ROUND 20 PREVIEW V WEST PERTH

SOUTH Fremantle has always loved playing at Joondalup and has enjoyed terrific success of late against West Perth, and if that continues on Sunday the Bulldogs will finish Round 20 of the WAFL season on top of the ladder.

The Bulldogs are fresh off the bye and were in ominous form prior to that with big wins against Peel Thunder and East Fremantle by a combined 177 points to now be knocking on the door of replacing Subiaco in top spot.

South Fremantle will leapfrog Subiaco on the ladder if they can beat West Perth at Joondalup’s Provident Financial Oval on Sunday, with the game set for a 1.10pm bouncedown.

The Bulldogs beat the Falcons for a fifth consecutive time with the 21-point win to make it a run of 14 in the last 15 going back further, but plenty has changed since that Round 1 meeting of the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season.

For the most part, South Fremantle has maintained that form to sit in second position on the WAFL ladder coming into Sunday’s clash with West Perth at Provident Financial Oval.

The Bulldogs are within striking distance of top spot as they look to blend back in premiership stars Brock Higgins, Dylan Main, Ben Rioli and Zac Dent in coming in weeks while youngsters Hamish Free, Toby McQuilkin, Manfred Kelly, Regan Spooner, Aiden Hall and Trent Newton fight to stay in.

The Falcons deserve to lay claim to being the form team in the competition right now. They overcame a rough start of losing four of the first seven games to have now won seven of the last eight fresh off a 71-point thumping of the West Coast Eagles.

Take out the shock win in the 2018 preliminary final for West Perth and things have been disastrous against South Fremantle in recent years.

Not only have they lost the other 14 games against the Bulldogs, but South Fremantle has also won on their last six trips up to Joondalup.

Overall it has been a happy hunting ground for the Bulldogs since West Perth started calling it home in 1994, with South Fremantle having won 20 of the 29 games they have played there.

South Fremantle is fresh off the bye and a 61-point win against East Fremantle on the top of a 116-point hammering of Peel Thunder to now be in a position where they will take top spot with a win on Sunday.

Premiership stars Zac Dent and Brock Higgins have been added to the squad to return from injury layoffs for the Bulldogs while Jake Florenca is a chance to play his first game since last year’s preliminary final when he ruptured his Achilles tendon to heartbreakingly miss the premiership.

West Perth is fresh off a big win over West Coast and can go second with a win over the Bulldogs. From that team last week, Nathan Alexandre, Ryan Hudson, Michael Mallard and Tom Medhat have been added to their squad.

ROUND 20 – 2021 OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v WEST PERTH – PROVIDENT FINANCIAL OVAL, SUNDAY 1.10PM

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