RD 9 PREVIEW | v EAST FREMANTLE

A massive WA Day long weekend of football for South Fremantle begins on Friday evening at The Good Grocer Park with the Bulldogs taking on East Fremantle in the second WAFLW Derby already of 2025.

The Bulldogs pulled off a miraculous come from behind victory back in the opening round of the 2025 season against the Sharks at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with Zoe Huggett kicking the winning goal on the siren.

The two teams now do battle for the first time since then in Round 9 of the WAFLW season to open the WA Day long weekend when they lock horns at the redeveloped The Good Grocer Park.

The WAFLW contest will get underway on Friday evening at 5:30pm with the Rogers Cup clash to follow at 7:35pm.

It shapes as a crucial contest in the context of the season too for both teams with South Fremantle having now lost three of the past four matches and East Fremantle having lost four of the last five.

Both teams are trying to break back into the top four with the Bulldogs currently sitting in fifth place with a 4-3 record just percentage behind the fourth ranked West Perth while the Sharks are a couple of games back with a 2-5 record.

South Fremantle coach Pia Faletti feels the Bulldogs are well placed heading into the second half of the season, but knows they can’t afford to get behind like they did against the Sharks again in Round 1.

“We’re happy with where we sit but we know there’s still plenty of work to do if we want to solidity ourselves in the four and make a real play to be contenders in the finals,” Faletti told 91.3 SportFM.

“That was a bit of a heartstopper obviously back in Round 1 and we definitely don’t want to leave our work until the last four minutes. We know we can still get ourselves back in the game, but we would rather have the game on our terms early and be able to build on a leader rather than chasing the whole game.

“That becomes even more important if they are going to be difficult conditions which we’re anticipating with the weather so those early goals are going to be crucial, and that’s where we want to turn that one around.”

South Fremantle are looking to bounce back from last week’s 14-point loss to Swan Districts with two changes to the team to face East Fremantle with Liusaidh Gilchrist and Caitlin Pears coming back into the line-up.

Going out for the Sharks are Kate Newson and Lauren Vecchio.

East Fremantle have now lost their past couple of games and from the team that lost to West Perth two weeks ago prior to the bye, Clotilde Decaux and Larissa Versaci come into the side with Reini Tutuki and Charlotte McGregor going out.

Following that WAFLW contest to get things underway on Friday evening, the Rogers Cup teams will run out onto The Good Grocer Park in what shapes as a fascinating contest between two top four teams.

South Fremantle comes into the derby match up sitting in third position on the Rogers Cup ladder with a 4-2 record as they come up against an East Fremantle team hot on their heels at 4-3 in fourth place.

When the two teams met back in the opening round of the season it was a 24-point victory for South Fremantle over East Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Bulldogs are fresh off a draw with Swan Districts in a tough slog last Sunday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval while East Fremantle is off the bye and prior to that suffered a 34-point defeat at the hands of the league-leading West Perth.