Good Friday Preview v Claremont

SOUTH Fremantle and Claremont meet on Good Friday evening at Fremantle Oval in what should be a tremendous occasion with the prospect of a strong turn out to take advantage of the action under lights at the port.

Up until South Fremantle’s thumping 64-point win over Claremont in Round 7 last year at Fremantle Oval, the Tigers had dominated the recent history with the Bulldogs.

Since South Fremantle won the 2009 premiership, Claremont won the next nine meetings between the two teams during which time the Tigers claimed four minor premierships and won two flags in both 2011 and 2012 while also making the grand final in 2010.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, has only played finals once since winning the flag in 2009, and that was in 2011, but now the Bulldogs have started the new season in impressive fashion.

South Fremantle has beaten West Perth and Perth to open the season to have now won its first two games of a year for the first time since winning the opening six of 2006 as reigning premiers.

Taking into account last year as well, and the Bulldogs are now on a seven-game winning streak after recording wins in the final five matches of 2014.

Claremont had the bye last weekend following an opening round loss to the reigning premiers Subiaco, but will now be fresh and desperate to try and avoid the sort of start to the season the Tigers had last year losing eight of their first 11 matches.

Both South Fremantle and Claremont have some strong inclusions as well for the Good Friday evening contest making sure of an even more fascinating contest at Fremantle Oval.

The biggest news at South Fremantle is the return of premiership small forward Cory Dell’Olio who will play his first game with the Bulldogs since the losing first semi-final to Subiaco in 2011.

Up to that point, Dell’Olio had played 58 games and kicked 109 goals for the Bulldogs while also representing Western Australia. That saw him drafted by Essendon where he has spent the last three years managing to play 16 AFL matches.

He has returned to the Bulldogs now in 2015 and after being forced to sit out the opening two rounds of the season, he will play on Good Friday against Claremont.

And with South Fremantle’s forward-line also looking strong led by Ben Saunders, James Sellar and Josh Pullman, and with Craig White at their feet, the presence of Dell’Olio will only serve to provide the Bulldogs with another goalkicking option.

Two-time premiership player and 135-game veteran Ashton Hams is also set to return after being a late withdrawal against Perth last week.

Another former AFL player, Adam Carter, is also a chance to come in for his first league game of 2015 after racking up 25 possessions in the reserves last Saturday against Perth.

Jarrod Parry could also come in for his first league game of the year after missing Round 1 through injury and then playing against the Demons in the reserves last Saturday where he racked up 30 possessions and kicked a goal.

Chris Luff could come in to play his first game with South Fremantle to help combat Claremont’s tall forwards while Jacob Dragovich is in the mix for a league debut as well.

With such strong options at the selection table in terms of inclusion, someone will always have to make room and at this stage the unlucky trio at South Fremantle are Toby Bairstow, Jacob Martinez, and Bailey Matera.

There are also some important inclusions at Claremont led by the return of captain Jake Murphy.

The 25-year-old was one of the best midfielders in the competition during a tremendous and dominant season for the Tigers in 2013 and following that year, he was appointed captain.

However, he had an injury-interrupted start to his captaincy in 2014 playing just 11 league matches and now after an interrupted pre-season and playing Round 1 in the reserves against Subiaco, Murphy is back to lead the Tigers into battle against the Bulldogs on Good Friday.

Anton Hamp is also back for Claremont to play either as a key forward or defender while Maximillian Bentley, Jack Beeck and Sam Petrevski-Seton are also in the mix.

Petrevski-Seton is one of the more exciting young players coming through and after a strong game in the colts to open the season with 24 disposals and a goal, he could make his league debut.

RESERVES SQUAD
M Ah Siu, T Bairstow, M Banks, N Borovac, J Branchi, A Carter, M Carter, A Collica, C Dell’Olio, J Dragovich, A Gillespie, M Gundry, L Harvey, S Lowrie, C Luff, J Maskos, B Matera, K Matera, B McPhail, S Mills, P Mugambwa, N Olds, S Panizza, J Parry, J Sgherza, B Sokol, T Stewart, D Warrell

COLTS SQUAD
M Barritt, S Bolton, N Bretag, A Brown, D Brown, D Burke, D Cabassi, B Colbung, J Collard, J Colpitts, B Corner, J Cupin, C Datson, Z de san Miguel, B Donaldson, M Dzelebdzic, J Florenca, C Foster, J Foster, B Kersten, J McComb, J Mudge, J Musika, A Nodari, C Pearson, K Pirangi, C Salmon, B Strickland