WAFL Round 1 PreviewFriday, March 20, 2015 - 3:18 PM - by Chris Pike

THE 2015 McDonald's WAFL Premiership season begins this Friday night at Fremantle Oval and concludes with the highly-anticipated showcase clash at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.

There is perhaps as much talk and hype surrounding the opening of the WAFL season than at any other time in recent history and that leads into an exciting opening round.

The action begins on Friday night with South Fremantle taking on West Perth at Fremantle Oval.

Then on Saturday afternoon, Swan Districts plays Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval before Subiaco hosts Claremont at Leederville's Medibank Stadium in a twilight fixture.

The round concludes on Saturday night with East Fremantle playing East Perth at Subiaco's Domain Stadium in a clash featuring two of last year's top three teams.

SOUTH FREMANTLE v WEST PERTH – FREMANTLE OVAL, FRIDAY 7.00PM
Selected teams

The WAFL season-opener takes place on Friday night at Fremantle Oval with South Fremantle and West Perth both desperate to get their seasons off to a winning start as they attempt to return to finals in 2015.

South Fremantle and West Perth both missed out on playing finals in 2014 but are desperate to get back in the mix in 2015 and there will be no better way to begin that quest than a Friday night victory at the port.

The Bulldogs haven’t played finals football since 2011 but have a new coach on board in 2015 with former Western Bulldogs defender, West Perth premiership player, Falcons coach and Fremantle Dockers assistant coach Todd Curley taking over.

South Fremantle did finish the 2014 season in good form winning its last five matches and now will be looking to carry that momentum into 2015 with an exciting playing group at its disposal.

The Bulldogs come into the season having lost to Subiaco in their opening pre-season game by 30 points before then beating last year's grand finalists East Perth last Friday night by 10 points.

West Perth won the 2013 premiership in style and from that team only Jason Salecic, Dan Hunt, Mark Hutchings, Shaun Marusic and Josh Mellington are no longer at the club.

However, 2014 was a disappointing year for the Falcons. When at their best they were still among the top teams in the competition highlighted by thumping wins over finalists East Perth and Swan Districts, but that sort of form didn’t come out every week.

The end result was a 9-11 win-loss record and West Perth missed out on the finals but the group has reenergised for a new season to have another crack at it, and the signs are encouraging coming into 2015.

West Perth had a big pre-season win over last year's preliminary finalists East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium and then rebounded from a goalless first half to storm home and beat Swan Districts by four points at Steel Blue Oval last Saturday.

South Fremantle has been able to maintain the majority of its playing group from 2014 coming into the new season with 19 of their 22 selected to take on the Falcons having been key members of the team last year.

Blayne Wilson heads the list of inclusions at the Bulldogs with the defender joining the club after three years on the West Coast Eagles list after originally being drafted from Peel Thunder.

The 23-year-old played nine games for the Eagles and has now amassed 65 WAFL games already on arrival at South Fremantle, and has the experience of playing in the last two grand finals with East Perth as well.

South Fremantle's focus in the pre-season was in trying to get local players back to the club and that sees the return of dual premiership defender Kyle Hams who will play his first game with the Bulldogs since 2010 on Friday night.

Hams played with Swan Districts between 2011-2013 before moving to Busselton to live and play his football in 2014. He is still living there, but has committed to return to South Fremantle for 2015 and has earned his spot in the team for Round 1.

The other addition to the South Fremantle league side for Round 1 from last year is colts graduate Traye Bennell who had a terrific pre-season to earn his place in the team.

Cory Dell'Olio and Adam Carter are two other players to return to South Fremantle in 2015 from Essendon and West Coast respectively, but Dell'Olio is unavailable for selection and Carter has been named as an emergency.

Aside from midfielder Jarrod Parry who is battling a niggling injury complaint, it is virtually a full-strength South Fremantle squad that Curley has to pick from ahead of his debut as coach.

West Perth, too, has been able to limit its losses over the off-season coming into 2015.

From the squad of 25 players picked for Round 1, there are still 17 premiership players from 2013 in the group so it does appear to be a quality line-up that is hungry to rebound from a disappointing 2014 season.

The major losses from last year came in the form of retired pair Anthony Tsalikis and Dan Hunt, but the unexpected departures have been kept to a minimum.

For the team to play in Round 1, only Michael Lourey has come in from the outside with him bringing VFL experience with him to the WAFL where he kicked 141 goals in 70 appearances between Frankston and Sandringham. He also represented Victoria against Western Australia in the State match in Northam in 2013.

Nick Rodda, Jordan Jones, Andrew Strijk, Kody Manning and Matt Fowler are also back and ready to fire for West Perth to start the 2015 after all missed the majority of the second half of 2014.

Shayne Zanetti is also in the mix to play his first league game since Round 10, 2012, and he sent a reminder of his abilities late last year kicking seven goals in the reserves in Round 23 and then leading the ruck in the grand final victory over Subiaco.

The depth West Perth has heading into 2015 is illustrated by the fact that Brayden Antonio, Brent Fotheringham, Chris Franklin, Matt Johnson, Aidan Lynch, Callum Papertalk, Kris Shannon, Chris Yarran and Hayden Yarran will all be lining up in the reserves.

