GRAND FINAL PREVIEW | v EAST PERTH

South Fremantle will look to create three pieces of history in Sunday’s WAFL grand final by winning a premiership for the first time at Optus Stadium, beating East Perth in a decider for the first time and having the club’s most successful ever season.

South Fremantle have been the standout team this entire WAFL season having lost just one game on the way to winning the minor premiership and then winning straight into the grand final with a second semi-final win against East Perth.

The Bulldogs will now take on the Royals in Sunday’s WAFL grand final for 2025 with the game to take place at Optus Stadium starting at 3:20pm.

The first piece of history that South Fremantle is chasing is to have the best ever win-loss season in the club’s history by going through all of 2025 by losing just one game.

Four times previously including in the last premiership year of 2020 have South Fremantle lost twice in a season but if the Bulldogs win on Sunday, it will be the best ever season in the history of the Mighty Red V.

Sunday’s game will also be the fourth time that South Fremantle and East Perth have met in a grand final but the Royals have won all three previously – in 2001, 1956 and 1927. So a win on Sunday and it will be the first time that the Bulldogs have ever beaten the Royals in a grand final.

The last piece of history for South Fremantle to tick off will be to win for the first ever time at Optus Stadium. The Bulldogs have played two grand finals at the venue previously only to lose to Subiaco on both occasions in 2019 and 2021.

So Sunday presents the opportunity for South Fremantle to win a first ever game at Optus Stadium and to celebrate a premiership there on the first occasion.

South Fremantle comes into Sunday’s grand final on a 14-game winning streak having won the last 13 matches of the home and away season since that one lone defeat at the hands of West Coast in Round 5.

That includes three wins in 2025 against East Perth including in the second semi-final at Fremantle Community Bank Oval two weeks ago by 59 points.

East Perth is playing in a second straight grand final after losing to Peel Thunder last year as they try to win a first premiership since their hat-trick of flags in 2000-01-02.

The Royals bounced back from losing in the second semi-final to the Bulldogs by winning a hard fought preliminary final against Claremont last Sunday in tough conditions.

The grand final will also feature plenty of fascinating match ups starting with the ruck battle between former AFL-listed pair Hamish Free and Scott Jones.

Then there’s the midfield contingent of both groups including Matthew Parker, Tom Blechynden, Jake Florenca, Isiah Winder, Matt Ward and Glenn Byron from the Bulldogs up against Hamish Brayshaw, Tom North, Christian Ameduri, Liam Tedesco, Angus Scott and Zach Raykos from the Royals.

The South Fremantle forward-line features leading goalkicker Trey Ruscoe with 55 goals but Brandon Donaldson has also kicked 35 goals, Zac Strom 16, Roan O’Hehir 16, Chase Bourne 11, Haiden Schloithe 10 and Aaron Drage 10.

The East Perth back-line consisting of Corey Watts, Harrison Macreadie, Kye Willcocks, Jacob Msando and the playmaking Stan Wright will be up against them.

South Fremantle’s defence has been miserly all season conceding an average of only 51.7 points led by Noah Strom, Chad Pearson, Ethan Hughes, Lewis Rayson and Jamaine Jones.

The East Perth forward-line of Mitch Schofield, Shayne Hille, Sam Van Diemen, Ben Middleton, Tom Medhat and Coby Burgiel will need to find away to break that back-line down for a Royals win.

South Fremantle star Matthew Parker was runner-up in the Sandover Medal on Monday night and is looking forward to the contest which he knows will be fierce from the start and couldn’t be happier with the Bulldogs’ preparation.

“We know and obviously Hamish knows that from that fist bounce it’s going to be on, but I just think that whoever can hold their cool the quickest will be able to go from there,” Parker told SEN WA.

“We’ve obviously put ourselves in a good position and have had a couple of weeks off now so we’ve all recovered well, our bodies well and on that side of things we’re pretty good.

“But in saying that, we’re not looking too far ahead or anything and know the challenge that is ahead of us on Sunday against East Perth. Even though we’ve had a couple of weeks, we still train at a high intensity and have kept our standards high so we will be ready to go.”