Round 1 time change against West Perth

SOUTH Fremantle’s 2016 WAFL season opener has been changed to an afternoon game to accommodate the Channel 7 broadcast from Fremantle Oval.

The Bulldogs were set to host West Perth under lights at the port to open the 2016 season on Saturday March 19. However, it was determined the lighting couldn’t be increased to a sufficient broadcast standard without affecting playability.

The fixture remains at Fremantle Oval on Saturday March 19 but instead of a night clash, it will now be in the afternoon as South Fremantle hosts West Perth with the Garlic Munchers Cup at stake.

WAFL general manager Steve Hargrave is still confident of it being a terrific start to the 2016 season on Channel 7 even if it doesn’t have the added bonus of being the first game being broadcast by the station under lights from a WAFL ground.

“Promoting the WAFL competition is extremely important and playing a televised Round 1 night game presented a terrific opportunity to do this,” Hargrave said.

“We have explored all options to make this possible. Unfortunately, we haven’t found a solution to increase the lighting at Fremantle Oval to a sufficient broadcast standard without affecting playability.

“After assessing all of our options, it has been decided in consultation with the 7 Network, South Fremantle and West Perth Football Clubs to play the fixture on Saturday afternoon instead.

“We will continue to explore initiatives such as this to maximise promotional opportunities for the WAFL competition.”

South Fremantle also hosted West Perth in Round 1 last year at Fremantle Oval and started the season off in exciting fashion with a 35-point victory.

That was coach Todd Curley’s first match in charge against his former team where he was a player, captain and coach.

He now hopes for something similar in a fortnight’s time to begin 2016 whether it’s in the afternoon sun or under the lights.

“It will be a good game for Round 1. It’s on TV and hopefully we get a good crowd down here. It will be fantastic to get the season started,” Curley said.

“You can train and play intra-clubs with match practice as much as you like, but we are pretty eager to test ourselves against opposition to be able to gauge ourselves.

“That all leads into Round 1 and obviously they played in a grand final last year and we didn’t play finals, so it’s a good yard stick for us first up to see where we’re at.”