However, South Fremantle also has Toby Bairstow, Mitch Carter, Alistair Gillespie, Matthew Gundry, Lewis Harvey, Sam Lowrie, Chris Luff and Paul Mugambwa in its reserves side so that battle on Saturday should be an enthralling one as well following on from the colts.

SWAN DISTRICTS v PERTH – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams

Swan Districts and Perth will feature in the only Round 1 fixture played in the traditional 2.15pm time slot at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday and it's a contest with plenty of intrigue and a host of players coming up against their former sides.

Both Swans and the Demons are looking to get their 2015 campaigns off to a winning start but it will be intriguing to see how a host of players perform against their old team as well.

Joel Houghton, Matthew Rogers and Aaron Elari are all former Perth players who will line-up for Swan Districts while David Johnston, Brent Latch and Brett Wolfenden are ex-Swans players who will be playing for the Demons in Round 1.

Clashes between the Swans and Demons in recent years have been among the most fascinating of WAFL contests including some incredibly tight, controversial and bizarre finishes, and this one to kick off the year could be no different.

During the pre-season, Swans recorded a 23-point win in the first hit out against Peel Thunder before then going down by four points in a thriller last Saturday against West Perth also on its home Bassendean turf.

And Perth started its pre-season with a hefty 104-point loss to reigning premiers Subiaco at Lathlain Park before putting in a more encouraging showing in a 30-point defeat at the hands of last year's preliminary finalists East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium.

From its team last year that did a terrific job to make the finals and eventually lose the first semi-final at home to East Fremantle, Swans have been able to minimise their player departures unlike the previous season.

There have been some handy additions for Swan Districts, though, and Joel Houghton and Jackson Slater have been named to make their debuts for the club on Saturday while Steven Wityk has been named as an emergency.

Houghton is a former rookie-listed player with Fremantle and played 36 league matches with Perth up until the end of the 2014 season, and now the talented and versatile key position player will be looking to have an impact for his new club and it starts first up against his former side.

Wityk and Slater are both players who have crossed from East Perth to Swan Districts looking for increased opportunities in 2015.

Swans have also welcomed back former Brisbane Lions small forward Todd Banfield in 2015 but he is currently out with a broken leg. Ruckman Nathan Blakely is also out injured meaning that Tony Notte, Ricky Cary and Houghton will likely share the ruck duties in the meantime.

Perth started its 2014 season so impressively with wins over Claremont and South Fremantle, but the Demons won only the one more match for the rest of the season.

The Demons lost their last 16 matches of the season to finish in last place and now over the off-season former Carlton AFL and East Fremantle WAFL premiership player Earl Spalding has taken over as coach.

He has been able to pick up some handy recruits and of those, Brent Latch, Toby Gianatti, Liam McKenna, Brett Wolfenden, Jacob Payne and Callum Walley will play in Round 1 against Swan Districts on Saturday.

While the Demons have again lost some key players including Paul Bevan, Cale Morton, Haydn Busher, Nick Kane, Jared Risol and Gerald Ugle, Spalding has good reason to expect strong service out of those additions to his group.

Wolfenden hasn’t played in the WAFL since 2011, but up until then had played 77 games with Swan Districts as a hard-running, courageous wingman who was a key player in the 2010 premiership and played for WA in 2009. His experience and quality will be good for Perth in 2015.

Gianatti and McKenna arrive from Peel as part of the swap for Ugle and are capable of playing strong league football while Latch is yet another playing in Round 1 at Steel Blue Oval who is up against his old side after playing 22 league matches with Swans.

Payne has arrived at Perth from East Perth and looks set to be one of the recruits of the season while Walley previously played colts and reserves football with Claremont.

SUBIACO v CLAREMONT – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 4.15PM
Selected teams

Subiaco is coming off winning last year's premiership and Claremont finished the 2014 home and away season as the form team in the competition so Saturday's twilight clash at Medibank Stadium will provide an indication of which side is ready to fire to start 2015.

The Lions and Tigers have been the two dominant WAFL teams of the last decade with Subiaco winning premierships in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2014 while Claremont won flags in 2011 and 2012, and the two sides have combined to win 10 of the last 12 minor premierships.

There is every indication that both Subiaco and Claremont will be around the mark when the whips are cracking come the end of the season again so getting an early win on the board could give whoever prevails some bragging rights.

Subiaco's form heading into the finals last year wasn’t anything special having lost two of its last three matches, and then the Lions lost their second semi-final to East Perth and only just managed to win the preliminary final over East Fremantle with the Sharks putting in a terrible performance in front of goal.

However, Subiaco set itself for the biggest day of the year and played a near perfect grand final in tough conditions against East Perth to prevail and claim the premiership.

Claremont might have missed the finals in 2014 but finished the season on fire winning its last six straight matches, and eight of its last nine. The only reason the Tigers missed out on the finals was because of losing six of their first eight matches by an average of 65 points.

