Slow starts will not cut it in finals, says Claremont coachThursday, August 28, 2025 - 5:41 PM - by Jordan McArdle

Claremont coach Ash Prescott is desperate to stop the worrying trend of slow starts by his team in the Qualifying Final clash against East Perth at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday.

The Tigers have become the comeback kings in recent weeks, winning from 50 points down at quarter-time against Perth in Round 19 and 26 points down at half-time against the Royals in Round 20.

But, speaking at this week’s WAFL finals launch at Optus Stadium, Prescott knows a four-quarter performance is needed to win finals.

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“We’ve been unable to string together four quarters of football of late,” Prescott said.

“So we’ve got to stay in the moment, and we’ve got to make sure we identify that and fix it up.

“Because we’re certainly acutely aware that in a finals game, you can’t be doing that.

“It does give us belief, but also gives us a great understanding that we need to make sure we’re on from the first bounce to the last bounce.

“In saying that we do feel we can go harder and longer as any team in the competition and get the job done when it’s really required.”

The Tigers and Royals face off two weeks in a row at the same venue, giving Prescott a close look at his team’s first finals opponents.

“We learnt that they’re a very good team,” Prescott said.

“They’re an extremely talented team and really well drilled.

“Look, they were able to work the ball through us way too easily, and we pride ourselves on being a hard-to-play-against team.

“So we’ve got to make sure we tidy up our contested possession and we’re harder to play against.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us this week, but we certainly do believe that at our best we can challenge most teams.”

In-form small forward Zac Mainwaring felt Claremont was in a good position for a finals assault, with plenty of experience in the line-up, headlined by Sandover Medal trio Jye Bolton, Bailey Rogers and Callan England.

“I think they’re going to be huge for us, like those boys that have gone through those big finals, they understand how important it is to keep a level head,” Mainwaring said.

“There’s some boys like myself that haven’t really had a senior final or grand final, so to have them around the club, just have their level heads being able to speak to them.

“They’re huge for the club and so grateful to have them around.”

The winner of Saturday’s clash takes on minor premiers South Fremantle the following Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval for a spot in the grand final at Optus Stadium on September 21.

The loser gets a second chance against the winner of Sunday’s Elimination Final between East Fremantle and Perth at The Good Grocer Park the following Sunday.