Round 2 WAFL Wrap UpWednesday, April 2, 2014 - 12:07 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth and Subiaco both remained unbeaten and West Perth and South Fremantle winless after Round 2 of the 2014 WAFL season over the weekend.

The round began at Fremantle Oval on Friday night with Perth coming from 44 points behind to beat South Fremantle 19.9 (123) to 18.10 (118).

Meanwhile on Saturday, Claremont beat West Perth 10.10 (70) to 8.10 (58) at Arena Joondalup, East Perth downed Swan Districts 16.13 (109) to 14.7 (91) at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and Subiaco defeated East Fremantle 16.12 (108) to 6.16 (52) in Geraldton.

Peel Thunder had the bye.

Click here for the summary of Round 2 of the WAFL

THE BIG WINNERS

Perth has now recorded two terrific victories to open the WAFL season with the Demons desperate for a first finals appearance since 1997.

Perth hammered Claremont by 65 points in Round 1 at home to head to Fremantle Oval full of confidence on Friday night, but the Demons then fell 44 points down at the hands of an inspired South Fremantle outfit.

However, Perth showed that it has vastly improved its fighting qualities, self-belief and talent across the field in terms of both experience and youngsters.

The Demons whittled down their deficit to end up going from 44 points behind to lead South Fremantle by 17 points in the dying stages on Friday, and ending up to win by five points.

THE BIG LOSERS
South Fremantle had it all to play for when hosting Perth at Fremantle Oval on Friday night.

Coming off a Round 1 loss after starting last year with seven straight losses, the Bulldogs desperately wanted to get an early win on the board in 2014, and also had the added motivation of three-time fairest and best winner and premiership player Kris Miller playing his 300th WAFL match.

He became just the sixth player in history to reach the mark and his teammates responded in incredible fashion in the first quarter and-a-half racing out to a 44-point lead.

However, when Perth settled and got a run on in the second half, South Fremantle's defensive nature right across the field fell right away and the Demons were able to do as they pleased.

South Fremantle couldn’t stem the tide and was overrun in the end to lose by five points in a shattering result given all that was at stake on the night.

THE SHINING LIGHTS
The Morton brothers were all outstanding in Perth's come-from-behind win on Friday as Jarryd, Mitch and Cale played together for the first time.

Sydney premiership player Mitch spent most of the game on the ball ending up with 18 possessions and two goals.

Cale added 18 touches and two goals as well as six inside-50 entries while across half-back, Jarryd finished with 18 possessions.

Young small forward Callum Collard booted five goals for the Demons as well while Brennan Stack kicked three goals.

Dene White was outstanding in the midfield with24 possessions, six tackles and two goals with Gerald Ugle collecting 23 disposals, Kieran Hug 21, Reese Richardson 20, Cameron Manuel 20 and Michael Florio 20.

The ruck battle between Mitchell Lleyendekkers and James Sellar was also fascinating with the Demon finishing with 11 touches, seven tackles, 41 hit outs and a goal and the Bulldog 13 possessions and 32 hit outs.

Jacob Martinez kicked his three goals early for the Bulldogs and finished the night with 19 possessions and fellow young Indigenous star Marlon Pickett was simply brilliant with 26 possessions, six hit outs, five tackles and three goals.

Adam Guglielmana and Ben Saunders both kicked two goals apiece for South Fremantle.

Ryan Cook also finished with 25 possessions while Brendan Verrier had 21 touches, Tim Kelly 24 and Shaun Bewick 18.

Nick Borovac was outstanding in defence especially in the first half shutting down Perth captain Paul Bevan forcing him to be moved into defence in the second half.

Claremont bounced back from its horror Round 1 loss to beat West Perth by 12 points on Saturday with Luke Blackwell and Jake Murphy outstanding in the midfield. Blackwell finished with 32 possessions and 13 clearances, and Murphy 31 touches and 12 clearances.

Tom Ledger was outstanding for the Tigers off half-back with 30 touches while Ryan Neates racked up 23 disposals, Matt Orzel 22 and Andrew Foster 19 to go with his team-high three goals.

Mathew Aitchison made his Claremont debut and was terrific keeping Matt Guadagnin in check while a host of Tigers youngsters showed good signs.

Darcy Cameron finished with 11 touches, 49 hit outs, six clearances and a goal with Brenden Abbott's attack on the ball fierce while also kicking a terrific running goal in the third quarter.

West Perth's two young and emerging midfielders both had outstanding performances in the loss with Shane Nelson finishing the day with 38 points, 11 clearances and a goal, and Aaron Black 34 disposals, four tackles and a massive 16 clearances.

The esteem that Guadagnin is held in by the competition after 164 games was shown by Claremont sending Aitchison to run with him, but the premiership midfielder still worked hard and contributed 16 touches, four tackles and six clearances.

Rohan Kerr also finished the game with 27 touches for the Falcons with Ray Bartholomew collecting 24 off the wing to go with eight tackles, three tackles and three clearances.

The Falcons' back-line also ensured that Claremont forward-line didn’t get off the leash even in the absence of Dan Hunt and with both Matthew Spencer and Shaun Marusic in the reserves.

Steven Browne also ended up with 27 possessions, Laine Rasmussen 20, Luke Tedesco 20, Andrew Strijk 18, Trent Manzone 15 and Jordan Jones 14.

