Round 2 WAFL PreviewFriday, April 5, 2024 - 11:59 AM - by Chris Pike

WEST Perth and Perth were two of the big winners from the opening to the WAFL season and now the Demons will look to break another hoodoo up against the Falcons as part of Round 2 on Saturday.

Four of the five Round 2 WAFL matches take place across Saturday beginning at 11.10am with the West Coast Eagles playing host to South Fremantle at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

Both teams are coming off opening round losses and the Eagles haven’t won in the WAFL in their last 27 appearances, but the last win did come also at Mineral Resources Park and also against South Fremantle back in Round 10, 2022.

West Coast will be looking to repeat that again this Saturday while South Fremantle will be attempting to bounce back from last week's loss to East Perth and get its 2024 season up and running.

Next up is two matches at 2.30pm and Claremont plays its first game at home for the season up against another Round 1 loser, East Fremantle, at Revo Fitness Stadium.

Both teams were finalists again last year and played one another in the preliminary final of 2022 so a 0-2 start would be hardly ideal for either side that had every reason to come into 2024 expecting to be one of the leading teams.

Claremont lost a heart stopper last Thursday night to West Perth while East Fremantle's premiership defence started with a loss to Peel Thunder in Mandurah on Saturday with the Sharks missing a host of those flag winning stars.

At the same time on Saturday afternoon, two Round 1 winners then looking to improve to 2-0 with East Perth at home to Swan Districts at Leederville's Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

The Royals were dominant last Saturday beating South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval winning by 39 points to back up a return to finals action in 2023.

East Perth will also regain Sandover Medallist Hamish Brayshaw to the midfield to take on Swan Districts, but the black-and-whites are fresh off beating West Coast by 64 points with Leigh Kohlmann kicking six goals, and new recruits Nik Rokahr and Jye Chalcraft combining for 67 touches through the middle.

The last game on Saturday is a twilight fixture at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium pitting West Perth up against Perth from 4pm.

Both teams had wins in Round 1 with West Perth snatching it late at home to Claremont on Thursday night before Perth broke a 14-game losing streak against Subiaco with a stirring win on Saturday in tribute to Dakota Baldwin-Wright.

That sets the stage now for a fascinating Saturday afternoon match up with West Perth coming into it having won five in-a-row against Perth, but going back further 24 of the past 25.

The Falcons had won 19 straight against the Demons before Perth broke through against them in Round 8, 2021 but that's the lone win for Perth against West Perth since 2011.

West Perth premiership winning goal sneak Keegan Knott was the hero kicking the winning goal with a left foot snap in the dying stages against Claremont last week.

He will be hoping to help the Falcons keep that momentum going on Saturday, but he knows it will be anything but easy against the improving Demons.

"It was special and obviously in Round 1 there's a lot of intensity and expectation building up towards the season so I guess I was just in the right place at the right time to cap off a remarkable win that I'll probably remember forever I think," Knott told 91.3 SportFM.

"We're under no illusions this week and it's all in the past what has happened against Perth, and that doesn’t mean anything for Saturday. They looked good in Round 1 and they play a high-pace game and with a lot of passion and love for their club.

"Obviously with what they went through with losing Dakota, they are playing with such flair and dash, and you can see that they are going upwards so Saturday's going to be a fantastic game and we'll have to be at our very, very best."

The last game of the round then takes place on Sunday afternoon and it's a rematch of both last year's qualifying and preliminary finals with Subiaco at home to Peel Thunder at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

Peel won both those finals match ups last year on the way to making the grand final setting up another tremendous match up this Sunday afternoon.

Subiaco lost first up last Saturday to Perth so will be looking to avoid a 0-2 start while the Thunder were impressive in a grand final rematch at home beating East Fremantle by 19 points.

WEST COAST EAGLES v SOUTH FREMANTLE – MINERAL RESOURCES PARK, SATURDAY 11.10AM

CLAREMONT v EAST FREMANTLE – REVO FITNESS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.30PM

EAST PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS – SULLIVAN LOGISTICS STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.30PM

WEST PERTH v PERTH – PENTANET STADIUM, SATURDAY 4.00PM

SUBIACO v PEEL THUNDER – SULLIVAN LOGISTICS STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.10PM