Bulldogs down Royals in final pre-season hit out

SOUTH Fremantle has finished its preparations ahead of Friday night’s WAFL season-opener against West Perth by recording a hard fought pre-season hit out with East Perth.

The Bulldogs beat a Royals team featuring a host of West Coast Eagles-listed player at Fremantle Oval on Friday night by 10 points in what should be ideal preparation for this Friday’s season-opener back at the port against West Perth.

South Fremantle beat East Perth 11.3 (69) to 8.11 (59) with a host of strong performances from the likes of Adam Guglielmana and Adam McIntosh in defence, Tim Kelly, Brendan Verrier and Haiden Schloithe through the middle, and Ashton and Kyle Hams around the ground.

The Bulldogs were without several key players on the night as well including Ben Saunders, Jarrod Parry, Nick Borovac and Cory Dell’Olio, so not only was it a strong win in tough conditions against good opposition, but it wasn’t without some natural improvement within the group as well.

The win over East Perth is on the back of a strong first up pre-season hit out for South Fremantle despite losing to Subiaco a fortnight ago.

That means that the Bulldogs have played both of last year’s grand finalists in pre-season matches leading into Friday night’s clash with West Perth in Round 1 of the WAFL season at Fremantle Oval.

New Bulldogs coach Todd Curley has been happy with the pre-season training program and now the two competitive matches, and hopes everything has been done for the team to be ready to go come Friday night.

“They have been really solid hit outs and that’s exactly what we wanted. It’s hard to practice game plans and what you are trying to implement amongst yourselves when everyone knows what you are trying to do, so it’s good to test yourself against the opposition,” Curley said.

“It’s a great start for us to get the opportunity to play against the grand finalists from last year. You always hope you are ready, that’s the thing about pre-season.

“You never really are sure because you have all your best laid plans, but until the games start it’s hard to judge. It’s been a pretty good pre-season and it looks like we will have just about everyone available for Round 1, so that’s good.”

South Fremantle’s reserves also recorded a comfortable win over East Perth with that team featuring the likes of Alistair Gillespie, Toby Bairstow and Chris Luff who were all impressive.