WAFL RAC DERBY BIGGEST CLASH SINCE ’97

South Fremantle and East Fremantle haven’t played in a final since the grand final of 1997 and the first ever WAFL RAC Derby this WA Day will be the biggest game in nearly 30 years with the Bulldogs and Sharks occupying the top two positions.

The 1997 derby grand final was a game for the ages at Subiaco Oval with South Fremantle winning by a solitary goal for the memorable premiership triumph.

That game lives in the memories of lifelong South Fremantle supporters and now this Monday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval will be the biggest derby contest since.

For so many reasons it’s a game to salivate over beginning with proud West Australian company, RAC, coming on board as the naming rights sponsor making it the first ever WAFL RAC Derby this WA Day Monday.

Where the game truly takes on extra significance is that for a rare occasion, the Bulldogs and Sharks enter the WA Day Derby occupying the top two positions on the WAFL ladder with the reward being that the winner will sit clear in first place by the end of Round 8 of the 2025 season.

Since that 1997 derby grand final which was just the 10th premiership derby decider in history dating back to the first in 1914, never have South Fremantle and East Fremantle sat in the top two positions on the WAFL ladder coming into the WA Day (formerly Foundation Day) Derby.

In fact, since 1997 there has only been four previous times that South Fremantle has come into a WA Day contest sitting in first place on the WAFL ladder like they will going into this Monday’s match up.

Those occasions for the Bulldogs were in 2016, 2009, 2001 and 1999. South Fremantle made the grand finals 1999 and 2001, and won the 2009 premiership along with ending a finals drought in 2016 after entering those derbies on WA Day in first place.

Since 1997, East Fremantle has been in top spot on the ladder going into a WA Day Derby just once and that was the next year in 1998 when the Sharks were on the way to winning their last premiership until breaking the drought in 2023.

The derby has been played on the WA Day holiday Monday every year since that 1997 grand final aside from the Covid impacted year of 2020. In those 26 match ups, only seven times have both the Bulldogs and Sharks occupied top five positions.

The closest call to a battle of the top two teams came back in 2016 when South Fremantle was in top spot and East Fremantle was on the rise sitting third.

East Fremantle managed to win that game as well by 39 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with Jack Perham and Brett Peake kicking three goals each, and Liam Anthony racking up 23 possessions.

However, by the end of the season the Bulldogs finished in second place to play finals that year for the first time since 2011 while the Sharks’ run of missing finals action continued with a sixth place finish that season.

This year’s WA Day Derby will be the third time in the past four years coming into the contest that South Fremantle and East Fremantle have both occupied top five positions.

After East Fremantle was sitting eighth at the time in 2021 with South Fremantle third as reigning premiers, both teams were travelling well in 2022 with the Bulldogs fourth and the Sharks second by the time WA Day came around.

South Fremantle won that game at the WACA Ground by 14 points in horrible conditions and that was the last derby not played at Fremantle Community Bank Oval where it will remain for the foreseeable future.

Then in last year’s WA Day Derby in front of a terrific crowd of 7468 people at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, the Bulldogs came into the match up in third position and the Sharks were in fifth.

East Fremantle were the reigning premiers and went on to win that game by 66 points in what has been the biggest WA Day Derby result since South Fremantle’s 73-point win back in 2018.

Not only does Monday’s WA Day Derby shape as the biggest South Fremantle-East Fremantle match up since the 1997 grand final, but also the biggest game of this WAFL season with the reward being top position for the winners of the first ever WAFL RAC Derby.