SOUTH HEAD NORTH TO BEAT WEST

SOUTH FREMANTLE 4.9 (33) def WEST PERTH 2.1 (13)

Words courtesy Chris Pike

South Fremantle kept its winning run of 2023 going by making it a fifth win against West Perth with the 20-point victory on Sunday at Pentanet Stadium.

The two teams came into the Round 9 contest at Joondalup in impressive form with West Perth coming off perhaps its best ever WAFLW victory beating Subiaco last week to keep themselves in the top four hunt in their second season.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, were fresh off their first ever wins against East Fremantle and Peel Thunder to remain solid in second position on the ladder and still in touch of the top placed Claremont.

That set the stage for a mouth-watering clash on Sunday with the Bulldogs kicking three goals to one in the opening term and ultimately went on to score the 4.9 (33) to 2.1 (13) victory.

The win means the Bulldogs have won all five clashes in the WAFLW against the Falcons as they improve to a record of six wins, a loss and a draw this season to be just a game behind Claremont while West Perth is 3-5 and a game and-a-half out of fourth spot.

Bethany Bond continued her terrific form in attack for South Fremantle kicking two goals from 10 kicks, three marks and three tackles with Casey Byrne also booting two early goals.

Ariana Hetherington was again the dominant player on the field as she continues to thrive in her switch from basketball to football. She ended up with 25 possessions, 27 hit outs and five marks.

Kloe Bassett also had 27 disposals for the Bulldogs, Kahra Sprlyan 22, Lauren Vecchio 20, Charli Wicksteed 18 and Molly O’Hehir 18 to go with 10 inside-50 entries.

West Perth’s goals were kicked by Taylor Ferguson and Tia Bergin with Ferguson also finishing with 21 possessions, five marks and three tackles.

Emily Bennett finished up collecting 21 disposals for West Perth to go with seven marks and seven tackles. Brooke Hongell also had 19 touches, Jeevna Heer 19, Matilda Bain 16, Bianca Webb 16 and Karla Stagg 16.

West Perth started strongly on their home turf attempting to beat South Fremantle for the first time and kicked the game’s first goal thanks to Tia Bergin.

However, the Bulldogs soon steadied and took charge including three goals heading into quarter-time with the last two courtesy of the versatile Casey Byrne to see the visitors lead by 11 points after one.

It took less than four minutes for South Fremantle to pull further ahead with another goal to start the second quarter thanks to Bethany Bond. That would prove the only goal of the term with the Bulldogs in control by 19 points at the half-time break.

South Fremantle continued to control play for much of the third quarter but couldn’t quite convert that dominance on the scoreboard after five behinds.

West Perth did stay in touch with a late goal before three quarter-time through Taylor Ferguson to cut the South Fremantle lead to 17 points.

There wasn’t a goal kicked by either team in the final term, though, with South Fremantle just managing a further three behinds to claim the 20-point win.