ROUND 1 PREVIEW V WEST PERTH

LAST time South Fremantle played at Fremantle Community Bank Oval memories were created to last a lifetime, and now the Bulldogs celebrate that on Saturday to open the 2021 WAFL season before focusing on the job at hand.

What a year it turned out to be in 2020 for South Fremantle. On the back of a horror Grand Final defeat to Subiaco in 2019 that came after three consecutive preliminary final defeats, and with a vastly new-look and more youthful playing group, nobody quite knew what to expect.

Then there was the near four-month delayed start to the season thanks to COVID-19 and there was no way of predicting what would lie ahead.

But just a few months later and South Fremantle had produced one of the more memorable seasons in the proud history of the football club culminating in that victorious Grand Final over Claremont by three points in front of a packed Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

On top of that, Mason Shaw won the Bernie Naylor Medal as the league's leading goalkicker, and Shaw, Chad Pearson, Haiden Schloithe and Jake Florenca were all named in the WAFL Team of the Year among a whole raft of other accomplishments.

That success is going to be celebrated now pre-game on Saturday back at Fremantle Community Bank Oval ahead of the Round 1 WAFL game against West Perth. 

Quite the celebration is planned as well so make sure you get there early to take part before the Bulldogs take on the Falcons in a rematch of last year's preliminary final also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The league game will bounce down at 2.10pm with the day beginning between the Bulldogs and Falcons with the colts contest from 9.10am before the Reserves are then in action from 11.40am.

RIOLI EXCITED TO GO UP A GEAR WITH BULLDOGS

PARKER EXCITED TO REV UP THE BULLDOGS IN 2021

CURLEY CAN'T FAULT PREPARATION OF PREMIERS

BULLDOGS 2021 SQUAD COMING TOGETHER NICELY

BULLDOGS PREPARE FOR MEMORABLE ROUND 1

South Fremantle and West Perth lock in horns in Round 1 of the WAFL season on Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The teams are no strangers to meeting in big games in recent years including last year's preliminary final which South Fremantle won by 21 points before beating Claremont in the Grand Final a week later.

South Fremantle now comes into Saturday's game having won four straight against West Perth with the last win for the Falcons against the Bulldogs being that shock preliminary final upset in 2018.

Just two weeks prior to that South Fremantle had hammered West Perth by 98 points in the qualifying final, but the Falcons pulled off the stunning result also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval to reach the Grand Final against Subiaco.

On the back of three losing preliminary finals and a Grand Final, South Fremantle broke through to win the WAFL premiership in 2020 and now on the back of that, the majority of group is back aside from Kade Stewart, Steve Verrier and Chris Luff.

They have also welcomed back Matthew Parker and Cam McCarthy from the AFL with Steven Edwards also returning while they have recruited key position player Blake Schlensog from Geelong.

The Bulldogs will be looking to begin their premiership defence in style at home to the team they beat in last year's preliminary final. 

But the Falcons always find a way to make themselves competitive even though in terms of personnel, they have lost two key players Michael Lourey and Luke Meadows from their 2020 side.

South Fremantle premiership captain Dylan Main has had plenty of time to celebrate the premiership triumph with his teammates so they will be focused on the job at hand on Saturday and trying to get off to a winning start to 2021 against the Falcons.

"We'll be downstairs focusing on the job ahead and leaving all of that to the members and supporters to embrace and enjoy. Then we'll get kickstarted after that straight after the helicopter leaves or something along those lines," Main said.

"We also have a tight tussle with West Perth and it usually comes down to the last 10 minutes of the game where one of us breaks away. We have been on the lucky end of that a few times as of late, but we know what they are going to bring.

"They're always a pretty fit team and are led by Blacky and Nelson, and they've had a pretty similar squad for some time now. We know what they are going to bring, they probably know what we are going to bring and it's going to be a bit of an arm-wrestle. 

"Whoever runs out the game the better will probably come out on top. We have a few new faces as well so it's pretty exciting times and I'm super pumped for this Saturday to be honest."

ROUND 1 – 2021 OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v WEST PERTH – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

LEAGUE LIVE STATS
RESERVES LIVE STATS
COLTS LIVE STATS