Bags of goals a big hit in Round 2Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 8:49 AM - by Chris Pike

FEW things get footy fans more excited than key forwards kicking bags of goals and there was plenty of that in Round 2 of the WAFL season especially with career-best performances in wins for East Perth, South Fremantle and East Fremantle.

Even back in the opening round and returning Swan Districts key forward Leigh Kohlmann kicked a career-best six goals and while certainly not a marking target, Nathan Wilson also booted five for Peel Thunder.

That early season trend then continued in Round 2 with standout performances in wins for East Perth from Tom Medhat, for East Fremantle from Jono Marsh and then most surprisingly of all, for South Fremantle from one of the league's leading full backs, Noah Strom.

South Fremantle has been crying out for a spearhead with gun goalkickers from recent years Mason Shaw, Jimmy Miller, Blake Schlensog and Ben Saunders all a thing of the past.

Kicking goals was a problem for a lot of the last two seasons and in Round 1 against East Perth the Bulldogs managed just six goals, but it was far from a concern in Saturday's 88-point win against West Coast.

South Fremantle kicked 22 goals for the day and nine of them came from Noah and Zac Strom. It's not as much a surprise for Zac.

While he did start his WAFL career as a full-back, he's more settled as a key forward for a lot of his 176-game career and his four goals on Saturday mean he's now kicked 99 goals.

However, for Noah his move forward is something new in 2024 having cemented himself as one of the premier full backs in the competition and being twice named to the WAFL Team of the Year in that role along with being a premiership player.

The Bulldogs need someone to be a target in attack, though, and he is giving it a go this year and delivered five goals in the win against the Eagles from 15 possessions and 10 marks.

Before Saturday, he had kicked just three goals in his previous 107 games, but staying forward could be his future particularly if Chad Pearson, Toby McQuilkin, Jordan Boullineau, Lachlan Turley and Lewis Rayson can hold down the defensive roles.

"It's nice for a bit of a change but obviously I've been a defender for the majority of my career so far," Strom said on SEN's The Run Home.

"It's a bit of a late sort of swing forward in my career and I was able to swing forward for the last few minutes of the last game last season for us. Had a bit of success that might have planted the idea in Todd's head and here we are.

"We have lost Mason a couple of years ago and Jimmy Miller after last year as well who was pretty good for us so it's nice to be down in the forward half with Zac now. He looks after me a fair bit and we get to pass the ball to each other so it was nice to get on the end of a few."

Another standout goalkicking performance in Round 2 came from East Perth's Medhat.

While he's always shown the potential starting his career at West Perth and then since crossing to East Perth for the start of the 2022 season, he produced the best performance of his 44-game WAFL career on Saturday.

While lightly framed, at 192cm, he provides a good target and grabbed his chances in the win against Swan Districts kicking six goals from eight kicks and five marks.

He had previously kicked five goals back in 2022 against Perth for the Royals, but what he delivered on Saturday shows why has been worth persevering and will be part of an impressive East Perth forward-line in 2024 alongside Mitch Schofield and Liam Tedesco with plenty others rotating through.

Medhat is especially enjoying being part of a forward-line that enjoys the service from the likes of Angus Schumacher, Mitch Crowden and Hamish Brayshaw, and adding to that versatility in attack.

"I think we do get away with not having too much of a big forward-line without that traditional key forward because of those sort of guys who are kicking the ball in, lacing it out and giving us the space we need to get a run and jump at it," Medhat said on 91.3 SportFM.

"It's a double-edged sword a little bit and Mitch Schofield and myself are very similar plays, and we play the game similarly and we can chop and change roles in that forward-line like nothing else.

"We've added Zac Hill into that as well who isn’t overly tall but he just competes and that's what we pretty much pride ourselves on in that forward-line, is just competing and making sure we get the ball to ground.

"We've got real talent on the ground too in our forward-line with the likes of Shayne Hille and San van Diemen, and Christian Ameduri as well now.

"But I think the speed that we move the footy up the ground and then around the ground, and our leading patterns going into the forward-line has really opened the forward-line for us and given us room to move, which is exactly what we move."

The other big haul from Round 2 came from East Fremantle's Marsh who has been a barometer and imposing force for a while now for the Sharks.

With his imposing physicality, powerful right boot and then enthusiastic celebrations, he's quite the weapon for East Fremantle and put it all together with seven goals against Claremont from 17 touches and 12 marks.

It equalled the seven goals he also kicked against West Coast back in 2021 for him to now have 109 goals in his 79 games with the Sharks as he now looks to get another chance at a premiership after missing last year through injury.

After the thumping 90-point win for the Sharks against the Tigers, Marsh talked about how it was nice to kick seven goals, but the performance of the team was even more pleasing.

"I thought we played a four-quarter East Fremantle performance which was really pleasing," Marsh said after the game on 91.3 SportFM.

"We were disappointed and obviously in Round 1 you want to get away with a win, but we got some experienced guys back this week as well.

"I thought our forward-line pressure, which has been knocked a little bit especially last week, was really good and our mids got on top too after they might have lowered their colours a bit last week too."