 Coming off last year's premiership, Subiaco has also gone through its two pre-season matches in preparation for their flag defence in impressive fashion.

The Lions started off recording a 30-point win over South Fremantle at Medibank Stadium and then thumped Perth by 104 points at Lathlain Park.

Claremont, meanwhile, opened its pre-season with a five-goal win over East Perth at Medibank Stadium as well before then thrashing an undermanned Peel Thunder by 115 points last Saturday at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Subiaco has lost plenty of experience coming into 2015 including Jason Bristow, Shaun Hildebrandt, Andrew McDougall, Jarrod Kayler-Thomson, Rob Forrest, George Hampson and Josh Deluca.

It's the loss of McDougall who could be felt the most, though, with his absence magnified when fellow premiership big man Frank Stockley went down with a season-ending knee injury.

A combination of David Madut, Clancy Wheeler, Brad Stevenson and Lachlan Delahunty will be called upon to carry the ruck duties at least to start the new season.

And even though Claremont will be without Mark Seaby, having Kepler Bradley, Brandon Franz, Haydn Busher, Jackson Starcevich and Mitch Andrews in their line-up mean they have plenty of height to try and exploit the lack of that at Subiaco.

Subiaco certainly hasn’t been shy about replacing the players who have departed, though, with the players the Lions have added including Jordan Lockyer, Michael Wood, Sam Menegola, Scott Hancock, Leigh Kitchin and Braden Fimmano have all been named to play in Round 1.

Claremont did finish 2014 on fire but also have now lost Luke Blackwell, Andrew Foster, Trinity Handley, Matt Orzel, Mitch McGovern, Brenden Abbott, Sam Fong and Tom Taylor coming into 2015.

However, the arrival of Bradley fresh off his time with Fremantle, Busher from Perth, Oliver Tate from North Ballarat and the return of Ian Richardson does help offset that.

Captain Jake Murphy, Darcy Cameron, Anton Hamp and Reece Maxwell are among the players lining up in Claremont's reserves who could push for league selection in coming weeks.

EAST FREMANTLE v EAST PERTH – DOMAIN STADIUM, SATURDAY 7.10PM 
Selected teams
 
The new era of the WAFL on Channel 7 gets underway on Saturday night to conclude Round 1 when East Fremantle takes on East Perth at Domain Stadium.

The game will be the first home and away season match played at the Subiaco home of WA football since Subiaco beat East Perth by 72 points in Round 8, 2008 in a commemorative clash hosted by the Lions.

However, with the WAFL season looking to kick off 2015 with a bang on Channel 7, East Fremantle was willing to move its Round 1 home match to Domain Stadium and now it looks set to be a tremendous occasion.

With the exposure provided by the coverage on Channel 7 and the host of promotions and activities put together by the WA Football Commission leading into the game, it is one of the most anticipated WAFL home and away fixtures in some time and a big crowd at the venue and on TV is expected.

The match itself should be a terrific contest as well with East Perth coming off playing in the last two WAFL grand finals while East Fremantle only has itself to blame for not making it past the preliminary final last year.

The Royals have been favourites in the last two grand finals before losing to West Pert hand Subiaco respectively so they will be looking to get 2015 off to a strong start as they attempt to win that elusive first premiership since 2002.

East Fremantle finished the 2014 season in fourth position but then beat Swan Districts in the first semi-final at Steel Blue Oval and had every chance to beat Subiaco in the preliminary final, and the Sharks likely would have despite their kicking seven goals from 33 shots on the big sticks.

That has left everyone at East Fremantle desperate to make up that in 2015 and the first part of trying to that is by recording the four points in Round 1.

East Fremantle's opening pre-season hit out saw the Sharks suffer a hefty 67 point loss at ATOM Stadium against West Perth, but they bounced back last Saturday to beat Perth by five goals at the same venue to build some confidence ahead of the Round 1 clash with the Royals.

East Perth, meanwhile, didn’t taste a victory during its pre-season losing the opener against Claremont by 30 points at Medibank Stadium and then also going down to South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval last Friday night.

The Sharks have lost some experience from last year with the retirements of Steven Dodd and Brett Peake while Scott Hancock was another departure for Subiaco, but they have been able to make some strong looking additions.

Subiaco premiership player, fairest and best winner and State representative George Hampson is on board with the Sharks in 2015 with Liam Anthony returning from North Melbourne in the AFL. Both have been named to play in Round 1 against the Royals.

East Perth's team might possess a host of West Coast-listed players for Round 1 including Paddy Brophy, Murray Newman, Malcolm Karpany, Brant Colledge, Alec Waterman and Dylan Main, but again the key to the Royals' success will be their WAFL players.

With a group that still includes Paul Johnson, Craig Wulff, Kyle Anderson, Freddie Clutterbuck, Nathan Blee, Steven Payne, Garry Moss and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, it is still as good a core as there is in the WAFL even taking into account the absence of Brendan Lee and Josh Smith.

With two strong teams who are desperate to make a winning start to try and make up for disappointing finishes to last season, and with the showcase feel of the contest at Domain Stadium and on Channel 7, it does loom as a contest not to be missed.