Scintillating Bulldogs thrash Falcons by 103 points

SOUTH Fremantle turned on a brilliant and dominant display on Saturday to beat West Perth by 103 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

While South Fremantle recorded three strong wins over West Perth in 2016, both teams did take part in finals action last season and there was nothing to suggest what was to come on Saturday.

South Fremantle was coming off an impressive 43-point win over Peel while West Perth had lost narrowly to Subiaco last week, but what took place on Saturday put on full show just how potent the Bulldogs arsenal is when at full power.

It was a relatively even first quarter with South Fremantle kicking first two and last two goals. But they kicked away from there with seven goals to two in the second term, four to nil in the third and eight to two in the last to win 23.8 (146) to 6.7 (43).

It is South Fremantle's third biggest win over West Perth, just the fourth time the Bulldogs have ever beaten the Falcons by over 100 points and largest win since a 126-point triumph in Round 9, 1979 at Leederville Oval.

There wasn’t a single South Fremantle player who didn’t make a good contribution to the win and every Bulldog had at least nine disposals. Eight West Perth players had fewer than that however.

South Fremantle finished the game with 101 more disposals, 74 extra marks, 17 more inside-50 entries and 31 scoring shots to 13 in the 103-point victory.

South Fremantle's forward-line proved tremendously potent with Blaine Johnson kicking six goals from 19 possessions, Mason Shaw from 16 disposals and eight marks and Ben Saunders three from 14 touches and four marks.

Tim Kelly, Shane Hockey and Haiden Schloithe then had field days through the midfield for the Bulldogs. 

Kelly finished with 39 possessions, 10 inside 50s, six marks and five tackles while Hockey had 30 disposals, eight tackles and two goals and Schloithe 38 disposals, eight marks, eight inside-50 entries and two goals.

Captain Ryan Cook also racked up 30 possessions to go with 10 marks for the Bulldogs while 100-gamer Shaun Bewick finished with 22 touches and 10 marks.

Dylan Main also compiled 25 disposals, Brendan Verrier 21, Brandon Donaldson 21 and Ashton Hams 19.

Then down back, Marlion Pickett was outstanding with 22 possessions and six marks while helping keep Michael Lourey goalless. Blayne Wilson also had 24 disposals and six marks.

South Fremantle started strongly with the game's opening two goals to Johnson and Cory Dell'Olio, but West Perth steadied and responded through Mark Hamilton and Tyler Keitel.

But the Bulldogs did manage the last two majors of the first term through Johnson and Shaw to go into the first break with the momentum.

That paid off with five goals in the first 18 minutes of the second quarter including two to Schloithe and Johnson's third that saw the lead get out to 43 points.

Two goals in a minute to West Perth from Keitel and Andrew Strijk gave them a brief reprieve, but South Fremantle finished the half with two more goals to Zac Strom and Johnson to lead by 42 at the main break.

It took less than a minute into the third quarter for South Fremantle to continue to dominate with Bernie Naylor Medallist Saunders kicking his first of the day. Johnson then soon added his fifth and the margin ballooned to 55 points.

There wasn’t a goal then for 13 minutes with West Perth missing four shots on goal with South Fremantle then hitting back through Saunders. Then with Shaw's second also before three quarter-time the Bulldogs led by 62 points.

West Perth finally scored its fifth goal of the game four minutes into the last quarter thanks to Corey Chalmers, but South Fremantle immediately answered through Hockey.

Then after the Falcons' sixth and last of the day courtesy of Meadows, South Fremantle piled on seven more majors leading into the final siren including a third, fourth and fifth for Shaw, and sixth for Johnson to end up winning by 103 points.

The day began at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle's colts going down to West Perth, with the Falcons winning 14.8 (92) to 8.7 (55).

Ben Sherry kicked two goals for the Bulldogs colts while Kyle Hamersley gathered 24 possessions to go with eight tackles and seven marks.

Tere Teio-Yarran also had 20 disposals for South Fremantle with Brodee Knight finishing with 19 touches, Regan Spooner 18 and Nic Giarrizzo 17.

Ruckman John Frampton was again terrific with another 22 possessions, seven marks and 21 hit outs.

South Fremantle's reserves then scored a thrilling 10.9 (69) to 9.14 (68) victory over West Perth at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

West Perth came from behind at three quarter-time to be on track for the win with a five-point lead heading into the dying stages, but then South Fremantle kicked the last goal of the contest through Caleb Datson for the one-point win.

Jacob Dragovich did his hopes of a league call up for the Bulldogs no harm with 30 possessions, seven marks and two goals. Mitch Dzelebdzic also kicked two goals for South Fremantle.

Jake Florenca racked up 26 possessions for the Bulldogs, Jarrod Parry 24, Chad Pearson 24, Josh Collard 21, Tom Vandeleur 19, Abel Brown 18, Daniel Burke 18 and Chris Ah Siu 18.

Jake Solomon responded well to his demotion with 16 disposals and 41 hit outs in the ruck.

South Fremantle remains at Fremantle Community Bank Oval to host Claremont on Good Friday in another twilight fixture with a start time at 4.15pm.

SOUTH FREMANTLE        4.3    11.3    15.3    23.8    (146)
WEST PERTH            2.1    4.3    4.7    6.7    (43)

SOUTH FREMANTLE – Goals: Johnson 6; Shaw 5; Saunders 3; Schloithe, Hockey 2; Dell'Olio, Kelly, Strom, Verrier, Edwards.
Best: Kelly, Schloithe, Johnson, Pickett, Cook, Hockey, Shaw, Main.
WEST PERTH – Goals: Keitel 2; Strijk, Meadows, Chalmers, Hamilton.
Best: Nelson, van Berlo, Strijk, Manning, Black.