RD 13 PREVIEW | v EAST PERTH

SOUTH Fremantle has the chance to move into the WAFL top two if the Bulldogs can keep their form rolling against the second placed East Perth on Saturday at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

Following a disappointing loss two weeks ago for the John Todd Memorial Cup against Swan Districts, South Fremantle responded impressively last Saturday with the 53-point win against the West Coast Eagles at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

That has the Bulldogs now remaining in third position on the WAFL ladder coming into Round 13 but only percentage behind a Royals team also sitting on a 7-3 record.

That means that the winner of Saturday’s game will end the round in second position and with South Fremantle looking to make it consecutive wins while East Perth enters the contest on a two-game losing slide.

Last time the two teams met was back in Round 1 of this season when East Perth beat South Fremantle by 39 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

That wasn’t a day to remember for the Bulldogs with Brandon Donaldson kicking two goals and Jake Florenca collecting 34 possessions, Tom Blechynden 28, Haiden Schloithe 23, Toby McQuilkin 23 and Lewis Rayson 18.

Despite the impressive win last week for South Fremantle against West Coast, there are four changes for the team coming into this Saturday’s match up with East Perth at Leederville.

Coming into the Bulldogs team is reigning fairest and best winner Tom Blechynden along with Brandon Donaldson, Jarrod Salmeri and Jaren Carr.

There are three changes to the East Perth team coming off a loss to Swan Districts last Saturday with Brad Fullgrabe, Zac Hill and Kye Willcocks all coming into the line-up to strengthen the defensive end.

Going out for the Royals are Hamish Brayshaw, Jacob Msando and Harrison Macreadie.

Emerging South Fremantle midfielder Aaron Drage had 50 possessions two weeks ago in the reserves to earn a recall and had 25 touches in last week’s win against the Eagles.

He is looking forward to the challenge against East Perth now this Saturday with second spot on the line to build on the momentum from last week.

“We definitely have to respect them and they’ve got some big guns in their team, and some dominant players all over the ground,” Drage said.

“We just want to treat them with respect and go into the game and hopefully we end up being able to finish the job.

“Last week we knew they had a few Eagles boys playing but we just didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We know they had been a lot more competitive this year, but we just wanted to give it our best and we did that, and ended up getting a nice win so it was awesome.”

The day’s action at Leederville gets underway on Saturday morning with the South Fremantle colts back in action after the week’s break against East Perth.

The Bulldogs colts come into the Round 13 match up sitting in bottom spot but with a 2-6 record a win on Saturday would put them right back in the finals hunt.

That will lead into the reserves match up beginning at 11.55am with South Fremantle coming into the game against East Perth sitting in fifth position with a 4-4 record and having beating Swan Districts two weeks ago by 70 points at Steel Blue Oval.