Round 1 WAFL PreviewThursday, March 28, 2024 - 1:20 PM - by Chris Pike

THE hotly anticipated WAFL season gets underway with a bang on Thursday night under lights at Pentanet Stadium with West Perth hosting Claremont before a grand final rematch on Saturday just one of a host of fascinating match ups.

Easter weekend provides the setting for the 2024 WAFL season to get underway and the action begins with a grand final rematch from 2022 with West Perth hosting Claremont at Pentanet Stadium on Thursday night.

The other four matches take place across Saturday afternoon beginning with a grand final rematch from last year with Peel Thunder playing East Fremantle at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium.

South Fremantle then plays Perth while Swan Districts is at home to the West Coast Eagles and Perth takes on Subiaco to round out proceedings to open the season.

The Falcons play host to the Tigers at 7.10pm on Thursday night with the two teams continuing what has been a fascinating recent rivalry.

It will be a first game for West Perth under new coach Jason Salecic as the Falcons attempt to return to finals in 2024 after narrowly missing out in 2023 on the back of winning the 2022 premiership.

While there are plenty of new faces at West Perth, a core group remains including Dean Munns, Zac Guadagnin, Shane Nelson, Noah Pegoraro, Tyler Keitel, Keegan Knott, Luke Meadows and Aaron Black who will be out there for Round 1.

The Falcons will be hoping that next generation led by Ben Johnson, Griffith Julian, Corey Rundle, Sasha Kernutt, Kane Bevan and Koopah Todd continue to emerge while Connor West heads their list of inclusions as he returns after his time in the AFL at West Coast.

Claremont will be hoping 2024 will be the year of finally breaking through and the Tigers still have that strong core too of Alex Manuel, Bailey Rogers, Jye Bolton, Lachlan Martinis, Declan Hardisty, Oliver Eastland, Declan Mountford and Callan England.

Alec Waterman is also back at Claremont in 2024 while the Tigers will unveil West Love, Eric Benning, Josh Howard and Manguru Frederick as they look to get off to a winning start against the Falcons Thursday night.

Then first up on Saturday is what has now become the traditional Easter match up between Peel and East Fremantle in Mandurah, and this time it doubles as a grand final rematch.

Peel will be looking to start its season under new coach Adam Read in the best possible way by earning a measure of revenge on East Fremantle, but the Sharks enter the season as reigning premiers for the first time since 1999 and will want to start building momentum for their flag defence straight away.

Next up on Saturday will be South Fremantle hosting East Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

After seven straight years of playing finals, South Fremantle missed out in 2023 but will be looking to hit back hard in 2024 and a winning start against the Royals on home soil on the day they are paying tribute to Steve Marsh will be the order of the day.

However, East Perth were back in finals last year and after a summer of consolidation with the playing group, will be looking to make a winning start albeit without reigning Sandover Medal winner Hamish Brayshaw through concussion.

Swan Districts will also be hosting the West Coast Eagles at Steel Blue Oval at 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon.

Swans might have missed out on finals last year, but weren’t far from the mark in Andrew Pruyn's first season as coach and now with some exciting recruits led by Nik Rokahr and Jye Chalcraft, they will look to make a strong start to get up and running early.

West Coast has never beaten Swan Districts in the WAFL and having won just five of their last 54 matches, the Eagles have their work cut out but there would be no better way to show their rejuvenation than a strong showing on Saturday at Bassendean.

Last up on Saturday at 4.10pm at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park will be Perth taking on Subiaco.

The Demons showed signs of improvement last year under coach Peter German and will look to turn that into more wins in 2024 on the back of recruiting the likes of Charlie Constable, Sam Simpson, Blake Schlensog and Aaron Clarke.

Saturday against the Lions provides a real statement opportunity, but Subiaco won't be about to hand them anything on the back of their preliminary final finish of 2023 that they will look to build on in 2024.

WEST PERTH v CLAREMONT – PENTANET STADIUM, THURSDAY 7.10PM

PEEL THUNDER v EAST FREMANTLE – LANE GROUP STADIUM, SATURDAY 1.40PM

SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST PERTH – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM

SWAN DISTRICTS v WEST COAST EAGLES – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM

PERTH v SUBIACO – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SATURDAY 4.10PM