Round 1 Preview v West Perth

A NEW era at the South Fremantle Football Club begins this Friday night at Fremantle Oval in the opening to the 2015 McDonald's Premiership season against West Perth.

The Bulldogs have a new coach for the 2015 season with Todd Curley arriving to replace Paul Hasleby and with a host of changes in the personnel and direction the club is looking to take, the kick off to the new era begins this Friday night under lights at the port.

South Fremantle hosts West Perth in the opening game of the 2015 WAFL season with bounce down set for 7pm. The game will be broadcast by 720 ABC Perth and Grandstand Digital. 

South Fremantle and West Perth both missed out on playing finals in 2014 but are desperate to get back in the mix in 2015 and there will be no better way to begin that quest than a Friday night victory at the port.

The Bulldogs haven’t played finals football since 2011 but have a new coach on board in 2015 with former Western Bulldogs defender, West Perth premiership player, Falcons coach and Fremantle Dockers assistant coach Todd Curley taking over.

South Fremantle did finish the 2014 season in good form winning its last five matches and now will be looking to carry that momentum into 2015 with an exciting playing group at its disposal.

The Bulldogs come into the season having lost to Subiaco in their opening pre-season game by 30 points before then beating last year's grand finalists East Perth last Friday night by 10 points.

West Perth won the 2013 premiership in style and from that team only Jason Salecic, Dan Hunt, Mark Hutchings, Shaun Marusic and Josh Mellington are no longer at the club.

However, 2014 was a disappointing year for the Falcons. When at their best they were still among the top teams in the competition highlighted by thumping wins over finalists East Perth and Swan Districts, but that sort of form didn’t come out every week.

The end result was a 9-11 win-loss record and West Perth missed out on the finals but the group has reenergised for a new season to have another crack at it, and the signs are encouraging coming into 2015.

West Perth had a big pre-season win over last year's preliminary finalists East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium and then rebounded from a goalless first half to storm home and beat Swan Districts by four points at Steel Blue Oval last Saturday.

South Fremantle has been able to maintain the majority of its playing group from 2014 coming into the new season with 19 of their 22 selected to take on the Falcons having been key members of the team last year.

Blayne Wilson heads the list of inclusions at the Bulldogs with the defender joining the club after three years on the West Coast Eagles list after originally being drafted from Peel Thunder.

The 23-year-old played nine games for the Eagles and has now amassed 65 WAFL games already on arrival at South Fremantle, and has the experience of playing in the last two grand finals with East Perth as well.

South Fremantle's focus in the pre-season was in trying to get local players back to the club and that sees the return of dual premiership defender Kyle Hams who will play his first game with the Bulldogs since 2010 on Friday night.

Hams played with Swan Districts between 2011-2013 before moving to Busselton to live and play his football in 2014. He is still living there, but has committed to return to South Fremantle for 2015 and has earned his spot in the team for Round 1.

The other addition to the South Fremantle league side for Round 1 from last year is colts graduate Traye Bennell who had a terrific pre-season to earn his place in the team.

Cory Dell'Olio and Adam Carter are two other players to return to South Fremantle in 2015 from Essendon and West Coast respectively, but Dell'Olio is unavailable for selection and Carter has been named as an emergency.

Aside from midfielder Jarrod Parry who is battling a niggling injury complaint, it is virtually a full-strength South Fremantle squad that Curley has to pick from ahead of his debut as coach.

West Perth, too, has been able to limit its losses over the off-season coming into 2015.

From the squad of 25 players picked for Round 1, there are still 17 premiership players from 2013 in the group so it does appear to be a quality line-up that is hungry to rebound from a disappointing 2014 season.

The major losses from last year came in the form of retired pair Anthony Tsalikis and Dan Hunt, but the unexpected departures have been kept to a minimum.

For the team to play in Round 1, only Michael Lourey has come in from the outside with him bringing VFL experience with him to the WAFL where he kicked 141 goals in 70 appearances between Frankston and Sandringham. He also represented Victoria against Western Australia in the State match in Northam in 2013.

Nick Rodda, Jordan Jones, Andrew Strijk, Kody Manning and Matt Fowler are also back and ready to fire for West Perth to start the 2015 after all missed the majority of the second half of 2014.

Shayne Zanetti is also in the mix to play his first league game since Round 10, 2012, and he sent a reminder of his abilities late last year kicking seven goals in the reserves in Round 23 and then leading the ruck in the grand final victory over Subiaco.

The depth West Perth has heading into 2015 is illustrated by the fact that Brayden Antonio, Brent Fotheringham, Chris Franklin, Matt Johnson, Aidan Lynch, Callum Papertalk, Kris Shannon, Chris Yarran and Hayden Yarran will all be lining up in the reserves.

However, South Fremantle also has Toby Bairstow, Mitch Carter, Alistair Gillespie, Matthew Gundry, Lewis Harvey, Sam Lowrie, Chris Luff and Paul Mugambwa in its reserves side so that battle on Saturday should be an enthralling one as well following on from the colts.