ROUND 8 PREVIEW V WEST COAST EAGLES

REIGNING premiers South Fremantle are back at home to Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday and will be determined to return to the WAFL’s winner’s list against the West Coast Eagles reserves team.

South Fremantle’s 4-2 record so far for the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season still might look solid enough as the Bulldogs look to defend their premiership of last year, but it’s fair to say coach Todd Curley has been anything but happy with their performances in recent weeks.

He wasn’t that thrilled with a hard fought win over Subiaco where they were almost overrun in the final quarter with a goalless final term. It was a similar story a week later against an East Perth team who had yet to win a game as well leading into the State Game break.

Then last Saturday against Perth at Lathlain’s Mineral Resources Park, South Fremantle started well enough with six goals in the opening quarter, but managed just the one goal the rest of the way to end up losing by 20 points to the Demons.

The Bulldogs will now look to bounce back against the West Coast Eagles reserves team this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Eagles have struggled to be competitive so far in 2021 losing their six matches so far by an average of 65.2 points and that’s without playing the top three teams Subiaco, Claremont and South Fremantle yet.

From the South Fremantle team that lost to Perth last Saturday, Jarrad Doney and another debutant Jarrod Salmeri will come into the side to take on the West Coast Eagles this Saturday.

Cam McCarthy and Blayne Wilson are the players to go out of the side while key defender Noah Strom remains sidelined.

The Eagles have made plenty of changes as well including having former South Fremantle excitement machine Jarrod Garlett called up to play his first game in the blue and gold.

Jak Cary, Ethan Hansen, Michael Humble and Cooper Nitschke are the other players to come in for West Coast while Jarrod Cameron, Luke Edwards, Luke Foley, Jalen McGee and Elliot Yeo go out.

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley was left disappointed after last Saturday’s loss to Perth, but it was more because of the on-going trends he has seen developing and his patience is wearing thin.

“No doubt it’s disappointing and we have a large group within our side who so far are playing below their best, and that’s been consistent. We’ve had guys who have played well for a quarter or two here and there, and our talent has been able to get us through,” Curley said.

“We’ve been working on that for a while but this was a pretty good reminder. There are a few guys who have been going pretty well in the reserves and you have to think about how long you continue to back guys in who have got the job done in the past if they’re not getting it done now.

“We can’t continue to hope so we’ll pick the team for this week that we think is best placed to win the game. We’ll have a look at who we are going to play, mix a few things up and pick the team that deserves to play.

“It’s never really a huge surprise and we’ve backed a few guys in, but they haven’t been able to get up and going in so we will pick the ones we think we can trust to deliver.”

While by no means will Curley or the Bulldogs be taking the challenge of the Eagles lightly this Saturday, but what he wants to see more than anything is his team play the way that he wants them to, and closer towards their potential.

“I think the biggest challenge for us at the moment is not the opposition, it’s ourselves. We’ll focus on ourselves this week more than the opposition,” Curley said.

“We’ve done a fair job of not getting enough rowing the boat the right way, and the biggest challenge so far has been ourselves and not what the opposition have been doing.”

With the Eagles not having a reserves or colts team in the WAFL competition, those South Fremantle teams will have the bye in Round 8 with just the league team in action on Saturday afternoon at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

ROUND 8 – 2021 OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v WEST COAST EAGLES – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

LEAGUE LIVE STATS