BULLDOGS FIGHT HARD IN ROUND 3 AGAINST TIGERS

SOUTH Fremantle's three women's teams hit the road for the first time in the 2021 Optus WAFLW Premiership Season and while they didn’t come away with wins against Claremont, there were plenty of encouraging signs.

After spending the opening two rounds of the 2021 WAFLW season at home at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, South Fremantle headed to Claremont's Revo Fitness Stadium on Sunday.

It turned out to be a tough yet competitive day starting with the reigning premiers Rogers Cup team losing their first game of 2021 with Claremont winning 7.7 (49) to 5.5 (35).

Then in the Reserves contest, the Tigers beat the Bulldogs 6.4 (40) to 2.6 (18) and lastly in the WAFLW League battle, Claremont defeated South Fremantle 11.7 (73) to 3.4 (22).

The lone Round 3 match in the WAFLW competition on Sunday took place at Claremont's Revo Fitness Stadium with the Tigers hosting South Fremantle.

Claremont and South Fremantle are the only two teams in the WAFLW competition not to have reached a Grand Final yet, and both were looking to put in a strong showing to start building some momentum on Sunday.

The Tigers opened their season with a narrow loss to Swan Districts despite kicking just the one goal before then beating East Fremantle in Round 2. But across the two games the Tigers had only manage to kick the three goals.

The Bulldogs put in their most competitive showing in the WAFLW so far only falling three points short of Subiaco back in Round 1 but they went down to Swan Districts by 53 points last Sunday while managing just the one goal for the contest.

That set the stage for an interesting contest at Revo Fitness Stadium but Claremont was on fire in the opening quarter kicking five goals. Having kicked just three goals in their first eight quarters this season, that was quite an achievement. 

South Fremantle did kick a goal themselves in the first term before the Tigers added two more in the second. The Bulldogs added a second goal too but Claremont went into the half-time break leading by 32 points.

Things tightened up in the third quarter with both teams kicking just the one goal apiece before Claremont was able to kick away a little further in the last term with three goals.

South Fremantle wasn’t able to hit the scoreboard in that fourth quarter with Claremont going on to record the 11.7 (73) to 3.4 (22) victory.

South Fremantle's three goals were kicked by Hunter Cronin, Zoe Huggett and Ella Ward.

The Bulldogs had plenty of players who fought hard throughout the game including Aaliyah Ugle, Lauren Vecchio, Tahlia Holtze, Gabrielle Canicosa and Kiara Templeman.

Amy Franklin kicked two goals for Claremont with Andie Payne, Adele Arnup, Jacinta Valentini, Tessa Doumanis, Ella Smith, Brooke Whyte, Mikayla Western, Madeleine Scanlon and Sophie McDonald all managing a goal apiece.

Claremont's best in the win included Paige Hamilton-Smith, Brooke Whyte, Tessa Doumanis, Andie Payne and Matilda Husband.

The day started with the Rogers Cup contest with the South Fremantle Youth Girls team looking to remain undefeated in 2021 on the back of winning last year's premiership.

It was a tight opening quarter with Claremont only leading South Fremantle by three points at quarter-time but the Tigers began to kick away in the second term with three goals to one to head into half-time up by 15 points.

The Bulldogs stayed in touch with both teams kicking two goals in the third quarter before they kicked only goal of the last stanza but still came up 14 points short of the Tigers.

Jayde Musika kicked two goals for South Fremantle with Chelsea Harp, Rosie Anderson and Jess Howley one apiece.

Noa McNaughton, Holly Denholm, Rosie Anderson, Molly O'Hehir and Jayde Musika were among the best performers in the game for South Fremantle.

Then in the Reserves game, South Fremantle started well and actually led by a point against Claremont at quarter-time.

Claremont assumed the lead in the second quarter on top of kicking two goals to one, but it wasn’t only a six-point edge.

South Fremantle would manage just the four behinds in the second half with Claremont kicking three goals to win by 22 points.

South Fremantle's goals were kicked by Clair Edwards and Reanne Pickett.

The best players included Mel Silcock, Nakita Little, Tahlia McRoberts, Emma Allison and Chelsea Parnell.

South Fremantle will remain on the road in Round 4 of the WAFLW season with the League game taking place on Sunday at 2pm at Mandurah's David Grays Arena against Peel Thunder.

The Reserves match will bouncedown at 12pm and the Youth Girls match at 10.15am.

OPTUS WAFL WOMEN'S PREMIERSHIP – ROUND 3

SOUTH FREMANTLE        1.1    2.1    3.4    3.4    (22)
CLAREMONT            5.1    7.3    8.6    11.7    (73)

SOUTH FREMANTLE – Goals: Cronin, Huggett, Ward.
Best: Ugle, Vecchio, Holtze, Canicosa, Templeman.
CLAREMONT – Goals: Franklin 2; Payne, Arnup, Valentini, Doumanis, Smith, Whyte, Western, Scanlon, McDonald.
Best: Hamilton-Smith, Whyte, Doumanis, Payne, Husband.