WAFLW RD 17 PREVIEW

RD 17 WAFLW PREVIEW | v SUBIACO

South Fremantle will now play their last home game of the 2026 WAFLW season on Saturday playing host to Subiaco with a chance to go a long way to locking in a finals place.

The Bulldogs take on the Lions at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday with the WAFLW Round 17 match up getting underway at 12:10pm.

Coming into the penultimate round of the WAFLW season and South Fremantle are sitting in fourth position with eight wins, five losses and a draw with Subiaco in sixth at 7-7.

A win for South Fremantle on Saturday and they will remain in fourth position or potentially even leapfrog East Fremantle into third spot should the Sharks lose at the same time to the fifth placed Perth.

The teams last met in the WAFLW back in Round 6 this season at Sullivan Logistics Stadium and that saw South Fremantle beat Subiaco 5.7 (37) to 3.3 (21).

In that win for the Bulldogs, Shannyn Pomersbach kicked three goals while Ash Gomes racked up 26 possessions, Tash Entwistle 24, Tara Stribley 18, Makaela Tuhakaraina 18, Brianna Cleggett 15 and Madison Evans 15.

South Fremantle coach Pia Faletti is excited now heading into the last two weeks of the season firstly against Subiaco and then taking on the reigning premiers Claremont.

“We’re pretty excited and have got two games to go and the top-of-the-table is still heating up and there’s still a fairly significant race to secure those third and fourth spots,” Faletti told 91.3 SportFM.

“We’re just really energised going into this weekend and they (Subiaco) have got some young players that kind of play with that nothing to lose attitude and once they’re all firing adding to the experience they’ve got through the midfield, and at either end, we definitely won’t be taking them lightly.

“The last game we played them back in May it was probably closer than the scoreboard ended up being and we were just a bit more accurate and had a few more shots on goal than they did.

“But they definitely have built since then and we will have to be at our best to match them and go one better.”

Fresh off last week’s big win over East Perth, South Fremantle have made just the one change with Tara Stribley into the line-up and Tori Groth going out.

Subiaco had a stunning one-point win over Claremont last week and from that team, understandably the Lions have made no changes with Karry Plummer, Madison Ridding, Caitie Smith and Ava Tavolaro their four emergencies.

The Rogers Cup contest between South Fremantle and Subiaco is first up at Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Saturday morning starting at 10:05am.

Coming into the clash and South Fremantle are sitting sixth in the Rogers Cup and out of finals contention with a 5-9 record while Subiaco are still fighting for a finals spot sitting fifth at 8-6 and just percentage behind the fourth placed Perth.

South Fremantle suffered a narrow seven-point loss also at home to East Perth last Sunday while Subiaco lost in similar fashion at Leederville by six points against Claremont.

Coming into this Saturday’s game and Samara Donohue, Alyssa Henderson, Alice Lee-Burwood, Maningning Morales, Tanaya Prentice and Alice Warburton are all into the South Fremantle side.

Going out for the Bulldogs are Izabella Stuart, Makenzie Chapple, Ashley Speijers, Holly Barnes, Khesan Starr and Ayvah Rioli.

Subiaco are coming off a tight loss too and from that team, Jayde Gillard, Gypsie Knipler and Niamh Murphy come in to face South Fremantle.

Going out for the Lions are Sienna Weston, Ellen MacGillivray and Saige Anderson.