Bulldogs advance to first Grand Final in a decade

SOUTH Fremantle delivered a strong preliminary final on its fourth straight attempt on Sunday afternoon to beat Claremont by 30 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval to advance to the 2019 Grand Final.

The memories of the previous three preliminary final defeats for South Fremantle was something that was difficult to ignore as they played on the same day again for a fourth successive year, but the Bulldogs were more than up to the occasion this time around.

The first three quarters of the game saw the team kicking to the Fremantle Hospital end of the ground dominating the game. South Fremantle kicked the only three goals of the first quarter and then Claremont kicked the only three of the second term to lead narrowly at half-time.

The Bulldogs kept the trend going with the only three goals of the third quarter, but then they broke the drought at the northern end of Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

South Fremantle kicked the last three goals of the preliminary final to end up beating Claremont 9.9 (63) to 4.9 (33).

The win sees the Bulldogs book a place in this Sunday's WAFL Grand Final against Subiaco at Optus Stadium and it came despite losing Josh Collard (knee) and Zac Dent (concussion) during the match.

It was a high pressure game as you would expect with a Grand Final spot on the line and in a game with low possession counts, South Fremantle winning 285 possessions to Claremont's 232 was telling.

The Bulldogs also took 24 more marks and in the end had just one more inside-50 entry but had 18 scoring shots to 13 to end up winning by 30 points.

As it turned out, Jacob Dragovich was the only multiple goal scorer in the game kicking three of them for South Fremantle all showing his quality and nose for the goals despite being a prolific midfielder. He also had 16 possessions and 12 tackles.

It wasn’t a game for big possession tallies for individuals but Jake Florenca finished with 28 disposals for the Bulldogs while Haiden Schloithe collected 25 touches to go with 10 tackles and what proved to be the match-sealing goal.

Steve Verrier also collected 17 possessions for South Fremantle, Kyle Russell 14 and ruckman Brock Higgins 13 to go with 42 hit outs, four tackles and three marks.

South Fremantle's back-line was outstanding led by Blayne Wilson whose intercept marking was critical in the final result. He finished with 13 possessions and six marks while Chad Pearson also had 19 disposals and five marks, and Nick Suban 16 touches.

Noah Strom was also tremendous holding Claremont spearhead Tom Lee scoreless and to two kicks.

The numbers for all of Claremont prime movers were well down on their usual but dual Sandover and Simpson Medallist Jye Bolton still racked up 25 possessions and four tackles.

Bailey Rogers tried hard to provide some drive out of the back-line with 18 possessions while Lachlan Martinis did the same with his 13 disposals along with five tackles.

Dylan Smallwood had the job at full-back most of the day on Mason Shaw and did well limiting him to one goal while Jack Lewsey also did well in his battle with South Fremantle small forward Brandon Donaldson.

Jared Hardisty finished with 14 possessions and nine tackles as well for the Tigers while Ryan Lim had 14 disposals and eight tackles, Harry McCracken 14 touches and Kane Mitchell 14 possessions and four tackles.

OPTUS WAFL FINALS SERIES

PRELIMINARY FINAL

SOUTH FREMANTLE        3.2    3.3    6.7    9.9    (63)
CLAREMONT            0.5    3.8    3.8    4.9    (33)

SOUTH FREMANTLE – Goals: Dragovich 3; Main, Russell, Schloithe, Shaw, Stewart, Strom.
Best: Wilson, Dragovich, Florenca, Schloithe, Higgins, Pearson, Suban, N Strom.
CLAREMONT – Goals: Hamp, Law, Mountford, Waterman.
Best: Rogers, Bolton, Lim, Lewsey, J Hardisty, Waterman.