WAFL RD 11 PREVIEW

RD 11 WAFL PREVIEW | v WEST PERTH

South Fremantle resume their WAFL premiership defence this Saturday against West Perth looking to snap a losing slide and will gladly welcome back Simpson Medal winning ruckman Hamish Free in that quest.

South Fremantle had the bye last weekend and prior to that had lost their past three matches to now need to bounce back against the Falcons this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with the game getting underway at 2:30pm.

Now coming into the Round 11 match up on Saturday and South Fremantle are sitting in fifth position on the WAFL ladder with a 5-4 record while West Perth are in bottom place at 1-8.

Prior to the break last weekend, South Fremantle had suffered defeats to Peel Thunder, East Fremantle and East Perth while West Perth lost to the Sharks last Saturday on the back of their first win of the season in their WA Day derby against the Royals.

It is the second time that the teams have met already this season with the first encounter up at Joondalup back in Round 4 with the Bulldogs prevailing by 30 points against the Falcons.

That made five straight wins for South Fremantle against West Perth with the last loss to the Falcons coming back in Round 18, 2023, which was also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Going back further and the Bulldogs have enjoyed things against West Perth in recent times having now won 19 of the previous 25 meetings between the two teams dating back to 2016.

South Fremantle captain Chad Pearson will be playing his 20th game in his 161-match career against West Perth on Saturday having played in 14 wins so far, and will be hoping to make it 15 on Saturday.

“It’s a massive game for us now coming off the bye and we’re really excited to get cracking and hopefully our footy can do the talking and we can get back on the winner’s list,” Pearson said on The Kennel on 91.3 SportFM.

“I think the competition is so even this year that there’s four or five of us just about on the same points and Peel and Claremont are one game away on top so it’s just so even and we’ve seen West Perth knock off East Perth the other week in the derby.

“It’s a really great challenge coming out of the bye and West Perth have some dangerous players on their team and it looks like they’re starting to get in some serious form so it will be a good test for us come Saturday.”

Coming off the loss to East Perth two weeks ago, South Fremantle have made four changes headlined by the return of Simpson Medal winning ruckman Hamish Free.

Noah Strom will also return to likely resume his career-long rivalry with West Perth spearhead Tyler Keitel with Toby Dodds and Roan O’Hehir also into the side.

Going out for the Bulldogs are Trey Ruscoe, Mitch Geier, Jack Green and Cooper Clarke-Dehring.

West Perth are attempting to rebound from a loss to East Fremantle as well and have made four changes with Matt Galjaardt, Tyson Moulton, Jayden Rigoll and Zarne Robis into the line-up.

Going out for the Falcons are the suspended Keegan Knott along with Josh Rotham, Matt McKenzie and Matt Shannon.

The big day at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday gets underway in the morning with the Colts clash between South Fremantle and West Perth starting at 9:15am.

South Fremantle come into the game having had the bye last week and prior to that beat East Perth by 10 points while West Perth went down to East Fremantle by 58 points last Saturday at Shark Park.

That means coming into the match up on Saturday morning and South Fremantle remain in second spot on the Colts ladder with a 7-1 record while West Perth are fourth at 4-4.

That leads into the Reserves match up that gets underway at 11:45am with the Bulldogs coming off a 28-point loss two weeks ago to East Perth while West Perth hammered the Sharks last Saturday at The Good Grocer Park by 97 points.

Coming into Round 11 in the Reserves competition, South Fremantle are in sixth position and needing a win to improve on their 4-4 record to try and break into the top five while West Perth are in third place at 5-3.