Up forward, Anthony Tsalikis was terrific with the club's five-time leading goalkicker booting four goals from 11 possessions and four marks.

Subiaco recorded its second straight win to start the season recording a 56-point win over the Sharks in Geraldton with Shane Yarran, Chris Deluca, Jarrod Kayler-Thomson and Rhys Waters all kicking two goals apiece.

It was 222-game veteran and dual premiership star Shaun Hildebrandt who was the standout player on the field, though, finishing with 31 possessions, eight marks, four inside-50 entries and two goals in just his second match back with Subiaco after two years at Swan Districts.

Bristow also gathered 24 possessions for the Lions with Wayde Twomey picking up 23 in his 100th WAFL match with 98 of those with Swan Districts before joining Subiaco this season.

Justin Joyce played his first league game for Subiaco since Round 12, 2012 and played well with 20 disposals  and a goal while Lachlan Delahunty (19 possessions, eight marks, 12 hit outs) and Frank Stockley 14 touches, 18 hit outs, one goal) did well sharing the ruck duties.

Deluca, George Hampson and Chris Phelan all gathered 18 disposals apiece for Subiaco as well.

It was a disappointing day in Geraldton for East Fremantle after a first-up win over West Perth to open the 2014 season.

The Sharks kicked a dismal 6.16 for the day with Boston Williamson their only multiple goal scorer with two.

Rory O'Brien picked up 31 possessions, Bradd Dalziell 24, Jamie McNamara 23 and Scott Hancock 20.

East Perth also made it two wins from two games this year, but it was a tough battle against Swan Districts at Medibank Stadium on Saturday.

Swans led by five points at quarter-time, 12 at half-time and three at three quarter-time, but the Royals kicked five goals to two in the final term to end up winning by 18 points.

Josh Smith and Fraser McInnes kicked three goals apiece for the Royals with Craig Wulff, Dom Sheed and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls all adding two apiece.

Steven Payne, Adam Carter and Sam Butler all had 24 possessions each for East Perth with Sheed collecting 23 disposals and six inside-50 entries to go with his two goals.

Returning defender Nathan Blee was outstanding with 23 touches and six marks as well.

Adam Faulkner led the way for Swan Districts making the most of his increased opportunities in the midfield finishing with 25 possessions, eight marks, four inside 50s and two goals.

Blaine Boekhorst is another Swans player to receive more responsibility in 2014 and he delivered on Saturday with 20 disposals and two goals with Matthew Rogers also booting two majors.

Aaron Elari picked up 24 possessions for the black-and-whites with Justin Simpson finishing with 24 disposals, Matt Riggio 21, Connor Blakely 19 and Graham Jetta 18.

PUSHING FOR A SPOT
South Fremantle's reserves beat the Demons 10.17 (77) to 4.9 (33) with Traye Bennell booting three goals while Toby Bairstow gathered 24 possessions, Tim Stewart 24, Mitch Carter 22 and Joe Pantano 18.

Matthew Hunt picked up 24 touches for Perth with Ryan Gray gathering 21 disposals, Joel Kalajzic 21, Sean Lynch 20, Cameron Jones 19 and Matthew Welburn 18.

Claremont's reserves beat West Perth by 46 points at Arena Joondalup with Alexander Manuel kicking three goals, and Luke Cameron and Sam Lamont two apiece.

Corey Yeo racked up 39 possessions for the Tigers with Keifer Yu also finished with 30 disposals, Ben Daniher 27, Ben Taylor 22, Liam Smith 22, Sam Fong 20, Matthew Goyder 20 and Coleman Cristinelli 18.

Corey Chalmers was tremendous for the Falcons finishing with 27 possessions and two goals while Tim Sutherland also booted two goals.

Jack Thrum gathered 23 disposals, Aidan Lynch 19, Stephen Healy 19, James Embley 18, Kris Shannon 18 and Spencer 15.

Andrew Krakouer also made his first appearance in Falcons colours and in around two and-a-half minutes of ground time gathered 10 possessions playing mostly inside the forward 50.

Subiaco's reserves beat East Fremantle by 19 points Saturday at East Fremantle Oval with Myles Smythe booting three goals, Darcy Boyle two, Dane Stephen two and Jordan Bestry two.

Smythe also picked up 21 possessions while Will Fetherstonehaugh had 21 touches, Matt Bogensperger 22, Rhett Kerr 20, Kyle Halligan 18 and James Garcia 18.

Tom Bowey kicked three goals for East Fremantle with Jayden Schofield and Andrew Stokes adding two each.

Tom Hooker racked up 27 possessions, Jacob Green 24 and Tim Bristow 22.

East Perth's reserves beat Swan Districts by 39 points with Matt Gordon kicking three goals and Dylan Main two for the Royals.

Mitch Howlett racked up 26 possessions for East Perth with Julian Locantro gathering 26 disposals, Will Magginness 22, Jacob Payne 22, Brandon Hughes 21 and Jackson Slater 18.

Rodney Jetta kicked two goals for Swan Districts while Jacob Burnham racked up 28 possessions, Luke Hendricks 23 and Jesse Manton 22.

Former West Perth trio Tom Shadbolt, Luke Hendricks and Brayden Duckworth all made their first appearances in black-and-white as well.