WA Day Foundation Derby Preview

SOUTH Fremantle remains the form team in the WAFL this season and has enjoyed an impressive recent dominance over East Fremantle and at East Fremantle Oval, but this year's WA Day Foundation Derby has all the makings of a tremendous contest.

South Fremantle will take on East Fremantle in the annual WA Day Foundation Derby this holiday Monday at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park with bouncedown set for 2.10pm.

The Bulldogs come into the game having won five straight matches this WAFL season and six of seven overall during the opening eight rounds. On top of that, South Fremantle has won eight straight derbies and has been victorious on its last 10 trips to Shark Park.

But East Fremantle comes into the game on its own two-game winning run setting the stage for a tremendous contest on what is annually the biggest day of the WAFL home and away season.

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The Foundation Derby between the Fremantle clubs will take place at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park from 2.10pm and will be shown live on Channel 7, but the occasion deserves to be marked by a big crowd in attendance.

The contest will be the 58th time that East Fremantle and South Fremantle have met on the WA Day public holiday with the Bulldogs having won the past two Foundation Derbies and 32 of the 57 overall.

Since East Fremantle won on WA Day at Fremantle Community Bank Oval back in 2016, South Fremantle has asserted some remarkable dominance against the Sharks winning the past eight derby contests.

Those nine wins have come at an average of 79 points including a 145-point  hammering on WA Day in 2017 and a 113-point win in Round 21 year. Then in the Anzac Derby earlier in 2019, South Fremantle also won by 91 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

South Fremantle has also enjoyed its recent visits to East Fremantle Oval with the Bulldogs having won their past 10 matches at Shark Park, including the past three by 113, 94 and 145 points respectively.

So with South Fremantle having won the past eight derbies and its last 10 trips to East Fremantle, it's going to take something special from the Sharks to turn that all around on Monday.

South Fremantle comes into the game in tremendous form too having won five straight matches including handing Subiaco its first defeat in two years. The Bulldogs also won a thriller last Saturday against East Perth to improve to a 6-1 record on the season entering the Foundation Derby.

But East Fremantle deserves to feel better about its prospects too having now won its past two matches against Swan Districts and Perth following a 15-game losing run stretching back to the back half of 2018.

From the East Fremantle team that beat Perth last Saturday, Alex Bray, Matthew Burton, Max Murphy and Jack Perham have all been added to the extended squad.

South Fremantle lost reigning fairest and best winner Marlion Pickett early in last Saturday's eventual win over East Perth and now he has departed for at least the rest of the season having been selected by Richmond in the AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft.

Chris Ah Siu is also out of the South Fremantle line-up for the Foundation Derby while Blayne Wilson returns and Tom Blechynden, Daniel Cabassi, Zac De San Miguel, Blair Della Franca and Jonathon Frampton all included into the extended squad.

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley knows that East Fremantle will provide a significant test though.

"They have always been really good opponents and they are completely different again with a new coach and a lot of new players playing," Curley said.

"We'll have to get our head around that and prepare the best we can, and hopefully there'll be a few people there and they get to watch a good game."

WA DAY FOUNDATION DERBY
SOUTH FREMANTLE v EAST FREMANTLE – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK (EAST FREMANTLE OVAL), MONDAY 2.10PM

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