Round 20 Preview v Subiaco

SOUTH Fremantle and Subiaco might not be playing for a finals spot in their clash at Medibank Stadium but both teams will be determined to finish a disappointing season strongly starting with a win on Saturday.

For some reason despite little separating the Lions and Bulldogs on the ladder this season, Subiaco seems to have saved its best for the previous two clashes and South Fremantle some of its worst form.

Subiaco beat South Fremantle by 41 points in a dominant second half performance at Fremantle Oval in Round 6 and then in the return clash at Medibank Stadium in Leederville, the Lions also won by 53 points in Round 12.

On that occasion, South Fremantle completely dominated the third quarter of the contest but was unable to put a score on the board and then Subiaco went on a run of kicking nine straight goals to eventually end up winning by 53 points.

South Fremantle might have shown some good signs since that last loss to Subiaco with tight losses to Perth and Claremont, and a good win over West Perth but the Bulldogs took a step backwards last Saturday with a disappointing 83-point loss to East Fremantle at Fremantle Oval.

However, things haven’t gone to plan for Subiaco since that day with the Lions not having recorded a victory since with losses to Swan Districts, West Perth, East Fremantle, Perth, the Sharks again and then last week Claremont.

The only one of those six games where Subiaco was a realistic chance of winning was against West Perth in Round 14 so the Lions haven’t been in good form for some time.

John Sgherza is a likely inclusion for South Fremantle after three goals and 17 possessions in the reserves last week while James Laurino could be in line for his league debut after continued solid good form.

Jarrod Parry has been building solidly on return from his horror run of knee injuries and had another 20 possessions last week to put himself in the mix to take on Subiaco this week.

Warrick Andreoli, Alex Grima and Kingsley Smith have all played some league football this season and have been doing reasonably well in the reserves to remain in contention for a spot in the Bulldogs line-up as well.

Toby Bairstow will miss his first game of the season after averaging over 21 possessions a game so far this season with Jarrad Winter and Kaiden Matera also out of the South Fremantle team to take on Subiaco on Saturday.

Young small men Simon Moore and Ryan Wade go out of the Subiaco team that lost in the mud last Saturday against Claremont.

Small forwards Alliston 'Buddy' Pickett and Michael Wood look the obvious replacements for those two players out with Joey Daye, Michael Genovese and Ryan Herring also pressing to come into the Subiaco side that has now not won a game since Round 12.

By Chris Pike