Foundation Derby on WA Day Preview

SOUTH Fremantle and East Fremantle play off in not only the traditional Foundation Derby on WA Day at Fremantle Oval to try to maintain touch with teams on the four, but also it looms as a day of celebration of one of the modern day WAFL champions.

The result of the contest is huge for both clubs, but the day will also be memorable for the fact that it will be final time that a champion of both teams Kris Miller runs out to play a game of WAFL football.

Miller made his WAFL debut in Round 1, 1999 for East Fremantle and went on to play for Western Australia, in a grand final and win a Lynn Medal in his time with the Sharks where he finished with 153 matches to earn life membership before finishing up at the end of 2006.

From there, Miller joined South Fremantle and he has gone on to win three fairest and best awards, play in the 2009 premiership and now on Monday he will play his 150th game for the Bulldogs.

In doing so, Miller will become the first player in WAFL history to reach 150 matches at two clubs having already this season become jus the sixth player ever to reach the 300-game milestone. Now on Monday, he will play the 303rd and final game of his decorated career.

Putting that aside and quite simply both South Fremantle and East Fremantle need to win the game for the benefit of their 2014 seasons.

East Fremantle is knocking on the door of the top-four with a 4-4 record while South Fremantle is one game back on 3-5 so the result will have a big impact on whether or not either side is able to still seriously contend for a finals berth in 2014.

There has already been one Fremantle derby in 2014 with South Fremantle comfortably beating East Fremantle on Anzac Day at East Fremantle Oval while last year the Bulldogs won the Foundation Derby, but the Sharks were able to win both other encounters quite emphatically.

Both teams contributed four players each to the State game last week as well with Ben Saunders, Ashton Hams, Haiden Schloithe and Ryan Cook representing South Fremantle, and Andrew Stephen, Tom Howlett, Steven Dodd and Jamie McNamara playing from East Fremantle.

The four Bulldogs players all starred for WA with Saunders booting five goals, Schloithe having 16 possessions and two goals and then Cook and Hams were clearly the two best players on the ground.

Hams was awarded the Simpson Medal for his performance across half-back where he finished with 34 possessions and 11 marks while Cook was terrific in the middle and across half-forward ending up with 24 touches, 10 inside 50s and two goals.

Meanwhile, East Fremantle’s Stephen might very well have been the third best player on the ground for his efforts in defence where he had 21 possessions and seven marks. He even drifted forward to kick a rare goal.

Jamie McNamara also played well through the middle with 17 possessions and eight marks while Dodd was solid in defence and Howlett was solid enough in limited game time.

South Fremantle has not named any outs from its team at this stage from the one that took on and lost to Peel a fortnight ago, and will take on East Fremantle on WA Day.

James Sellar, Jason Maskos and Anthony Collica have been added to the squad, but all remain unlikely starters in the team.

AFL-experienced big man Sellar injured a knee in Round 2 against Perth and didn’t return until Round 7 against Claremont, but that proved premature. He has now had three more weeks to try and get his keen right to play in his first Foundation Derby, but he remains far from a certain starter.

Collica has put himself in the mix to add to his 23 league appearances, but a variety of injury concerns have limited him to just three reserves matches this season.

He has been unable to play back-to-back games at all this season after being restricted to just two league and two reserves appearances in 2013, but when fit he is a proven quality and class player.

Small defender Maskos is the other play to come into the mix to play on WA Day but for him to play one of Mitch Carter or Jarrod Parry would likely have to make way.

East Fremantle’s forward-line has struggled all season long and this week it’s time for Ryan Lester-Smith to lose his place in the team having kicked just 8.10 from his eight games this year.

He is the only out of the Sharks side so far from the team that narrowly beat Perth a fortnight ago.

His natural replacement in the forward-line appears to be the also underperforming Jack Perham while coach Steve Malaxos gives Brandon Ellis another opportunity in the forward-line.

Sean Henson, Tom Hooker, Aidan Tropiano and Michael Edwards are also fighting to come into the East Fremantle team to play on WA Day.

RESERVES TEAM

T Bairstow, M Banks, T Bennell, M Bolger, S Borovac, J Branchi, M Carter, E Collard, A Collica, B Collier, J D’Vauz, A Gillespie, M Gundry, J Hall, L Harvey, C Hayden, B Hill, K Hogan, T Kelly, L Lucev, J Maskos, K Matera, B Matera, S Mills, M Nicholson, S Panizza, J Pantano, J Parry, M Pickett, M Russell, B Sokol, T Stewart, J Tartaglia, B Verrier, M Walley

COLTS TEAM

D Cabassi, B Colbung, J Culleton, J Depane, B Donaldson, J Dragovich, B Fimmano, J Florenca, J Foster, M Grubelich, O Ham, K Hosking, B Kersten, C Loersch, J McComb, C McGuinness, J Mcguire, G McLeod, J McMaster, B McPhail, J Mirco, D Moore, A Nodari, L Pearson, C Salmon, K Stewart, N Strom, B Truss, S Williamson

By Chris Pike