ROUND 17 PREVIEW V PEEL THUNDER

SOUTH Fremantle’s run towards another WAFL finals campaign goes into overdrive this Saturday up against Peel Thunder at Mandurah’s Lane Group Stadium.

South Fremantle had the bye in Round 16 of the 2022 WAFL season on the back of a heart stopping draw with West Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in Round 15.

That capped a month for the Bulldogs that saw them play their fellow top five teams at the team and came away with wins against Claremont, Swan Districts and East Fremantle, and the draw with the Falcons.

That means that following the bye and entering the last four weeks of the season heading towards finals where the Bulldogs looking to build on having layed in the past six WAFL preliminary finals, and last three Grand Finals.

The last month of the season for South Fremantle begins in Mandurah on Saturday in what is shaping as a fascinating, and crucial match up for both teams.

The Bulldogs enter the contest in fourth position on the WAFL ladder with nine wins, four losses and a draw while the Thunder have won their past three matches to improve to an 8-6 record and now to have replaced Swan Districts in fifth position.

A win for South Fremantle will strengthen their push for a top three, and potentially top two finish with three rounds remaining while a loss would only leave the Bulldogs half a game ahead of the Thunder.

Last time the two teams met was in Round this year at Fremantle Community Bank Oval when South Fremantle beat Peel by 26 points.

That meant that the Bulldogs have now won six straight matches against the Thunder with the last loss coming in Mandurah in Round 16, 2018.

Since Peel beat South Fremantle in the 2017 qualifying final on the way to winning a second straight premiership, the Bulldogs have won seven of the last eight matches with the Thunder.

South Fremantle captain Dylan Main liked a lot of what the Bulldogs did leading into last week’s bye with the three wins and a draw in response to a disappointing loss to the West Coast Eagles as they get ready for this last month of the home and away season.

“We had touched on about how the last four or five weeks was a really important stage of our season given that we were playing Claremont, Swans, East Freo and then West Perth who were four of the other top five teams,” Main said.

“We knew we were fairly revved up to have a crack at those four weeks and what we did has put us in good stead for the rest of the year. Obviously there’s still plenty of footy to play between now and the rest of the season, but I think we can take a lot of confidence from it.

We’ve taken it right up to the top teams and haven’t lost to any of them over the last five weeks so we look forward to another good challenge against Peel this week. Hopefully we can just keep building from here on in and get into finals, and get as high up the ladder as possible.”

The Bulldogs haven’t lost to Peel for four years now and Main hopes that trend can continue on Saturday, but he knows it won’t be easy against a team in good form and fighting for their own hold on a finals appearance.

“Peel are always a pretty strong team and you never quite know what kind of team they will have out on the park, but for the last six or so years they’ve generally been a strong team,” Main said.

“It’s going to be a tough contest even though we normally match up pretty well against them. We’re definitely confident going into the game after getting to rest up last week and now start this little patch of games hopefully leading into finals. It all starts with Peel this week.”

ROUND 17 – 2022 WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v PEEL THUNDER – LANE GROUP STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM

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