RD 19 PREVIEW | v PEEL THUNDER

BOUNCING back is on the mind of South Fremantle on Saturday against the league-leading Peel Thunder at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with the Bulldogs needing a win to ensure they stay in the top five.

South Fremantle remains in fifth position on the WAFL ladder coming into the last three rounds of the season with eight wins, six losses and a draw, but they do need a win on Saturday to ensure they stay there.

The Bulldogs are currently just two points ahead of the sixth placed Claremont so a loss for South Fremantle on Saturday and a win for Claremont against West Perth will see them slip out of the top five ahead of the final two rounds.

South Fremantle has now lost the last two games, and four of the past five, against Peel, which is a run the Bulldogs will be looking to put a halt to on Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The two teams met this season back in Round 8 at Lane Group Stadium in Mandurah where the Thunder scored the 44-point victory.

On that day, Isiah Winder had 32 possessions and kicked two goals for South Fremantle but just didn’t get enough support despite 30 disposals too for Matthew Parker and 26 for Haiden Schloithe, but neither will be playing this week.

Tom Blechynden also had 24 possessions, Chad Pearson 23 and Lewis Rayson 20.

South Fremantle midfielder Robbie Turnbull is just hoping the Bulldogs can get back to finding some consistency to their performance starting on Saturday against Peel.

“We know that our best is good enough and it’s just finding that consistency in our performances as individuals, and as a team,” Turnbull said.

“We’ve got some really young players coming through that are still developing, we’ve had a few injuries as well, and we’re just trying to find that consistency in our performance coming into the back end of the season.

“Our best is really good and it’s a really good brand, but if you don’t rock up and play your brand, you get exposed. It’s so competitive this year that you can win or lose any game depending on how you rock up on game. We just really have to be on this week to give it our best, and play our brand.”

It’s mixed news on the selection front for South Fremantle coming into the contest with Peel with former captain Dylan Main, debutant Cooper Osborne along with Lachlan Mitchell, George Wessels and Jacob Whan into the team.

Going out is Haiden Schloithe with a knee injury, Jordan Gallucci with a hand injury and then Ashton Ferreira, Solomon James and Caleb Datson as well.

Peel defeated Claremont by 35 points last week and from that team, James Aish, Jack Delean, Neil Erasmus, Liam Reidy and Cooper Simpson come into the team.

Going out for the Thunder are Matthew Johnson, Patrick Voss, Max Knobel, Karl Worner and Matt Taberner.

The colts contest gets proceedings underway at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday with the game starting at 9.15am with South Fremantle coming off a stirring 39-point derby win last Saturday.

That saw the Bulldogs improve to a 4-9 record on the season now coming into this week’s match with a Peel team sitting in second last place at 3-10.

The reserves match up will then get underway at 11.45am with the Bulldogs looking to hit back from a narrow six-point loss to East Fremantle last week while Peel went down to Claremont by 33 points.

South Fremantle’s reserves come into the match up in fourth position with a 7-6 record while Peel is seventh at 4-9.