WAFL shaping up for exciting 2014 seasonThursday, February 13, 2014 - 4:01 PM - by Chris Pike

WITH South Fremantle, Subiaco and Peel Thunder expected to be among the big improvers in the WAFL in 2014, an exciting season awaits and WAFL Manager Cameron Knapton has no doubts that the league is looking strong ahead of the new campaign.

Much of the focus about the WAFL coming into the 2014 season has been on the alignments of East Perth and Peel with West Coast and Fremantle respectively.

However, Eagles players are unlikely to make the Royals any stronger than they already were in 2013, making the grand final before losing to West Perth, while nobody can begrudge any improvement the Thunder might make with some assistance from Dockers players at their disposal.

"The competition is shaping up really, really well. The standard of footy over the past two or three seasons has been outstanding so for anyone who wants to watch good games of footy, the WAFL is producing that," Knapton said.

"I think the competition will benefit from Peel being a strong force. That is a vibrant footy community in the Mandurah and Peel district, so it will be great to see them winning and getting more people through the gates."

As well as the expected improvement from Peel in 2014, Knapton sees South Fremantle and Subiaco as two of the other teams to be a real chance to push up from near the bottom of the ladder to being finals contenders once again.

Subiaco has recruited well in Jarrad Schofield's second year in charge as coach adding Shaun Hildebrandt, Wayde Twomey, Kyal Horsley, Lachlan Delahunty, Frank Stockley and Matt Boland.

South Fremantle has also added to its emerging playing list with James Sellar, Ashton Hams, Haiden Schloithe and Steven Verrier all signing on straight off AFL lists.

Josh Pullman, Stephen Mills and Brock Higgins are also on board with the Bulldogs in 2014.

"Subiaco looks to have also recruited really well in the off-season so they will be pushing up and we will just have to monitor what happens with the two partner clubs," he said.

"South Fremantle is going to be on the up. They have recruited pretty well in the off-season and their colts have played in the last three grand finals, and their reserves won last year's premiership after getting beaten by 150 points a game at the end of 2012. They are also promoting their young players and they have a good, talented list so they will be on the up."

Knapton is also confident that Swan Districts can still be a competitive unit in 2014 despite some financial troubles and the loss of key players like Tom Roach, Twomey, Hildebrandt, Kyle Hams, Brett Robinson, Dayle Garlett, Rory Lobb, Charlie Cameron and Jamie Bennell.

"From a competition point of view, they have lost some senior players this year but one of the great things that Greg Harding and Phil Smart have been able to do over the last few years is produce talented young players. I know that's where their focus is," Knapton said.

"It's great to see that Greg has extended his contract and I'm sure they will continue to be competitive. In terms of their finances, I know Tom (Bottrell, chief executive) and their board are working closely with the Footy Commission about all of that and I think some of the players they have transferred out this year will help offset some of those problems off-field.

"I'm sure the commission will make sure that Swans get back on track because they are an integral part of our competition. They have a great support base and we want them playing good footy, and winning games."