ROUND 19 PREVIEW V EAST PERTH

SOUTH Fremantle is back to Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Sunday to play host to East Perth needing a win to keep their hopes of a finals double chance alive.

The game for the Bulldogs against the Royals will be the last match of Round 19 in the WAFL and it presents a chance for South Fremantle to enhance their prospects of finishing in third position by the end of next weekend.

However, South Fremantle needs to be wary of the old team playing under a new coach for the first time curse on Sunday when the Bulldogs host East Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

A glance at the circumstances the two teams find themselves in with two rounds of the season remaining suggests the Bulldogs should be comfortable favourites coming into the game, but that’s why it’s played on the field and not on paper.

South Fremantle guaranteed themselves a seventh consecutive finals appearance in 2022 by beating Subiaco by 88 points last Saturday and now the Bulldogs will look to put in a strong showing in their last home game of the season against the Royals.

South Fremantle comes into the game in fourth position on the WAFL ladder with 10 wins, five losses and a draw for the season but two wins to close proceedings against East Perth and Perth and the Bulldogs could still finish in the top two depending on other results.

However, the Bulldogs will need to be cautious of an East Perth team looking to fire after their coach Jeremy Barnard was let go following last week’s 70-point derby loss to West Perth.

Ross McQueen will now take over for the last two games of the season and there’d be no better way for him to put his case forward to take over full-time in 2022 than by orchestrating an upset win on the road to a finals bound South Fremantle on Sunday.

South Fremantle has enjoyed life against East Perth for the most part in recent times including an 11-point win earlier this season in Round 8 at Leederville Oval.

While East Perth did score a comeback win to cause an upset last year in Round 10 also at Leederville Oval to win by five points, prior to that the Bulldogs had won seven straight against the Royals.

So coming into Sunday’s clash it’s South Fremantle who has won eight of the last nine against East Perth.

That’s no great surprise given the Bulldogs have now played in the past six preliminary finals and three Grand Finals while the Royals have only played two finals in that period, and lost both elimination finals in 2016 and 2018.

Meanwhile at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, South Fremantle has also won its last four home matches against East Perth with the last meeting coming in Round 6 of last year.

The last time the Royals won down at the port was in a one-point thriller when they had a West Coast Eagles loaded squad in Round 10, 2017 and Drew Petrie was among the heroes that helped them secure the come from behind win.

South Fremantle will go in with an unchanged team from the line-up that beat Subiaco by 88 points last Saturday also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

East Perth has made a couple of changes to its team that lost to West Perth by 70 points last Saturday with Taylor North and Harley Sparks coming into the Royals’ line-up.

Going out for East Perth are Reuben Ginbey and Nick Robertson.

ROUND 19 – 2022 WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST PERTH – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SUNDAY 2.10PM

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