (28) with Codan Daddow kicking two goals for the Falcons while Callum Smith picked up 31 possessions, Matt Galjaardt 30, Trent Hiscock 26 and Bailey Long 22.

Chayse Martinson kicked two goals for Swan Districts to go with his 22 possessions and 17 tackles for the game. Max York also picked up 28 disposals, Tom Cathcart 22, Harrison Creighton 20, Cody Ryan 20 and Evan Smith 15 along with 21 hit outs.

 

WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 11

CLAREMONT 22.15 (147) defeated WEST COAST EAGLES 8.8 (56)

Claremont returned to the top of the WAFL thanks to a dominant 91-point victory against the West Coast Eagles at Revo Fitness Stadium.

The unfortunate reality is that the eventual 22.15 (147) to 8.8 (56) victory for Claremont was about what could have been expected coming into the contest featuring a team fighting for top spot, and one anchored to the bottom still winless.

Claremont went on to kick six goals to one in the first quarter, and then 13 to five in the second half on an afternoon where the Tigers had 37 scoring shots to 16, 66 inside-50 entries to 38 and racked up 131 more disposals.

It was a day where the small and mid-sized forwards of Claremont cashed in with Anthony Treacy kicking four goals, Talon Delacey four, Tyron Smallwood three, Alex Manuel two and Zac Mainwaring two. 

Midfielders Callan England and Ben Elliott kicked two goals too for the Tigers with England finishing with 28 possessions and Elliott 22.

Jye Bolton had a day out virtually doing as he pleased across half-back for the Tigers to finish with 42 possessions and eight marks while fellow attacking defender Teia Miles had it 35 times, 10 marks and six tackles.

Captain Declan Mountford finished with 32 touches, Joel Western 22, Jack Lewsey 19, Sam Alvarez 19 and ruckman Oliver Eastland 19 to go with 48 hit outs, six marks and five tackles.

Josh Burke kicked three goals for West Coast while Cooper Nitschke added two.

Zane Trew is surprisingly not in the West Coast AFL team but he fought hard for 31 possessions, eight inside 50s and five tackles.

Jackson Nelson finished with 30 touches, Ethan Hansen 21, Josh Browne 20, Andries Mercer 19 and Rhett Lloyd 18.

It took just over two minutes for Claremont to kick the first goal of the game and came the way of son of a great, Zac Mainwaring. A couple of minutes later and former Eagle Anthony Treacy was on the board and then so was Tyron Smallwood.

The three Tigers small forwards had all set the tone for the afternoon early and then Smallwood kicked his second and with four goals in nine minutes the signs were ominous.

West Coast did get a goal back through Cooper Nitschke, but Claremont then closed the opening term with two more goals from Alex Manuel and Talon Delacey to open up a 28-point gap.

The Eagles did well to remain competitive in the second term and it started with a goal to Josh Burke.

Even though Claremont threatened to blow things open with three goals in four minutes to Treacy, Max Mumme and Ben Elliott, West Coast had limited the damage and even got a goal back before half-time to Shannon Lucassen to cut the deficit to 38 points.

Mainwaring started the second half the way he started the first with a goal for the Tigers before Delacey and Joel Western also kicked truly to stretch the lead out to 57 points.

Things were then spiralling out of control when Claremont kicked another four goals in eight minutes late in the term to open up an 82-point lead, but West Coast did kick two late goals from Harry Barnett and Burke to cut the deficit to 70 points at the last change.

Claremont went on to kick another five goals to two in the last term and the win was enough for the Tigers to return to top spot in the WAFL, but the positive for the Eagles was avoiding another triple-figure defeat.

EAST PERTH 23.8 (146) defeated PERTH 5.6 (36)

The red hot form of East Perth continued on Sunday with the Royals turning on the after burners to hammer Perth by 110 points at Leederville Oval to improve to second position on the WAFL ladder.

East Perth came into the clash on the back of an impressive four-game winning streak and the Royals were on fire back home on Sunday especially after quarter-time.

East Perth outscored Perth 19 goals to three after the first quarter to end up winning 23.8 (146) to 5.6 (36) to make it five consecutive wins with the Royals improving to an 8-3 record to sit in second position. The Demons have now lost four straight at 2-9.

It's the biggest win for East Perth since beating East Fremantle by 114 points back in 2018. 

The combined ability of the East Perth midfield to win plenty of the ball and kick goals is becoming their greatest asset which was on show in spades again on Saturday with Mitch Crowden kicking three goals to go with 25 possessions.

Hamish Brayshaw also racked up 38 touches and kicked two goals while Angus Schumacher and Tom North got forward to kick goals as well.

Then there were the Royals forwards who stepped up with Michael Randall, Tom Medhat, Liam Tedesco and Zach Raykos all kicking two goals apiece.

Angus Scott also collected another 33 disposals for East Perth, Nick Robertson 27, Christian Ameduri 23, Stan Wright 22, Kye Willcocks 20 and Jacob Msando 19 to go with 11 marks.

