5 BULLDOGS IN ROUND 12 TEAM OF THE WEEK

It was a thrilling Round 12 in the WAFL with nail-biting wins for Swan Districts, East Perth and West Perth while South Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles were also victorious with plenty of players impressing across the board.

It was a remarkable situation where with all games played in the same Saturday afternoon time slot in Round 12 of the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season that that three of the five games had one-point margins with time running out in the last quarter.

South Fremantle snapped their four-game losing run against Perth despite being the reigning premiers by producing a strong showing to down the Demons 15.5 (95) to 8.13 (61) at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

WAFL TEAM OF THE ROUND
BACK: Jason Maskos (SF) , Brandon Erceg (SD), Zac Guadagnin (WP)
HALF-BACK: Chad Pearson (SF) , Tony Notte (SD), Blake Schlensog (SF)
CENTRE: Jesse Turner (SD), Aaron Black (WP), Blaine Boekhorst (EF)
HALF-FORWARD: Zac Langdon (WC), Eddie Simpson (EP), Connor Blakely (PT)
FORWARD: Manfred Kelly (SF) , Mason Shaw (SF) , Jayden Magro (EP)
RUCK: Oliver Eastland (C), Leigh Kitchin (S), Jackson Ramsay (EP)
INTERCHANGE: Mark Hutchings (WC), Lloyd Meek (PT), Angus Scott (EP), Ben Edwards (C)

BACK POCKET – JASON MASKOS (South Fremantle)
The South Fremantle premiership small defender was likely given the biggest defensive job against Perth on Saturday to try and limit the influence of Demons forward Kristian Cary, and he did a tremendous job. He held Cary to just one goal while having 16 disposals, eight marks and three tackles himself.

HALF-BACK FLANK – CHAD PEARSON (South Fremantle)
The premiership defender continues to improve and grow, and he’s turning himself into one of the best and most versatile backmen in the competition. He can play some lockdown roles and do well spoiling the opposition, but is also outstanding at attacking out of the back-line and had another 31 touches and eight marks in Saturday’s win against the Demons.

HALF-BACK FLANK – BLAKE SCHLENSOG (South Fremantle)
What a recruit he has turned out to be for South Fremantle and he has slotted right into centre half-back with the reigning premiers tremendously. His ability to mark opposition attacks inside their forward 50 could very well be the best in the competition and he’s good at setting up play going the other way too. He had another 22 touches, six marks and three inside-50 entries in the win against Perth.

FORWARD POCKET – MANFRED KELLY (South Fremantle)
In just the fifth game of his burgeoning league career and grabbing his chances on Saturday with South Fremantle missing Brandon Donaldson along with Matthew Parker in attack, he produced the best performance so far. The exciting small forward continues to work hard in the forward-line and was rewarded on Saturday with three goals from 14 disposals, four marks and four tackles.

FULL-FORWARD – MASON SHAW (South Fremantle)
The reigning Bernie Naylor Medallist had a rare goalless performance two weeks ago in a South Fremantle loss to East Perth, but he was back as a dangerous threat in attack for the Bulldogs against Perth on Saturday. While captaining the team in the absence of Dylan Main, he kicked four goals from seven kicks and six marks to now have 28 goals on the season to be just four behind Tyler Keitel.

UNLUCKY BUNCH
There were plenty of players who delivered tremendous performances across Round 12 but couldn’t quite fit into the Team of the Round, including:

South Fremantle’s Cody Ninyette, Tom Blechynden and Nick Suban.

Perth’s Michael Sinclair, Brady Grey, Austin Davis and Brant Colledge.

Subiaco’s Harry Marsh, Lachlan Delahunty, Chad Harris, Liam Hickmott, Brandon Matera and Greg Clark.

Swan Districts’ Josh Cipro, Sam Fisher, Frank Anderson and Mitchell Bain.

Peel Thunder’s Nathan O’Driscoll, Tobe Watson, Jarvis Pina, Stefan Giro, Bailey Banfield and Will Schofield.

East Perth’s Angus Schumacher, Stan Wright, Rohan Kerr, Nathan Blee and Christian Ameduri.

West Perth’s Shane Nelson, Tristan Hobley, Nathan Murray, Tyson Moulton, Dean Munns and Mitch Peirce.

Claremont’s Jye Bolton, Jared Hardisty, Declan Mountford, Ryan Lim and Bailey Rogers.

East Fremantle’s Kyle Baskerville and Morgan Davies.

West Coast Eagles’ Alex Witherden, Xavier O’Neill and Jamaine Jones.

Players of the Round
Round 1 – Josh Schoenfeld (East Fremantle)
Round 2 – Sam Fisher (Swan Districts)
Round 3 – Greg Clark (Subiaco)
Round 5 – Haiden Schloithe (South Fremantle)
Round 6 – Tyrone Thorne (Peel Thunder)
Round 7 – Keegan Knott (West Perth)
Round 8 – Jye Bolton (Claremont)
Round 9 – Tyler Keitel (West Perth)
Round 10/11 – Jonathon Marsh (East Fremantle)
Round 12 – Jackson Ramsay (East Perth)

CREDIT Wednesday, June 30, 2021 – 12:05 PM – by Chris Pike WAFL website