WAFL RD 19 PREVIEW

RD 19 WAFL PREVIEW | v EAST FREMANTLE

South Fremantle will be looking to resume their enjoyment of visiting The Good Grocer Park when they take on East Fremantle in a crucial WAFL derby this Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs and Sharks will meet on East Fremantle’s home ground for the first time since 2021 this Saturday afternoon with South Fremantle looking to make it 13 consecutive wins at the venue.

It’s a crucial game in the context of the season for South Fremantle too in the penultimate round with the Bulldogs currently sitting in fifth position on the WAFL ladder with a 9-7 record.

That has them just percentage out of third position but also only percentage ahead of the sixth placed West Coast Eagles as they take on an East Fremantle team out of the finals race at 5-11.

Saturday’s derby will be the first played at the formerly known East Fremantle Oval since Round 9, 2021, and on that occasion as reigning premiers South Fremantle beat East Fremantle by 16 points.

The Bulldogs have won their last 12 visits remarkably to Shark Park with the last home victory for East Fremantle in a derby coming all the way back in the Foundation Derby in 2012.

There are no players on the South Fremantle team who have played in a loss at The Good Grocer Park while a host of players in the team also have never even played at the venue including premiership defender Lewis Rayson.

He’s looking forward to that chance but knows what a crucial game for the Bulldogs it is as finals approach.

“We haven’t looked too much you know into the rivalry itself this week, we’re just looking at it as a must-win game for us whoever we would have been playing,” Rayson told 91.3 SportFM.

“It’s just a must-win game and the rivalry adds a little bit on top of it and hopefully the weather stays good so we can get a good crowd, and there will be no real excuses and that’s the attitude we’re going into the game with.

“We’ve got all our players and have got everything that we’ve been asking for so there’s no real excuses heading into the game.

“It’s going to be my first time playing there too but it’s like a good oval and a good place to play. I went out to watch the women play there last week and it looked in good nick so it should be good.”

South Fremantle are attempting to bounce back from last week’s loss to East Perth and Ashton Ferreira, Noah Strom, Matthew Parker and Lucas Robinson are all into the line-up.

Going out for the Bulldogs are Cam Maynard, Ed Graham, Tarkyn Etherington and Toby Dodds.

East Fremantle also lost last Saturday to West Perth and from that team, Kyle Baskerville, Alex Montauban and Kaiden Summerell come into the team.

Going out for the Sharks are Austin Ball, Jack Cocking and Ezra Jones.

The day’s action at The Good Grocer Park begins with the Colts derby getting underway at 8:55am.

South Fremantle come into the second last round sitting in top spot of the Colts having beaten East Perth last week by 72 points to hold a 12-2 record but a loss to the Sharks and they could drop all the way to third.

East Fremantle are third at 11-3 but knowing a win on Saturday morning and they will break into the top two.

The Reserves will then get underway at 11:25am with South Fremantle out of the finals hunt with two rounds to go sitting seventh with a 5-9 record as are East Fremantle who remain anchored to last place without a win and a percentage of just 35.9 with an average losing margin of nearly 71 points.