Perth didn’t have a multiple goal scorer in the game while Charlie Thompson collected 23 possessions, Regan Clarke 21, Sam Stubbs 18, Matthew Taylor 17, Jack Avery 17, Jack Cooley 17 and Ajang Ajang 14 in the ruck along with 42 hit outs.

The Royals came into the game with plenty of momentum and did kick the first goal thanks to Stan Wright, but it was the Demons who got the better of the opening 10 minutes after goals to Austin Davis and captain Michael Sinclair.

That gave Perth hope of causing the upset but East Perth responded with the last three goals of the opening term from Liam Tedesco, Mitch Crowden and Shayne Hille to be on top by 11 points.

The Royals then made it four consecutive goals when Michael Randall kicked truly to open the second term but the Demon did manage to get one back from Jack Evans.

However, the Royals were able to blow the game open with five more goals leading into half-time including from midfielders Angus Schumacher, Mitch Crowden, Tom North and Hamish Brayshaw to be on top by 40 points at the long break.

Schumacher and North added second goals of the day to open the second half as part of East Perth kicking four goals inside the first 13 minutes.

Usual defender Corey Watts then got forward to kick a rare goal as well soon after before Sam van Diemen added another to stretch the lead to 77 points.

A goal to Mitch Schofield midway through the last term pushed the East Perth lead out beyond triple-figures before goals to Tedesco and Crowden got it out to 117 points before it settled at 110 with a late Perth goal from Sam Stubbs.

WEST PERTH 8.9 (57) lost to SWAN DISTRICTS 11.6 (72)

Swan Districts spoiled the celebrations of West Perth captain Aaron Black and kept their own finals hopes alive with an impressive 15-point win at Joondalup on Sunday.

The Falcons came into the game attempting to bounce back from a 55-point defeat to Subiaco and to get a win to return to the top five and celebrate the 250-game milestone of dual premiership winning, Sandover Medal winning co-captain Aaron Black in the process.

However, Swans weren’t interested in sentiment and knew the value of a win themselves to stay in the finals hunt and they put together their best performance of the season as a result at Pentanet Stadium.

Swan Districts were in control of the contest virtually all afternoon on the way to the eventual 11.6 (72) to 8.9 (57) victory over West Perth.

The win improves Swans to a 4-7 record on the season to remain in the finals hunt ahead of the bye this coming weekend. The Falcons slip to 5-6 to also remain outside a finals position.

In the absence of Chris Jones as his fellow tall target, Brayden Noble stood up strongly in attack in the win for Swan Districts kicking three goals from his 15 possessions and 15 marks for the afternoon.

Tom Edwards also kicked two goals from 17 touches and 10 marks while Nathan Blakely chipped in with two important goals from the ruck on a day where he also had 23 possessions, 17 hit outs and six tackles.

Aidan Clarke was tremendous all afternoon in the middle for Swan Districts finishing with 30 possessions, eight tackles, six marks and a good long goal.

Jarvis Pina gave tremendous run and drive off half-back with 30 disposals and 12 marks with Josh Cipro racking up 28 touches, Jesse Turner 21, debutant Brad Lynch 20 and Tobe Watson 18.

West Perth's only multiple goalkicker on the day was milestone man Aaron Black in his 250th game. He finished with the two goals to go with 20 possessions and eight marks.

Shane Nelson fought valiantly in the middle for the Falcons to try and lift his team in his great mate's milestone game with 33 possessions with Nathan Murray finishing with 27 touches, Zac Guadagnin 21 and Michael Mallard 39 hit outs in the ruck.

It might have been a big day of celebration for West Perth with the 250th game of premiership captain Aaron Black, but Swan Districts arrived on a mission and made a dominant start with the breeze working in their favour.

Brayden Noble kicked the game's first goal after just over a minute before Aidan Clarke soon added another when he nailed a beauty from well outside 50.

West Perth did get one back from Conal Lynch who celebrated like he kicked the match winner but Swans responded with goals to Nathan Blakely and Max Chipper before quarter-time to be in control by 21 points.

Despite going against the breeze in the second quarter, Swans started well with a goal to Tom Edwards to stretch that lead out to 27 points and West Perth needed to respond to avoid things slipping further out of hand.

Mitch Peirce did get one goal back for the Falcons but they then only managed a strong of behinds before Cian Ehlers kicked the first goal of his league career for Swans to keep the lead at 23 points.

West Perth did close the half with a couple of goals from Nathan Alexandre and Tyler Keitel, though, to cut the Swan Districts advantage to nine points at the main break.

It was goal for goal for most of the third quarter with Swan Districts getting out to a 16-point lead on three occasions including with a late goal from Noble, but West Perth responded each time including just before the siren from milestone man Black.

That set up a thrilling finish especially with the Falcons having the advantage of going to the scoring end, but it didn’t prove much help. Swans locked away the win with a third goal to Noble and another to Blakely to end up securing the impressive and important 15-point victory.