Ross continues to emerge as WAFL's best key defender

DYLAN Ross has emerged over the past 12 months as one of the best key defenders in the WAFL but his focus is on trying to get a win for South Fremantle over East Fremantle to both keep the Bulldogs alive in the finals hunt and send Kris Miller off victorious.

Ross will play his 50th WAFL match in the Foundation Derby at Fremantle Oval on WA Day this Monday having started his career with Claremont as a centre half-forward when he broke through for his league debut in 2009.

He only managed eight games at Claremont, though, before joining South Fremantle in 2011 and again he wasn’t able to immediately cement his spot playing just 13 matches in his first two seasons.

However, that all changed in 2013 as he had a superb season as a key defender who can not only shut down an opposition's tall forward, but also read the play well coming in and take some strong marks and then in turn set up play well.

The 23-year-old has gone to another level again so far in 2014 having an outstanding season to date not only winning his individual battles, but also having averaged over 17 possessions and six marks a game.

He was decidedly unlucky to not be in the WAFL's State team that beat the NEAFL last Saturday, but is just happy to have cemented a spot in the Bulldogs team and found a role that he is suited to.

"I think I have cemented my spot in the team for sure. I'm just getting some confidence out of the coaches especially Paul Hasleby and Patrick Bowden. I think that full-back or centre half-back is my spot now and someone is going to have to take it off me," Ross said.

"I'm rapt with the way I've been playing this year so I can't complain. I can't just sit in the goal square and only stop the forwards, I like getting my hands on the footy and making the forwards accountable as well. It has been good to get my hands on the footy that's for sure."

Ross' form certainly deserved to be rewarded with a spot in the State team, but he was happy to see his teammates Ashton Hams, Haiden Schloithe, Ryan Cook and Ben Saunders all play starring role in WA's 85-point win over the NEAFL.

"It was a fantastic achievement by all four of the boys to get a game with WA," he said.

"I know that Benny Saunders hadn’t represented WA before at any level so he was absolutely rapt to get a run and it was good to see all the boys have a good game including Ashton Hams who was the Simpson Medallist. That was great to see."

When Ross arrived at South Fremantle he didn’t fully grasp just how big the club's rivalry was with East Fremantle, but he now does and on Monday will play in his third Foundation Derby and will look to play in his third win on the biggest day of WAFL football for the year.

"I don’t know what it is, but we do seem to get up a bit more for these derbies on the big occasions. We make sure we bring our A game and come to play, and we do tend to play pretty well in these big games no matter where we are on the ladder against East Fremantle," Ross said.

"It's fantastic to play in these games. With me coming from another club and not knowing much about the rivalry between South Fremantle and East Fremantle, I just love the big occasion that it is and the bigger crowds that we get to play in front of. It's a great feeling to run out there."

South Fremantle's 2014 season started slowly with losses to Subiaco, Perth, East Perth and Swan Districts, but the Bulldogs then hit back with impressive wins over East Fremantle, West Perth and Claremont prior to a bye.

That seemed to rob them of their momentum as they lost to Peel in Mandurah prior to the State game meaning that if the Bulldogs hope to play finals in 2014, winning against the Sharks on Monday is a must to keep them in touch with the top-four.

"We obviously had a fair bit of momentum heading into that bye, which we sort of lost a bit, so the boys have had a solid hit out last week and a bit of an intra-club game on Thursday to get the cobwebs out. Hopefully that puts us in good stead for the game on Monday," he said.

"We need to win this one to stay in touch with the four. Our goal this year is to make the finals and I think we have the list to do some damage if we get there, so we really need to win this week to make sure we give ourselves a chance to still make it."

Without question after the first four weeks of the season South Fremantle's defensive capabilities have greatly improved.

While the efforts of Ross along with fellow key defenders Zac Strom and Nick Borovac, and small defender Adam Guglielmana have been important in that, Ross believes it's more down to defensive buy-in from players all over the field.

"I think over the first few weeks we had some guys not chipping in defensively and we addressed a few issues there, and it's just good to see that everyone is doing the right things now whether that's the forwards putting on defensive pressure or the mids helping out us defenders," he said.

"It seems to have clicked over the last four or five weeks, which is good, and we probably were comfortable playing in shootouts but we now have an emphasis on shutting games down."

The other reason why Monday's clash at Fremantle Oval is a massive occasion is the fact that it will be the last game in the career of a true modern day champion Kris Miller, and Ross certainly wants to help win the game to give him a winning send-off.

"I think he is the only player in history to be a life member at two clubs so just in saying that it's a fantastic effort. I've obviously been at South Fremantle with him for four years and what he's brought to this footy club, and East Fremantle before that, he is just a true champion of the WAFL," Ross said.

"A win this weekend for him would give him a fantastic way to go out. I'm sure that he will stay involved down at South Fremantle in some aspect whether that be coaching or mentoring. We can't afford to lose good people like Kris at this footy club that's for sure."