Jupp and Sharks with eyes firmly on the prizeThursday, September 7, 2023 - 7:51 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Fremantle captain Matthew Jupp is confident his team won't let any distractions interrupt his team's quest to win a first premiership since 1998 with the chance to book in a Grand Final spot on Saturday afternoon.

The Sharks earned the week off to start the WAFL finals series by claiming a first minor premiership since 1998 by finishing the 2023 home and away season two games and percentage clear on top of the ladder.

East Fremantle is now about to start a second straight finals campaign after bowing out in last year's preliminary final by taking on Peel Thunder in this Saturday's second semi-final at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Jupp will be a cornerstone for everything the Sharks do both defensively and with the leadership he will provide with a spot in the Grand Final up for grabs while the loser will receive a second chance in the preliminary final next week.

Embracing being part of finals again

While when Jupp made his WAFL debut with East Fremantle in 2013 the Sharks had played in a Grand Final the previous season and would make the preliminary final again in 2014, the pickings were remarkably slim after that up until last year.

Between 2015 and 2021, Jupp only played in 26 wins over the course of 113 games with East Fremantle not playing finals in that time and not even scoring a single victory over arch-rivals South Fremantle.

However, Jupp remained committed to the Sharks, turned himself firstly into one of the league's leading defenders and now a standout captain too, and was proud to lead his team back to finals last year.

While it didn’t quite go to plan with a preliminary final loss at home to Claremont, it gave them plenty to build on in 2023 which they have translated into a first minor premiership since 1998.

Now that the Sharks are again one win away from a first Grand Final appearance since 2012, he wants his team to embrace the whole experience ahead of them.

"I'm just really excited to embrace the opportunity to play finals," Jupp told 91.3 SportFM.

"It's been a long sort of time in the wilderness for a lot of East Fremantle players and supporters, and just in the last few years we're finally starting to get the opportunity to show our wares on the big stage.

"The word that's been bandied around by the playing group is just to embrace what's coming, every little piece of it. We learned a few finals lessons going back to last year. We learnt to keep the lid on what to expect and we learned some valuable lessons and are ready to bring those into practice this week."

Jupp also isn’t shying away from imagining what it would be like to become East Fremantle's first premiership captain since Stephen Bilcich in 1998, but he also knows Peel on Saturday in the second semi-final will provide a significant obstacle.

"We don’t hide the fact that our ambitions is a premiership. We've been embracing that for a long time and we had ambitions to finish top of the ladder, and we ticked that box," Jupp said.

"Now we move forward and we want to get there on the final day, and the current hurdle for us is Peel on Saturday. We're going to come out of the blocks firing, we're pretty pumped and it's a great time of the year to be playing footy. I'm really excited and the whole playing group as well."

Handling the week off to start finals

East Fremantle tried to treat the week off to start the finals last weekend like they did with the byes during the home and away season which saw them come out to beat West Coast by 184 points in Round 12 and then break the derby drought with South Fremantle in Round 16.

So whatever the Sharks had done during the byes was working well so Jupp and his teammates tried to keep things similar while also cheering on their reserves to a first semi-final win on Sunday to mean all three East Fremantle teams will be playing this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

"We took some learnings from the bye rounds that we've had during the year and what's worked for us is that we put in a really gruelling session on the Friday afternoon," he said.

"We would have got close 10kms into our legs and then we got the weekend off as a playing group. Keeping everything in perspective, you keep yourself fresh and healthy while you do keep moving but nothing too strenuous. 

"Our reserves played on Sunday so we got down to support them and it was a great result to keep themselves in the finals hunt. Having all three grades now playing this Saturday together is really exciting for our footy club."

Dealing with what's happened off-field

East Fremantle might have had the week off to open the finals series having claimed the minor premiership, unfortunately for the Sharks it wasn’t the quiet week they hoped when news of an investigation into their total player payments from the 2022 season was revealed.

Jupp is confident the Sharks did nothing wrong and has no doubt it won't impact the playing group or coaching staff because ultimately, it has nothing to do with them.

"It was a rough week especially when the players and coaches found out about it in the news on Saturday," Jupp said.

"It was a bolt out of the blue and something we didn’t expect, but in a sense as much as it was an untimely thing to come out, it gave us a good few days to sort of settle the troops. We addressed it as a club and the president and a couple of board members addressed the playing group. 

"We aired it out and at the end of the day, there's not a whole lot the players can do. It's an administration issue and completely out of the control of the playing group and coaching staff, and once we addressed it we gave ourselves the ability to move on.

"I'm extremely impressed with the way my playing group and the coaches have handled it, the boys have dealt with it and we're ready to play Peel. At the end of the day, we move on and are really excited for what's to come. 

"We've got Peel at our old/new home ground of Freo Oval and we're extremely excited for what we can achieve this finals series."

Getting ready to take on Thunder

By finishing as the minor premiers East Fremantle earned the week off in the first week of the finals which allowed Jupp and his teammates the opportunity to watch Peel and Subiaco battle it out last Saturday to find out their second semi-final opponent.

While for the first half with Subiaco leading by 28 points at half-time Jupp might have half been preparing for the Lions, he wasn’t surprised to see Peel take over the game in the second half to book in the spot against his Sharks in the second semi-final.

"I was watching the game early and obviously Subi were on top and up in contested ball, and they were up on the tackle count and looked like they had the better of Peel," Jupp said.

"But to Peel's credit, Blair Bell and a couple of their senior figures got to work, got down and dirty in the midfield, and they used the ball better. They went forward and were able to put the score on the board quickly and I thought they were the better team on the day in the end. 

"They got the win and we've had a good look at them, and it's funny, this competition has been really exciting this year. Each team presents a really different challenge and it's been a great competition to be a part of. 

"Peel pose a different threat opposed to Subi in terms of their strengths and differences, and every single team that you're going to play whether it's Subi, Claremont or even East Perth, they all have different styles of play. 

"We've played Peel a couple of times this year and we're 1-1 so it makes for a really good battle. They are going to be tough to beat and we're just going to have to roll up in the contest, and get to work."

Fascinating battle ahead with Peel

Saturday's second semi-final will be the first time that East Fremantle and Peel have ever met in the finals, and also the first time the two sides have faced off at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Sharks and Thunder have also split their two matches with one another over each of the past three WAFL seasons so for a whole host of reasons Jupp knows it's going to be a tightly contested battle on Saturday with a Grand Final spot on the line.

"I think they had a fairly similar team when we played them in Geraldton last time so their team hasn’t changed much since that day so we do have a bit of history there we can draw on," Jupp said.

"We pretty much know what their line-up is going to be and we know who's qualified on a Freo front, but I must say, do not underrate Peel's WAFL players. 

"They are of high quality and are as good as any in the competition, and we won't be underrating guys like Hancock, Bell, Sears, and Blight who's had a really fantastic year. They're a quality outfit and really well balanced, and we're going to have to be at our best to beat them."