RD 16 PREVIEW | v SUBIACO

SOUTH Fremantle returns to the playing field this Saturday to play Subiaco at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with the memory of colts player Nick Campo at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

It might be a crucial game in the context of the WAFL season for South Fremantle against Subiaco on Saturday, but that pales into insignificance after what tragically occurred last Saturday night when Campo lost his life in a car accident and his Bulldogs teammate Tyler Rowe remains in hospital.

Less than a week later and South Fremantle will be back in action on Saturday with the colts game to proceed starting at 9am. That will be followed by the reserves at 11.40am and then the league match up begins at 2.30pm.

Tributes to Nick Campo will be held prior to all three matches and South Fremantle’s head of football Charlie Burke discussed what the week has been like.

“It’s been tough but the 60-odd young men in the colts program have really got together and got around each other, which has been remarkable to see in such tragic circumstances,” Burke told 91.3 SportFM.

“It also goes wider to just our colts and a number of our senior boys have played footy with Nick and a lot of the boys in the colts program. It’s been a highly emotional week but off the back of that to see how close the group has got over the last week has been incredible to see as well.”

The tributes to Nick Campo will be a key feature of the entire day at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday, but Burke is encouraging anybody struggling with the loss of Nick to get down before the colts game to join in with his teammates to pay their respects.

“Across all grades our staff, board members, officials and players will wear black armbands and then before all our three grades we’ll have a moment’s silence, which will be extremely emotional obviously particularly for the colts group,” he said.

“On the scoreboard, we’ll honour Nick as well with a bit of a tribute and it’s going to be a highly emotional day and we do encourage people to get along particularly for the colts.

“We certainly won’t be charging for entry prior to the colts game because we want as many of his friends, family and those touched by Nick to come and join our colts as we celebrate and honour the life of Nick Campo.”

As for the league contest on Saturday afternoon between South Fremantle and Subiaco, it’s a game the Bulldogs need to win to maintain their hold on a spot inside the top five.

South Fremantle lost its previous two matches prior to last week’s bye to now be in fifth position on the WAFL ladder but with a chance to move a game clear with a win against Subiaco, and to potentially leapfrog East Fremantle into fourth place.

The Bulldogs are looking to hit back from the losses to East Perth and Claremont prior to the bye as they take on a Lions team trying to keep their own finals prospects alive.

Subiaco comes into the match up with a 4-8 record but prior to the bye did beat the ladder topping Peel Thunder and narrowly lost to the second placed East Perth.

That means that the Bulldogs will have their work cut out against the Lions and Burke knows that playing four quarters of their football will be key to getting the result they are after.

“We’re coming up against a side that has been very good in their last couple of games and have probably stated to hit their straps a bit,” Burke said.

“We know how close the competition is this year and they went down only by a couple of points to East Perth and potentially should have won that game. They also beat Peel down at Peel the week before so they are going along pretty well and we’re a bit on the other ledger at the moment.

“We’ve had a couple of close losses and our best football has been right up there, but unfortunately we just haven’t been able to provide that for four quarters. You can’t afford to do that at this level and in this competition particularly this season.”