Select grade below

MORE HISTORY MADE BY BULLDOGS IN WAFLW DEBUT

Monday, July 20, 2020 - 11:21 AM by Chris Pike

SOUTH Fremantle made history on Sunday by playing its first ever match in the WAFL Women's competition and while it might have been a loss to East Fremantle, it's the beginning of a new era at the Bulldogs.

There is so much excitement with the direction the South Fremantle Football Club is heading in and it was another significant milestone on Sunday with the Bulldogs playing in the WAFLW competition for the first time only a month after having been granted its full license to become the sixth club.

South Fremantle received its immediate license to join the 2020 WAFLW season a year earlier than initially anticipated, and there would be no better way for the Bulldogs to mark their debut than with a derby on home turf against East Fremantle.

The scoreboard might not have been overly flattering but the South Fremantle team now knows the level they need to get to and it will only be upwards from here as they adjust to life in the WAFLW competition after fielding a team at reserves level in 2019.

And it's not like they were facing an easy opposition on Sunday either. East Fremantle won the first ever WAFLW premiership in 2019 and based on their performance in Round 1, the Sharks deserve to be favourites to repeat that performance in 2020.

It might have been more than 10 months since East Fremantle beat Swan Districts to win last year's Grand Final to claim the premiership, but the Sharks continued the momentum into Sunday's derby at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Sharks did kick two goals in the opening quarter before adding two more in the second, seven in the third and closed the deal with three more in the fourth to end up winning 14.4 (88) to 0.0 (0).

Sara Lewis was prolific up forward for East Fremantle having seven shots on goal and kicking four goals in the end. Emily Burton also ended up kicking two goals, Katelyn Catalano two, Chloe Reilly two and Stephanie Sparke.

Madeline Ross and Larissa Versaci had plenty of chances to add to the damage inflicted by the Sharks as well but the former ended up kicking just the five behinds and the latter finished with one goal and four behinds.

It was a full day of derby action on Sunday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval and in the reserves, it was a similarly emphatic win for East Fremantle who beat South Fremantle 20.11 (131) to 0.4 (4).

And in the Youth Girls Rogers Cup contest, it was a victory for South Fremantle as they defeated East Fremantle 8.4 (52) to 6.3 (39).

OPTUS WAFLW PREMIERSHIP SEASON – ROUND 1
SOUTH FREMANTLE        0.0    0.0    0.0    0.0    (0)
EAST FREMANTLE        2.0    4.3    11.4    14.4    (88)

SOUTH FREMANTLE – Goals: Nil.
EAST FREMANTLE – Goals: Lewis 4; Burton, Catalano, Reilly, Sparke 2; Wong, Versaci.