RD 5 PREVIEW | v WEST COAST

South Fremantle is the lone undefeated team in the WAFL competition and put that on the line on Saturday at home to the West Coast Eagles who are one of just two winless teams left in 2025.

The Bulldogs are back home at Fremantle Community Bank Oval for the Saturday afternoon match up at 1:40pm taking on the Eagles looking to improve to a 5-0 start to the season and sending the Eagles to 0-5 in the process.

With the league team playing the Eagles in the WAFL, both the colts and reserves have the bye this weekend before resuming their seasons next Saturday against Claremont at Revo Fitness Stadium.

South Fremantle has made a perfect start to the season under new coach Craig White with wins against Perth, Peel Thunder, Swan Districts and West Perth to be sitting a game and percentage clear in top spot following the opening month.

The Bulldogs are the highest scoring team so far this season putting up 100 points a game while they are also ranked first defensively conceding just 55.5 points and having not given up more than 10 goals in any game so far in 2025.

They take on an Eagles team yet to win this season with losses against East Fremantle, Subiaco, Perth and Claremont but who have been more competitive and have a strong contingent of AFL-listed players available for selection.

The two teams have now met 10 times in the WAFL with South Fremantle having won eight of the previous clashes including the last four in-a-row by an average of 68 points which included wins last year by 53 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval and 88 at Mineral Resources Park.

South Fremantle midfielder and 2023 WJ Hughes Medal winner Tom Blechynden is in the middle of a terrific season with 24.8 possessions a game.

He is looking forward to the test this Saturday of the Eagles while the Bulldogs look to shake off conceding the last four games to West Perth last Thursday night despite the eventual 27-point victory.

“It was a bit of a shame to give up those last four goals and as a side we want to be ruthless, and not let teams back in no matter what the scoreboard is. So we’ve done some work on that and hopefully it won’t happen again,” Blechynden told The Kennel on 91.3 SportFM.

“We’ve talked about it as a group and last week they were pretty even with Claremont at half-time in that game and they’ve got quite a few listed players in their side so they are certainly a good team. They’re definitely not a team we’ll be taking lightly.”

Given how well South Fremantle has been going, there’s little reason to change much from the coaching staff with Cooper Clarke-Dehring, Riley Colborne, Jack Green, Connor McDonald and Nick Stuhldreier added to the squad for Saturday’s game.

The only out at this stage is Roan O’Hehir who had 11 possessions and kicked a goal in last Thursday night’s win against West Perth at Joondalup.