Colts Grand Final Preview v Claremont

SOUTH Fremantle and Claremont are meeting in their second WAFL colts grand final in three years on Sunday morning at Patersons Stadium with the Bulldogs looking to create a slice of history, and the Tigers to get a measure of revenge.

South Fremantle's colts have won the last two premiership so will be looking to make it a hat-trick this Sunday at Patersons Stadium against a Claremont team who finished 2013 as minor premiers, but who the Bulldogs beat by 23 points in the second semi-final a fortnight ago at Claremont Oval.

The Bulldogs colts side has had yet another strong 2013 home and away season finishing in second position on the ladder before beating Claremont in the second semi-final to advance straight through to a third successive grand final.

The colts teams of the past two years have produced some outstanding AFL and WAFL talent as well.

From the 2011 side that beat Claremont by 44 points in the grand final, Haiden Schloithe, Adam Carter, Mason Shaw, Shane Kersten and Josh Bootsma are now listed by AFL clubs.

On top of that, Shannon Burnett, Jason Maskos, Brendan Verrier, James Laurino and Jacob Martinez have all played league football with South Fremantle.

The Bulldogs' colts then made it back-to-back flags last year with a thumping 58-point grand final win over East Fremantle with Shaw and Sam Rundle kicking five goals apiece.

Marvin Warrell, Brendan Verrier, Adam Carter, Sean Lynch, Simon Panizza, Shaw, Dale Hamilton, Emmanuel Collard and Robert Thompson all played in both premiership teams meaning they have all stepped up into being senior footballers to open up room for other youngsters to step up.

Jacob Dragovich, Bailey Matera, Tim Stewart, Braden Fimmano and Jakeb Tartaglia are among those players to step up and become key players in the South Fremantle colts team of 2013.

Matthew Ah Siu has been the Bulldogs colts leading goalkicker with 25 from 20 matches but Willie Rioli came home with a rush booting 24 in just six games after beginning his season playing in the reserves.

Jermaine Lewis and Ben Sokol have both kicked 21 goals apiece for the colts side in 2013 while Cameron McCarthy kicked 20 in eight matches before going down injured.

Coming off the last two premierships and with a healthy turnover of players, South Fremantle's colts did lose its first two games of the season against Claremont and Perth.

They bounced back with a win over West Perth but then again lost by just three points to Swan Districts.

It was then two straight wins against Subiaco and East Fremantle before another hiccup in Round 8 against East Perth.

There were then two more wins over Peel Thunder and Claremont before successive losses in Rounds 11 and 12 against East Fremantle and Subiaco.

It is an unlikely occurrence in recent years for Claremont to only be represented in the colts grand final as well on the biggest day of the WAFL year.

Claremont's league side has won the last two WAFL premierships and played in the last three grand finals while the Tigers' reserves have won the last three flags, but neither are there in grand finals this year meaning the colts are carrying the flag for the Tigers.

Claremont's colts started the 2013 season on fire winning its first 11 games before losing to Peel Thunder at Claremont Oval in Round 13 by 23 points.

The Tigers only other regular season loss came against South Fremantle in Round 16 with Claremont finishing off the season with a six-game winning run to finish as minor premier.

Claremont then led South Fremantle in the second semi-final by 24 points at half-time and eight at three quarter-time, but the Bulldogs then piled on the only five goals of the last quarter to end up winning by 23 points.

In that second semi-final, Sokol was outstanding for South Fremantle with 19 possessions and five goals while Willie Rioli, Traye Bennell and Bailey Matera kicked two goals each.

Claremont did bounce back, though, winning last Sunday's preliminary final over Subiaco by 60 points with Ben Higgins booting four goals and Alec Waterman racking up 35 possessions, Jordan Law 27, Darcy Cameron 25, Jared Hardisty 23 and Joel Fiegert 22.

SOUTH FREMANTLE TEAM:

Callum Ah Chee, Mathew Ah Siu, Mitchell Banks, Traye Bennell, Billy Collier, Jordan Comeagain, James Culleton, Jye Depane, Jacob Dragovich, Braden Fimmano, William Frampton, Jarrod Garlett, Matthew Gundry, Josh Hall, Jermaine Lewis, Dylan Main, Bailey Matera, Cameron McCarthy, Joel McComb, Jack McMaster, Bradley McPhail, Daniel Moore, Matthew Nicholson, Jarrod Pickett, Willie Rioli, Oliver Sexton, Ben Sokol, Tim Stewart, Jakeb Tartaglia, Josh Tucker, Tom Vandeleur.

CLAREMONT TEAM:

Jake Anderson, Thomas Barrass, Isaac Baum, Jack Beeck, Maximillian Bentley, Samuel Bevan, Darcy Cameron, Jack Carruthers, Harrison Court, Joel Ebert, Steven Edwards, Joel Fiegert, Jared Hardisty, Benjamin Higgs, Timm House, Jordan Law, Ryan Lim, Shane McAdam, Rowen Powell, Bailey Rogers, Luke Rosher, Eddie Simpson, Nicholas Steens, Harry Taylor, Alec Waterman, Francis Watson, Mason Whitehead, Jyrin Woods.

By Chris Pike