Round 6 WAFL Wrap UpMonday, April 28, 2014 - 6:16 PM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts kept on winning, South Fremantle made it two straight and East Perth and Claremont both put an end to losing runs in Round 6 of the 2014 WAFL season over Friday and Saturday afternoons.

The round began on Anzac Day Friday with two massive matches that saw Swan Districts beat West Perth 11.9 (75) to 9.14 (68) at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval and South Fremantle defeat East Fremantle 13.5 (83) to 9.12 (66) at East Fremantle Oval.

Then on Saturday, East Perth beat Perth 14.14 (98) to 11.10 (76) at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and Claremont defeated Peel Thunder 15.12 (102) to 11.8 (74) at the Showgrounds.

The results mean that Subiaco (5-0) remains clear on top of the ladder ahead of Swan Districts (4-1), East Perth (4-2) and East Fremantle (3-2).

Outside the top-four are West Perth (2-4), Perth (2-3), South Fremantle (2-4), Claremont (2-3) and Peel Thunder (0-5).

Click here for the summary of Round 6 of the WAFL

THE BIG WINNERS 
It is impossible to ignore the start to the season that Swan Districts has now made.

The black-and-whites lost a host of stars coming into 2014 with Kyle Hams, Tom Roach, Shaun Hildebrandt, Brett Robinson, Wayde Twomey, Dayle Garlett and Rory Lobb among them on top of Andrew Krakouer and Josh Pullman electing to return to rival WAFL clubs.

The club was also in no position to recruit to replace those losses either, but the result has been a fully committed and passionate playing group that is now playing full of heart, and following coach Greg Harding's orders to a tee.

The result has been a narrow loss to East Perth in Round 2 and now subsequently impressive wins over Peel Thunder, South Fremantle, Perth and West Perth.

The black-and-whites now can look forward to a massive clash this Saturday at Leederville's Medibank Stadium up against the unbeaten Subiaco with captain Tallan Ames celebrating his 200th WAFL game, and premiership player Ryan Davis his 100th.

THE BIG LOSERS
Peel Thunder fielded a strong team on Saturday against Claremont at the Claremont Showgrounds, but again came up short by 28 points against a Tigers line-up that had already been thrashed in three of four games so far in 2014.

The Peel team that lined up included top-line WAFL players Cruize Garlett and Brendon Jones and potentially the best group of talls in the competition made up of Craig Moller, Jack Hannath, Alex Silvagni, Kepler Bradley, Matt Taberner and Jonathon Griffin from Fremantle.

However, at no stage did Peel look like winning the game and the result is now that the Thunder remain winless from five matches so far in 2014 while every other club has won at least twice already.

Making matters worse for Peel is the fact that its reserves and colts have yet to win either with the reserves losing by an average of 51 points, and the colts by an average of 27.

There was further bad news for Peel with Anthony Morabito, Griffin and Tom Vandeleur all reported during the match.

THE SHINING LIGHTS
Anzac Day at Steel Blue Oval belonged to Swan Districts with Ricky Cary kicking three goals and Aidan Anderson two.

Swans' back-line was superb marshalled by Justin Simpson who finished with 28 possessions and nine marks.

Tallan Ames and Alex Howard were also terrific defensively while Jarrad Blight racked up 19 disposals, Aaron Elari 24, Kirk Ugle 26 and Graham Jetta 18.

Through the middle, Adam Faulkner racked up 23 possessions and Matt Riggio 22 while Matt Rogers was tremendous across half-forward finishing with 22 touches, seven marks, five inside 50s and a goal.

West Perth would have been disappointed again in its performance despite the lively three goals from Andrew Krakouer and two to Rohan Kerr to go with his 19 possessions.

Shane Nelson also racked up 33 disposals for the Falcons to go with six inside 50s, five marks, four tackles and a goal.

Aaron Black continued his strong ball-winning form picking up 27 possessions with Jay van Berlo collecting 22 disposals, Jordan Jones 20, Steven Browne 20 and ruckman Chris Keunen 15 to go with 38 hit outs and six marks.

The game was also fascinating for the fact that it was Krakouer's first game for West Perth up against the team he inspired to the 2010 WAFL premiership in one of the most remarkable grand final, and whole season, individual performances of recent times.

He had just the two kicks in his debut for West Perth the week before and was more lively on his return to Bassendean on Friday finishing with 3.4 from his seven kicks.

His 2010 premiership teammate Matthew Spencer also made his West Perth debut on the day in his first WAFL game since that grand final. He battled hard in the back-line for the Falcons.

Dan Hunt did a strong defensive job holding Tim Geappen goalless as well.

Meanwhile at East Fremantle Oval, a crowd of 3485 people watched South Fremantle win its second match of 2014, and second in six days, by beating East Fremantle by 17 points.

Haiden Schloithe was best on ground for South Fremantle finishing the day with 27 possessions, six clearances, five inside 50s and four goals including the game's sealer at the 21-minute mark of the final quarter.

Ashton Hams was allowed to control the game for South Fremantle across half-back and racked up a game-high 37 possessions to go with 12 marks, eight rebounds from the defensive 50 and four tackles.

Captain Ryan Cook was given the job of minding the dangerous Bradd Dalziell and not only did he quell his influence, but finished with 27 possessions and 12 marks himself.

South Fremantle's key defenders Nick Borovac, Dylan Ross and Zac Strom were outstanding ensuring that Jack Perham, Ryan Lester-Smith and Rob Young had no impact on the contest.

