Elusive finals win over Peel the target for Kitchin's LionsFriday, September 1, 2023 - 10:22 AM - by Chris Pike

THERE is precious little Subiaco captain Leigh Kitchin hasn’t accomplished in his WAFL career but beating Peel Thunder in a final is one of them, and he hopes that changes in their qualifying final match up on Saturday.

Kitchin has enjoyed a remarkable run of success that he has been central to since arriving at Subiaco in 2015.

Cementing himself as one of the best and most consistent on-ballers in the competition and now having taken over from Kyal Horsley as captain to become a premiership skipper in his own right, and Kitchin has enjoyed a brilliant career with the Lions.

Not only has he played in the four premierships with Subiaco, but he is a life member of the Lions having now played 162 matches, he is a dual fairest and best winner, and not only has he played for the WAFL State Team seven times but has also been captain and won the 2022 Simpson Medal.

All of that adds up to him being universally respected across the WAFL competition and while he's played in 10 finals victories for Subiaco including the four Grand Finals, a win against Peel has so far eluded him.

Kitchin will be hoping that changes this Saturday afternoon with Subiaco playing host to Peel at Leederville Oval in the qualifying final with a place in the second semi-final next weekend against East Fremantle up for grabs.

Coming into another final series

Kitchin is no stranger to preparing for a finals series having already played 13 finals matches over his 162-game career with Subiaco since 2015, and the only three finals defeats he's played in have come against this Saturday's opponents, Peel.

Kitchin has played in the 10 other finals victories for Subiaco including the Grand Final triumphs in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021 with last year and the COVID shortened season of 2020 the only two times he hasn’t been part of a finals series since arriving in 2015.

That leaves the 33-year-old looking forward to getting the finals campaign started once more this Saturday against Peel who he is trying to enjoy a finals win against for the first time to move into the second semi-final against East Fremantle.

"I'm feeling super excited," Kitchin told 91.3 SportFM.

"Last year was disappointing to not be a part of it and have to sit back and watch when the sun is out and the grounds are all looking brilliant. 

"It's the important part of the year when the footy goes up another level as well so it's great to be involved again this time around."

Subiaco had the chance to claim another minor premiership with a significant enough win over East Fremantle last Saturday. 

The Lions did lead throughout the first half and scores were still level at three quarter-time, but the signs had been there that the Sharks were dominating the contest and just not putting it on the scoreboard. 

That changed in the last quarter with East Fremantle ending up winning by 50 points to secure top spot and to leave the Lions in second. For Kitchin, there was some tough lessons to be learned by Subiaco but he'd prefer to be dealing with it now rather than deeper into the finals.

"We're definitely disappointed with how we finished the game off and probably with the effort we brought in that last quarter," he said. 

"There were few things earlier in the game as well where we weren’t polished in the way that we were moving the ball, and we were disjointed from what our game plan normally is. That was definitely disappointing and you're only as good as your last outing, and ours wasn’t a good one. 

"But it's really a collection of the 20 weeks beforehand and we've ended up putting ourselves in a reasonable position to have a crack at it so we'll move on pretty quickly. It's good to address those things the week before finals rather than the week of finals so we'll be ready to go."

Personal season in 2023

Since arriving at Subiaco in 2015, Kitchin has been a remarkably durable player scarcely missing any games at all along the way to rack up 151 matches in eight years coming into 2023.

However, this season hasn’t quite gone to plan for the Subiaco captain managing just the 11 games including missing six in-a-row early on after a hamstring injury, but he feels he's on top of those problems now coming into the finals.

His desire to return as quickly as possible and get back out there to help his team might have been a tough lesson he's learned this year, but he's now looking forward to being a strong contributor this finals series in the Subiaco midfield.

"I'm feeling good. It's certainly been a bit of a different season for me and challenging with the continuity on the field, and having to deal with a few injuries," Kitchin said.

"I guess I was pretty blessed and had a great run for a while so I probably learned to be a little bit more conservative now which wasn’t easy to swallow. But I'm feeling good now going into the next month and touchwood, it all goes well."

