RD 12 PREVIEW | v PEEL THUNDER

SOUTH Fremantle heads to Mandurah on Saturday afternoon back in action after the bye, with a couple of premiership big men back in the team and looking to return to the WAFL winner’s list.

Following the bye last week, South Fremantle returns to action this Saturday afternoon by taking on Peel at Mandurah’s Lane Group Stadium. The colts match between the Bulldogs and Thunder begins at 9.10am followed by the reserves clash at 11.40am, and then the league match up at 2.10pm.

Both Peel and South Fremantle had byes in Round 11 of the WAFL season with the Thunder winning last up against Perth by 19 points to snap a two-game losing slide while the Bulldogs suffered consecutive losses by going down to East Perth.

South Fremantle’s 4-6 record doesn’t look too bad so far this season but if you take the eight premiership points off their tally and the Bulldogs are struggling to stay in finals contention as they look to bounce back from their last two losses to West Perth and East Perth before the bye.

It’s been a fascinating recent history between the two clubs including back in Round 3 of this year when South Fremantle produced its best performance of the season so far to beat the Thunder by 44 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

In that win for the Bulldogs, Jordan Gallucci kicked three goals, Brandon Donaldson two, Brendon Ah Chee two and Jacob Dragovich two while Chad Pearson picked up 28 touches, Dragovich 27, Ah Chee 27, Toby McQuilkin 26, Tom Blechynden 25, Donaldson 25 and Dylan Main 23 to go with 11 tackles.

Neil Erasmus collected 27 possessions for Peel, Clay Hall 27, Traye Bennell 26, Ben Hancock 25, Nathan Wilson 23 and Karl Worner 21.

Prior to that and the teams clashed in the elimination final last year also down at the port with Peel ending the season of South Fremantle with the nine-point win on the back of a dominant fourth quarter.

However, before that and South Fremantle had controlled things against Peel for the most part since the Thunder’s win in the qualifying final of 2017 when they were on their way to securing back-to-back premierships.

After that, South Fremantle won seven of the next eight match ups before Peel scored the two wins to close 2022 in Round 17 and then in that elimination final.

South Fremantle has also won three of its last four visits to Mandurah to take on Peel as well along with six of the past eight dating back to 2016 even though the Thunder won the last time in Round 17 last year.

Coming into the round and Peel remains the best defensive team in the WAFL conceding just 60.1 points a game.

The Thunder are also fourth in attack scoring 83.0 points a game while South Fremantle is doing well defensively conceding just 64.0 points. However, scoring has again been a concern for the Bulldogs with them ranked eighth with just 63.8 points a game so far in 2023.

Peel is the third highest ball winning team in the WAFL with 341 possessions a game and having 17 more touches each week than their opponents. South Fremantle is averaging 321 touches while their opponents are only having 0.8 fewer.

The Thunder generally get better the longer games go on in 2023. They are ranked just eighth in first quarters where they are outscored by 57 points so far this season.

But they are then ranked second in both second and fourth terms, and third in the third stanzas including outscoring their opponents by 137 points in last quarters.

South Fremantle is a bit the opposite with the Bulldogs ranked fifth in first quarters but seventh in second and they outscore their opposition by 17 points in first halves. However, they get outscored by 19 in second halves where they are ranked seventh across the WAFL.

South Fremantle suffered a disappointing loss to East Perth two weeks ago prior to the bye but have some strong inclusions to take on Peel with in Mandurah on Saturday.

Premiership players Brock Higgins and Jimmy Miller are among the inclusions for the Bulldogs along with Jaxon Bellchambers, Chase Bourne, Toby Dodds, Aiden Hall and Jacob Sax.

Going out of the South Fremantle team that lost to East Perth two weeks ago are Jordan Boullineau, Solomon James and Jarrod Salmeri.

Peel had a solid win two weeks ago to consolidate a top five position prior to the break and have some impressive inclusions now this week to take on South Fremantle at home.

Ty Anderson, Bailey Banfield, Will Brodie, Joel O’Driscoll, Michael Sellwood and Corey Tregenza are the players all added to the squad for the Thunder

The players out at this stage from the side that beat the Demons two weeks ago are forward pair Guy Barnes and Tom Emmett.