Round 23 match v Peel moved to Saturday afternoon

THE South Fremantle Football Club remains committed to Friday night football at Fremantle Oval but have agreed to move the Round 23 clash to a Saturday afternoon to accommodate the requests made by the Peel Thunder Football Club.

South Fremantle played two Friday night matches earlier in the 2014 season at Fremantle Oval against Perth and East Perth, and had two scheduled for later in the year against Subiaco in Round 22 and Peel Thunder in Round 23.

The Round 22 clash with Subiaco will still be going ahead, but South Fremantle has agreed to move the final round match with Peel to Saturday afternoon with the best interests of the support staff of both clubs in mind.

If either or both clubs were still in the running for finals, the game would have remained on Friday night at Fremantle Oval, but with the game to be the last of the Bulldogs and Thunder for 2014, it was decided that there was no need to call on the support staff of Peel in particular to make a trip to Fremantle both on Friday night for the league contest and then on Saturday for colts and reserves.

South Fremantle chief executive Stuart Kemp is keen to continue Friday night football at Fremantle Oval, but on this occasion it made sense for all involved to make the clash a Saturday afternoon fixture.

“South Fremantle is very interested in continuing Friday night games in 2015 and will be working closely with the WAFC to continue this,” Kemp said.

“We are excited and looking forward to the Round 22 clash against Subiaco commencing at 7pm.  However for Round 23 we heard the calls from Peel in relation to having their staff travel twice in two days to Fremantle Oval.

“Once on Friday night and then backing it up on Saturday for the colts and reserves would have put a great deal of pressure on them, and considering it was the last game of the year with both teams not eligible for the finals we decided to help ours and their support staff out.”

The move of the game from Friday night to Saturday isn’t one completely full of positives either with it then to clash with Fremantle’s AFL contest at Patersons Stadium with Port Adelaide, but Kemp reiterated that the interests of the support staff of both clubs took priority on this occasion.

“We are aware the Fremantle game against Port Adelaide has been scheduled for the twilight time on Saturday,” Kemp said.

“I’m sure it will possibly hurt our crowds, however our volunteers and support staff are the life blood to a football club and we wanted to help all of the staff from South Fremantle and Peel this time around.”