ELIMINATION FINAL PREVIEW V PEEL THUNDER

ALL three South Fremantle grades will take part in the opening to the 2022 WAFL finals this weekend with the league team playing host to Peel Thunder in an elimination final on Sunday.

While South Fremantle’s league team is playing in a seventh consecutive finals series in 2022, with the reserves and colts also qualifying it marks the first time since 2016 that all three grades from the Bulldogs will be taking part in the finals.

South Fremantle’s league team finishing the home and away season in fourth position to lock away a seventh straight finals appearance on the back of playing in the last three WAFL Grand Finals and six preliminary finals.

They will now take on Peel on Sunday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval from 12.10pm in the elimination final.

Meanwhile, South Fremantle’s reserves finished the season in third position with an 11-5 record to book in a clash with Claremont in a qualifying final which will be played on Saturday at 11am at East Fremantle Oval.

The South Fremantle colts will also make their return to finals action in 2022 having finished the season in fifth position with an 8-8 record. The Bulldogs colts will play East Perth in an elimination final at 3pm on Sunday afternoon at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Bulldogs and Thunder lock horns at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in an elimination final with the winner to advance to a first semi-final against either East Fremantle or Claremont, while the season will be over for the loser.

South Fremantle comes into the elimination final having finished the home and away season in fourth position with 12 wins, five losses and a draw on the back of winning their last three matches against Subiaco, East Perth and Perth.

Peel, meanwhile, took until Sunday to guarantee a spot in the finals when the Thunder beat Swan Districts by 92 points at Mandurah’s Lane Group Stadium which saw them secure fifth position with an 11-7 record.

The two teams met twice during the 2022 season with South Fremantle winning by 26 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in Round 5 while Peel hit back with a 14-point win at Mandurah’s Lane Group Stadium in Round 17.

Prior that win from the Thunder a month ago, the Bulldogs had beaten them six straight times and in seven of the last eight clashes since they last met in a final.

Both finals the two teams have done battle in also took place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval starting with the preliminary final of 2016 where Peel won by 39 points on the way to breaking through for a maiden premiership.

The Thunder then also defeated the Bulldogs in the qualifying final of 2017 by 18 points to go on and end up winning back-to-back premierships.

However, Peel has not played in a final since that 2017 Grand Final win against Subiaco.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, is gearing up to take part in a seventh consecutive finals series on the back of bowing out in preliminary finals of 2016, 2017 and 2018, and then losing Grand Finals to Subiaco in 2019 and 2021, and winning the premiership by beating Claremont in 2020.

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley rightfully has great confidence in his group who are accustomed to now playing finals and have finished the home and away season in 2022 in strong form.

“We’re really excited. We’ve got all our teams in the finals for week one and that’s all you want when you start training in November. It’s been a super close competition and we finished fourth but we were essentially only one game off top.

“The weather is now supposed to be pretty good on Sunday and we’re looking forward to it. We didn’t have the best start this season but since then we’ve been pretty consistent and over the last eight weeks or so of the season we’ve won six and-a-half out of eight.

“We’re going into the finals in pretty good shape and obviously Peel have been in pretty good form as well but we’ve won one and we’ve won one so far this year, and in both those games they’ve had pretty much the same team that they’ll have this week.

“We go in with a lot of confidence and we think our best footy has certainly been building towards the back half of the year and we’re looking forward to Sunday.”

Not that the Bulldogs need added motivation, but Sunday’s game will see 2020 premiership stars Haiden Schloithe (200 games) and Chad Pearson (100) also celebrate significant milestones.

ELIMINATION FINAL – 2022 WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v PEEL THUNDER – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SUNDAY 12.10PM

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