NAIDOC Round Preview v Claremont

SOUTH Fremantle heads to the Claremont Showground on Saturday looking to snap a five-game WAFL losing streak, win in a celebration of NAIDOC Round and to also commemorate Toby Bairstow reaching his 100th game milestone.

South Fremantle and Claremont initiated the WAFL's NAIDOC Round celebration beginning with their annual match dating back to 2007, and now the clubs with perhaps the strongest Indigenous heritage in Australia do battle at the Claremont Showground for just the second time in history.

Only one win might separate Claremont and South Fremantle on the WAFL ladder coming into the contest with the Tigers in sixth position with a 4-8 win-loss record and the Bulldogs on 3-9 in eighth, but the teams are currently in vastly different form.

Claremont had a horror start to the season despite beating Peel and West Perth with five disastrous losses against East Fremantle, East Perth, Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle by an average of over 12 goals, but the Tigers have found much better fighting spirit since.

That has seen Claremont put in competitive showings in narrow losses to Swan Districts, West Perth and East Perth while then scoring impressive wins against the third-placed Subiaco and second-placed Swan Districts.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, hasn’t won a game since beating Claremont by 64 points back in Round 7 at Fremantle Oval.

The Bulldogs have since lost to Peel Thunder, East Fremantle, East Perth, Swan Districts and West Perth to be on a five-match losing streak that has now seen the announcement made that coach Paul Hasleby won't be continuing at the helm beyond the 2014 season.

South Fremantle dominated Claremont back in that Round 7 meeting, but now two months later and the two sides are in completely different places in regards to their form and confidence levels.

The teams have only ever met once at the Showground as well with South Fremantle victorious by 41 points back in Round 13, 1926.

That was South Fremantle's last game at the Showground up until this Saturday as well with the Bulldogs having lost to East Perth, Perth, and West Perth in their three earlier appearances in 1926 at the venue before recording that win over Claremont.

The game on Saturday will also double as the continuation of Claremont and South Fremantle's celebration of Indigenous culture for NAIDOC Round.

While Claremont won't be represented by an Indigenous player on Saturday, South Fremantle will have several donning the specially designed jumpers to celebrate NAIDOC Round including Tim Kelly and Jacob Martinez.

South Fremantle and Claremont have met in NAIDOC clashes now every year since 2007 with the Tigers having won six of the seven previous clashes.

South Fremantle perhaps has the strongest Indigenous heritage of all clubs in the WAFL, and possibly Australia, with the Bulldogs' Indigenous Team of the Century reading like a who's who of football royalty.

That team includes Stephen Michael, Maurice Rioli, Nicky Winmar, Peter, Phil and Wally Matera, Basil Campbell, Brad Collard and Benny Vigona as well as recent AFL stars Ash McGrath, Shannon Cox, Roger Hayden, Dean Rioli, Jeff Farmer and Mark Williams.

The most recent South Fremantle player in that team is Toby McGrath who retired at the end of 2012.

South Fremantle has made the call on not reappointing its coach going forward and will also go into Saturday's clash with Claremont with at least four changes.

Mitch Banks goes out following his nasty knee injury suffered last Sunday against West Perth while Mitch Carter, Shaun Bewick and Jason Maskos have all lost their place in the side.

There are then seven players vying to come into line-up for the Bulldogs – Alistair Gillespie, Matthew Gundry, Paul Mugambwa, Ben Saunders, Lewis Harvey, Adam McIntosh and Jacob Martinez.

Saunders missed last week's loss to West Perth for South Fremantle but the full-forward should be back this Saturday to try and add to his 31 goals in 11 matches so far this season, and 131 goals so far in only 45 games of his career.

Gillespie played every game in his first season at South Fremantle last year, but so far in 2014 he has only managed one appearance in the league team but with centre half-forward Josh Pullman under pressure to his spot, Gillespie might get another opportunity and it just happens to come against his former side.

Mugambwa hasn’t played for South Fremantle since Round 6 but did return in the reserves last week with 11 possessions and a goal to give the 132-game 33-year-old a chance to come back into the side this week to add his much-needed talents to the forward-line.

McIntosh was surprisingly dropped to the reserves for the last two weeks, but he responded with 41 possessions the first week against Swan Districts and then had another 22 disposals last Sunday to give himself a chance to come back in to play the 46th match of his league career.

Martinez is one player at South Fremantle with a definite bright future, but his form had dropped off in recent weeks before being dropped to the reserves last week where he picked up 24 possessions against West Perth.

Harvey is a somewhat surprise inclusion to South Fremantle's quad but he has put himself in the mix to come back in for the Bulldogs after good form in the reserves. Harvey played 19 games for West Perth between 2009 and 2010, but didn’t add to that in 2011.

That saw him end up joining South Fremantle but he has only managed one league game in that time and that came back in 2012 before he was struck down with injury. He now could play his second game for South Fremantle and 21st in the WAFL this Saturday.

Gundry is a colts premiership player at South Fremantle and now some solid reserves form this year sees him within a chance of making his league debut this Saturday against the Tigers.
Coming off the win last week over Swans, Claremont hasn’t named any outs at this stage but Darcy Cameron, Tom Ledger and Tom Willett are looking to break into the line-up.

Cameron responded to being dropped to the reserves last week by having 18 possessions, nine marks, 33 hit outs and a goal.

Ledger also had another 28 disposals and eight marks last week in his fourth straight reserves match after playing the first eight games of 2014 in the league side for the Tigers.

Willett had another 20 touches last Saturday in the reserves as he now attempts to add to his seven league games already so far this year.

RESERVES SQUAD
T Bennell, M Bolger, S Borovac, J Branchi, M Carter, E Collard, A Collica, J D'Vauz, B Fimmano, A Galiano, A Gillespie, M Gundry, J Hall, L Harvey, B Hill, J Martinez, J Maskos, K Matera, B Matera, A McIntosh, S Mills, P Mugambwa, M Nicholson, S Panizza, J Pantano, M Pickett, J Pullman, M Russell, B Sokol, T Stewart, J Tartaglia

COLTS SQUAD
Ah Siu, B Byron, D Cabassi, J Culleton, J Depane, B Donaldson, J Dragovich, J Florenca, J Foster, M Grubelich, O Ham, B Hansson, J Hickey, C Loersch, J McComb, G McLeod, B McPhail, J Mirco, D Moore, A Nodari, L Pearson, B Rhodes, C Salmon, N Strom, B Truss, S Williamson