RD 20 PREVIEW | v WEST COAST

South Fremantle might have already locked away the WAFL minor premiership before the end of the home and away season but there’s no shortage of motivation against the West Coast Eagles this Saturday.

Coming into the final round of the home and away season and South Fremantle are two and-a-half games and percentage clear in top spot with the minor premiership secured and locking in a break in the first round of the finals next weekend.

The Bulldogs take on the Eagles on Saturday starting at 11:10am at Lathlain’s Mineral Resources Park and while it’s a top against bottom clash, it does have a fair bit of intrigue surrounding it.

South Fremantle and West Coast are locked into top and bottom spot respectively no matter what happens on Saturday, but it is the Eagles who have handed the Bulldogs their lone loss of the 2025 season.

That happened back in Round 5 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with the Bulldogs losing for the only time in 2025 while the Eagles won just one of their two matches so far for the season.

Now coming into Saturday’s game and South Fremantle have won 12 straight matches since that loss and sit on a 16-1 record with top spot secured.

The Eagles have now lost their last five matches and with a 2-15 record, they are two games clear in bottom place and are guaranteed of another wooden spoon.

South Fremantle defender Lewis Rayson has settled in nicely at the Bulldogs over the past two seasons now and he has no doubt the Bulldogs will be out to win as much ever come Saturday against the Eagles.

“I know there’s obviously a few ex-AFL boys in our team that played for West Coast and they are pretty keen to have another crack at them this year to try and get the win against them,” Rayson told The Kennell on 91.3 SportFM.

“We also want to be going into finals with a win as well and we don’t want to obviously leave too much out there.

“As long as we strive to put together a four quarter performance as a group then we should be pretty good when it comes to winning the game as long as we just do what we need to do on that front, and keep the mindset that it’s the last game before finals.

“You want to be playing your best towards the back end of the year especially when it’s quite tight for spots with the way the ressies are going as well. Everyone is sort of fighting for their spot in the 22 as well so it should be an exciting game and we’ll see how we go.”

South Fremantle have made three changes for Saturday’s game with Jordan Boullineau, Jamaine Jones and Zac Strom all returning to the team.

Going out for the Bulldogs are Kyle Russell, Jacob Sax and Riley Colborne.

Ther are four changes for West Coast with Charlie Banfield, Zac Dronow, Jayden Hunt and Darby McCarthy coming in.

Going out for the Eagles are Denholm Melrose, Josh Burke, Tyrell Dewar and Lucca Grego.

With South Fremantle’s league team playing West Coast, the colts and reserves both have byes in the last round of the season with each of them guaranteed of playing finals already.

The Bulldogs colts are currently in top spot but will only stay there if East Fremantle loses to the fourth placed West Perth but they are guaranteed of a top two finish either way.

The South Fremantle reserves are currently in second position with a 13-3 record and they can’t be moved from that spot meaning they will be playing in a qualifying final next week but the opponent won’t be locked away until after this weekend.