Borovac also finished with 22 possessions and seven marks, and Ross 21 touches and eight marks.

Adam Guglielmana spent time forward and back, but when he was in the back half he was another calming influence and was terrific finishing with 18 possessions.

Toby Bairstow has been given run-with roles since returning the line-up for the Swan Districts game in Round 4 and he was given the big job on Rory O'Brien on Anzac Day.

Even though the Sandover Medallist racked up 30 possessions, he had little impact on the game while Bairstow also did well himself with 19 disposals.

Marlon Pickett also worked into the game nicely and when it counted finishing with 18 possessions, six marks, six inside-50 entries and three clearances while also showing off his tremendous closing speed with a crucial run-down tackle on the half-time siren.

Ruckman Brock Higgins again showed that he is more than capable of holding down the No. 1 ruck role for the Bulldogs getting the better of both James Bristow and Young, and finishing with 16 touches, 26 hit outs and most impressively seven clearances.

Ben Saunders, Josh Pullman and Mitch Carter all kicked two goals apiece for South Fremantle with Pullman playing his best game of the season with 11 possessions and seven strong marks.

As well as Rory O'Brien having 30 possessions for East Fremantle, Aidan Tropiano had it 28 times, Jamie McNamara 27, Dalziell 24, Scott Hancock 20 and Brock O'Brien 17.

While East Fremantle's forward-line again struggled, its back-line was solid led by youngster Matthew Jupp who then went forward and kicked two last quarter goals to give the Sharks a sniff.

Andrew Stephen did well shutting down Craig White who kicked four goals the previous week while Sam Read kept Paul Mugambwa out of the game, and Tom Howlett and Steven Dodd were solid enough for East Fremantle.

Ashley Smith kicked three goals for East Perth with Fraser McInnes, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls and Callum Sinclair adding two apiece.

Sinclair also had 20 possessions, nine marks and 25 hit outs to go with his two goals while his ruck partner Paul Johnson racked up 38 hit outs.

Sam Butler picked up a game-high 27 possessions for the Royals with Mitch Fraser gathering 23 touches, Brant Colledge 23, Nathan Blee 21, Freddie Clutterbuck 21, Steven Payne 21, Julian Locantro 20 and Simon Tunbridge 20.

Matt Moody kicked four goals for Perth in a bright start to the game with Matt Boyle adding three majors.

Cale Morton finished with 24 possessions for the Demons, Dene White 19, Clem Smith 19, Brad Keast 18 and Joel Leeson 16.

Jack Bradshaw and Mark Seaby kicked three goals apiece for Claremont against Peel on Saturday with Sam Fong, and Jack Richardson adding two each.

Luke Blackwell racked up another 29 possessions for the Tigers with Tom Ledger finishing with 26 disposals, Ryan Neates 22, Fong 21, Andrew Foster, 21, Tom Taylor 21, Corey Yeo 21 and Richardson 20.

Craig Moller kicked four goals for Peel and Taberner three with Cruize Garlett racking up 30 possessions in just his second league game of 2014.

Anthony Morabito also had a good game with 27 possessions while Jacob Ballard finished with 22 disposals, Brendon Jones 20 and Jonathon Griffin 17 to go with 11 marks and 17 hit outs.

PUSHING FOR A SPOT
West Perth started Anzac Day impressively at Bassendean with the reserves scoring a thumping 15.11 (101) to 6.4 (40) victory over Swan Districts.

Mitch McPhee kicked four goals for the Falcons, Drew Rohde three, Max Alexander three and Cameron Branch two.

Jack Thrum finished with 26 possessions, Aidan Lynch 24, Ben O'Regan 23, Joe Morrow 22, Kris Shannon, Shaun Marusic 22 and Stephen Healy 20.

Rodney Jetta, Kurt Tanner and Brayden Duckworth kicked two goals apiece for Swans with David McKay picking up 25 possessions, Jacob Burnham 24, Josh Kirkup 23, Nathan Broad 22 and Jesse Manton 21.

South Fremantle's reserves, however, lost to East Fremantle by 49 points on Saturday despite 38 possessions, five marks, four tackles and three inside-50 entries from Kris Miller.

Alistair Gillespie also kicked three goals while Bailey Matera had 25 possessions, Billy Collier 23, Matt Gundry 21, Simon Panizza 21, Ben Sokol 21 and Jason Maskos 20.

Ruckman Myles Bolger also finished with 21 possessions, six marks and 30 hit outs.

Brandon Ellis booted five goals for the Sharks with Tom Bowey adding three, Luke Murphy two and Tyler Chalwell two.

Tom Hooker racked up 29 possessions for East Fremantle with Conor Regan finishing with 29 disposals, Jake Schleicher 26, Michael Edwards 26, Danny Chartres 26, Jayden Schofield 24 and Jacob Green 24.

East Perth's reserves scored an eight-point win over Perth with Mitch Howlett, Tom Shanahan, Steven Wityk and Alexander Vernon all kicked two goals each with Howlett racking up 32 possessions, Shanahan 22, Wityk 19 and Rowen Powell 18.

Joel Houghton kicked three goals for Perth with Brad Fry, Mark Deaves and Sam Garstone booting two apiece.

Cameron Manuel racked up 29 possessions for the Demons, Joel Kalajzic 23 and Fry 19.