Dominant season from Zac Clarke

One big change for Subiaco this season has been the return of premiership winning ruckman, and 110-game AFL big man Zac Clarke.

While Lachlan Delahunty could well have been the best player in the WAFL while he was playing in the ruck in premiership teams for Subiaco, he was an undersized ruckman and did his best work around the ground.

What Clarke has provided Subiaco is a dominant presence in the ruck contests and then someone who provides a good aerial threat around the ground, and despite his size he is more than capable of contributing in setting up play for the Lions too.

His impact is highlighted by the fact he was named to the WAFL Team of the Week 11 times in 18 games this season, and Kitchin is hoping they can continue to benefit from the advantages he gives the Lions.

"He's a great weapon to have and that's a luxury that we haven’t really had in the past," he said.

"It's about getting that balance right of utilising Zac's advantage when we have it but also we've been in a position where we've been roving to a non-dominant ruckman in the ruck for seven or eight years. 

"It's about switching that mindset and making sure that if we don't win it, the ball's not getting out easy and you can see what happens when it does in the last quarter last week."

Potential of premiership defender returning

Subiaco's back-line has already been one of its great strengths this season but looks set to get a significant boost for the finals with the return of four-time premiership winning 122-game defender Jordan Lockyer.

He is on the comeback trail from a knee reconstruction required after rupturing his ACL in Round 6 last year, and will be a significant boost for the Lions should be make the final 22 for Saturday's qualifying final against Peel.

"He's a pretty good chance to come in and Locks had a disappointing injury last year, and has been diligently working his way back from that," Kitchin said.

"He's very precise and calculated in his approach and he's had a couple of setbacks this season unrelated to the knee, but he's played three games in the reserves now. He's had a bit of continuity of football now and he's huge to be able to add back into the side. 

"He makes everybody on the ground and in particular in the back half better, and he connects that team in everything that we do. He's huge for us and is a great one-on-one defender as well so he'll be a massive in for us.

"He's a real spirit lifter around the club as well so to have him in at this time of year, it's exciting just to have him back and playing footy after the amount of work he's had to put in over 18 months. It will be great to see him out there competing and doing what he loves to do."

Likely needing to replace Taj Schofield

Subiaco will have to make at least one more change for Saturday's qualifying final with the injury suffered by young gun Taj Schofield in the opening minutes of last week's clash with East Fremantle.

He had been in some blistering form leading into that too including being named to the WAFL Team of the Week for his performances in five of the previous seven matches as a high half-forward who was hitting the scoreboard and having stints in the midfield.

However, with Ben Golding set to return after missing last week against East Fremantle and then 103-game triple premiership winner Max Walters in the mix along with young gun Koltyn Tholstrup, and the Lions aren’t short on options on who to fill that void left by Schofield.

"We've got a few to potentially come back into the side this week so we have some options to replace him," he said.

"Koltyn Tholstrup has played through that half-forward position as well and can go into the midfield. Max Walters is pretty mercurial when he's up there and is a tough match up, and goes through the midfield regularly, and Ben Golding has been one of our best players probably for the second half of the year. 

"He missed on the weekend but is coming back to that similar position at half-forward and through the midfield. There's plenty of guys putting their hands up to step into roles."

Another finals battle with the Thunder

Subiaco and Peel are no strangers to battling one another in WAFL finals, and Kitchin has been there for all three previous battles – the Grand Finals of 2016 and 2017, and the second semi-final for 2017.

Unfortunately for Kitchin and the Lions, the Thunder have prevailed in all three of those battles so the Subiaco skipper is looking to turn that around on Saturday at Leederville Oval to set up another crack at East Fremantle in the second semi-final next weekend.

"We've had some great battles and even though we haven’t met in September the last three or four years, but before that we were very familiar with each other's teams and how we played," Kitchin said.

"This year has seen one go either way too and we've had a win, and they've had a win with both pretty close games. 

"They're very even across the field and don’t really have any deficiencies, and are playing well together with three really important players at least back this week. They'll be a tough match up and we can't wait to take them on."