RAC DERBY PREVIEW | v EAST FREMANTLE

It’s always the biggest day on the West Australian football calendar but this year’s WA Day RAC Derby takes on extra significance with South Fremantle putting top place in the WAFL on the line against East Fremantle.

The history of the WA Day Derby speaks for itself but one thing that is not commonplace is for the Bulldogs and Sharks to occupy the top two positions on the WAFL ladder coming into the public holiday Monday match up.

That is exactly the case, though, coming into the 2025 edition when South Fremantle plays host to East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval this Monday afternoon.

The league match up between the top two teams will get underway at 1:10pm with the reserves starting the day’s action at 10:25am and then the colts to wrap things up starting at 4pm.

Coming into the 2025 WA Day RAC Derby and South Fremantle sits in first place on the WAFL ladder on the back of last Saturday’s 103-point thrashing of Subiaco which is the first triple-figure result of the season to date.

East Fremantle was also impressive in a 20-point victory against an East Perth team that was sitting in top spot so for the second straight week the Sharks are trying to knock off the first place team and to take that position now themselves.

Both teams come into the WA Day long weekend not only occupying the top two positions but on identical 6-1 records and with only percentage separating them with the Bulldogs at 154.6 and the Sharks at 136.9.

The two fierce rivals split their match up in 2024 with the Sharks winning by 66 points in Round 18 before last year’s WA Day contest saw the Bulldogs claim the 14-point win in front of a terrific crowd of 7468 people.

They also split the two match ups back in 2023 but prior to that and South Fremantle had won 15 consecutive derbies dating back to that streak starting in Round 19, 2016, and not being ended until Round 16, 2023, when the Sharks finally broke through on the way to winning the premiership.

South Fremantle coach Craig White played in seven WA Day derbies himself during his 192-game dual premiership winning playing career with four wins and three losses.

So he is fully aware of how unpredictable derbies can be and upsets have been commonplace, but this is a unique occasion where there are no underdogs considering both teams are in the top two positions, both on the same record and both in tremendous form.

It will be White’s first time not only coaching on WA Day, but also against East Fremantle and he can’t wait to be part of it for the first time since the last derby on the holiday Monday he played in back in 2014.

“It’s just the rivalry that sticks out to me,” White said on The Kennel on 91.3 SportFM.

“No matter the ladder positions, there’s always such a rivalry and whenever we’ve been strong and East Fremantle might not have been, we’ve always had close games and even vice versa.

“It’s just that rivalry of no matter the ladder positions it’s always been a tough one. The way it’s panned out this year and I can’t recall the last time we’ve played East Fremantle when we’re one and two at the top of the ladder so that just bodes for a really fierce and competitive game, which they always are.

“There might just be a little bit more at stake this year with both teams in the ladder positions that we are.”

The reserves contest gets things underway on Monday morning at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle coming into the match up in third position on the ladder with a 4-2 record up against an East Fremantle side sitting seventh at 2-4.

Then the colts match up follows the league battle with another clash of the top two teams with South Fremantle currently in first place with a 5-1 record to be a game and percentage ahead of East Fremantle who are second at 4-2.