Colts Preliminary Final Preview v Claremont

SOUTH Fremantle has played the last three WAFL colts grand finals and now can make it four with a win in Sunday’s preliminary final against Claremont at Medibank Stadium.

South Fremantle’s colts won premierships in 2011 and 2012, and then again made the grand final in 2013 before losing a narrow contest against Claremont in the decider.

Now the Bulldogs and Tigers meet in a grand final rematch with only one of them to be able to go through to the premiership decider for 2014.

Swan Districts finished the colts season on top of the ladder and then beat Claremont narrowly by five points to qualify for the Sunday September 21 grand final at Patersons Stadium.

South Fremantle and Claremont now play in the preliminary final this Sunday morning at Leederville’s Medibank Stadium with a grand final spot at stake.

It will continue a strong recent rivalry between the Bulldogs and Tigers in the colts as well.

South Fremantle beat Claremont in both the second semi-final and then the grand final of 2011 to win the colts premiership before the Tigers won both meetings between the two teams in 2012.

Claremont made it four straight wins over South Fremantle by winning in Rounds 1 and 10 to start 2013, but the Bulldogs hit back with wins in Round 16 and then the second semi-final to set up a grand final meeting with the two teams.

It was Claremont who won a thrilling grand final at Patersons Stadium 11.10 (76) to 10.10 (70) to end South Fremantle’s quest for a colts premiership hat-trick.

The Bulldogs and Tigers met twice during the 2014 season and split a win apiece with South Fremantle winning by a point in Round 7 at Fremantle Oval and then the Tigers prevailing by 36 points at the Claremont Showground in Round 15.

South Fremantle advanced to the preliminary final by beating East Perth by 21 points in last Sunday’s first semi-final, but the Bulldogs did have to come from behind at half-time before kicking eight goals to three in the second half.

There were some outstanding performances by Bulldogs players led by 29 possessions and two goals by Jacob Dragovich while Matthew Ah Siu finished with 24 disposals, Bailey Matera 20, Braden Fimmano 18 and ruckman Billy Frampton 15 to go with five marks, 21 hit outs and two goals.

Claremont, meanwhile, lost to Swan Districts by five points in the second semi-final but had some strong performances particularly with Alec Waterman collecting 25 possessions, Ryan Lim 22, Jared Hardisty 21, Isaac Baum and Bailey Rogers.

COLTS PRELIMINARY FINAL
Medibank Stadium, Sunday 9am

SOUTH FREMANTLE
C Ah Chee, M Ah Siu, D Brown, D Cabassi, B Collier, J Culleton, J Depane, B Donaldson, J Doubikin, J Dragovich, B Fimmano, J Florenca, J Foster, W Frampton, J Garlett, C Loersch, B Matera, J McComb, G McLeod, J McMaster, B McPhail, J Mirco, D Moore, A Nodari, L Pearson, J Pickett, A Robinson, C Salmon, K Stewart, N Strom, B Truss

CLAREMONT
N Barrow, J Barty, I Baum, S Bevan, M Cairns, G Colbung, H Court, J Delaporte, L Evans, T Gajewski, M Guelfi, J Hardisty, S Humphry, J Jones, R Lim, A Manuel, H McCracken, W McSweeney, M Palfrey, S Petrevski-Seton, J Prendiville, N Reid, B Rogers, E Simpson, H Taylor, S Trickey, A Volaric, A Waterman, F Watson, H Wilkinson, R Wynne