ANZAC Derby Preview v East Fremantle

SOUTH Fremantle has won the past four derbies, won on the last eight visits at East Fremantle Oval and the Bulldogs will be looking to extend both streaks in Sunday’s ANZAC Derby against East Fremantle.

For the 10th straight year, East Fremantle and South Fremantle will meet in the Anzac Derby after the annual contest began back in 2009. The Sharks have won four of those meetings and the Bulldogs five.

Sunday’s contest will be broadcast live on Channel 7 from 2.30pm on Sunday and will be yet another tremendous occasion between the fierce rivals.

It’s a big early season battle for the two teams too with East Fremantle having won just one of its opening three games to start 2018 while South Fremantle is 1-1 after its opening two matches following the Round 1 bye.

While East Fremantle is the home team for the 2018 ANZAC Derby, East Fremantle Oval is a venue South Fremantle has enjoyed visiting in recent times.

The Bulldogs have won on their last eight trips to Shark Park. East Fremantle’s last home victory against South Fremantle was the WA Day Foundation Derby of 2012 when they won by 85 points.

South Fremantle will have especially fond memories of the last visit to East Fremantle Oval winning by 145 points on WA Day last year.

South Fremantle has also won the last four derbies overall by an average of 65.3 points.

East Fremantle’s last derby victory was WA Derby 2016 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval by 39 points. But aside from that, the Bulldogs have won seven of the past eight Fremantle Derbies.

South Fremantle is coming off playing in the last two WAFL preliminary finals and had the bye in Round 1 to open 2018 before losing to Subiaco by 58 points in Round 2 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Considering Subiaco has beaten East Perth by 118 points, Swan Districts by 96 and Claremont by 86, that performance isn’t stacking up too badly at this point from the Bulldogs.

South Fremantle responded last Saturday with its first win of the season overcoming a slow start to beat West Perth by eight points at HBF Arena.

East Fremantle came into the 2018 season with high hopes of a dramatic improvement after a three-win season in 2018.

The Sharks recruited strongly with a string of returning AFL-listed talent but so far the result has been a narrow win over Perth and losses to Peel Thunder and Claremont. But the Sharks will be stung after losing on the siren last Saturday to the Tigers at Claremont Oval.

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley is certainly expecting a stern test on Sunday from the Sharks.

“They have had a fair few changes in personnel and we have as well with a few young guys playing. It will be a good game,” Curley said.

“It doesn’t matter where the teams are, it’s always a big game. They’ve had a pretty good start to the year so we’ll need to recover well after playing in hot conditions.

“We’ll see who’s available, train and we’ve still got a lot of things to work on which is good. We’ll certainly roll out and hopefully put our best foot forward.”

South Fremantle has added three potential debutants from the team that beat West Perth last Saturday. If Zac Dent, Chris Ah Siu and Daniel Cabassi earn final selection, they will be making their WAFL debuts in the derby on Sunday against East Fremantle.

Tom Vandeleur and Jarrod Parry are both out of the South Fremantle team through injuries suffered in last week’s game against the Falcons.

Following East Fremantle’s late loss to Claremont last week, the Sharks have lost Nick Kommer but should regain match-winner George Hampson.

James Bristow, Chris Scott and Jesse Wynne have also been added to the Sharks’ squad for the Anzac Derby on Sunday.

ROUND 4 – ANZAC DERBY
SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST FREMANTLE – EAST FREMANTLE OVAL, SUNDAY 2.40PM
Broadcast – Channel 7, ABC Radio (720AM), Footy Radio (WAFL App)

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