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More youngsters to get chance to shine for Bulldogs

Friday, August 21, 2015 - 1:38 PM by Chris Pike

WHILE one South Fremantle great prepares for the last two games of his decorated WAFL career, a host of other youngsters are at the beginning of theirs and there likely will be another pair of brothers out on Fremantle Oval against West Perth this Saturday.

The announcement that Craig White will be retiring at the end of the season means that there is only two dual premiership players from 2005 and 2009 left to continue on beyond 2015 at South Fremantle, and they just happen to be twins, Ashton and Kyle Hams.

South Fremantle has always prided itself on being the family club and that's been followed through on and off the field, and now another pair of brothers look set to take on the Falcons this Saturday.

With the Hams boys and Mitch and Adam Carter the other brothers at South Fremantle, Kade and Tim Stewart are in line to make their WAFL league debuts this Saturday as Bulldogs coach Todd Curley looks to finish his first season in charge on a high starting against West Perth at Fremantle Oval.

"We've now come back to have a red hot crack at the last two. As I said to the group, it's more about us playing and displaying how we want to play, and showing good form regardless of what goes on at the end of the year," Curley said.

"The last couple of weeks we have played pretty good at times, and were OK against Subi, but been poor against East Perth and Peel, and we have to get ourselves back on track and not worry about who we are playing."

With the likes of Brock Higgins, Jacob Martinez and Blayne Wilson now being ruled out for the rest of the season through injury, some doors in the league side have opened up for players who have been performing in South Fremantle's dominant reserves team.

That means that James Laurino and the Stewart brothers are strong changes to take on the Falcons this Saturday and it could be a dream debut for Tim and Kade Stewart to do so alongside one another.

Tim is the older of the pair at 20 years of age and following a strong colts career under Arthur Maskos, he had a terrific 2014 in the reserves last year finishing third in the fairest and best behind Lewis Harvey and Ben Sokol, and now he's strung good form together the last five weeks on return from injury.

Kade is just 18 years of age and is a potential draftee later in the year coming off some good performances for Western Australia in the State 18s, and now he's played the last four games in the reserves including 26 possessions two weeks ago against Peel Thunder.

Curley is looking forward to blooding some further young talent to try and paint the picture of the future at South Fremantle.

"Certainly Jim Laurino was really close to playing this week and so was Tim Stewart, Kade Stewart and there's a fair few young guys who have been in pretty consistent form. The form of some of them is now going to be pretty hard to ignore," he said.

"Well we can either keep going with the ones we've tried before or give the young blokes an opportunity. Callum's been really good, Matty Ah Siu has been pretty good, so has Dragovich and Branchi. They have come in and certainly played their part and there's a couple more in the twos putting their hands up, so we'll see what happens over the last couple of weeks."

Callum Ah Chee is a potential top 10 draft pick later in the year as well and he's done his chances of being selected high by playing league football which has included three crucial goals on debut against East Fremantle, and then a hard-working 19 possessions two weeks ago in the loss to Peel.

"He has played his part in all the games he's played in, but a couple have been tough for him when he's been playing forward and we haven’t generated much ball," he said.

"But certainly in the games where we've pushed him into the midfield, like we did this week, he's showed that he can play inside and outside as a mid, and he's a beautiful kick and a good decision-maker. His pressure was good as well and he tackled and hit up, so he was good."

Another player to emerge in 2015 has been ruckman Josh Branchi and now with Higgins to miss the last two games of the season with a finger injury, the former basketballer will assume even more responsibility and Curley has been delighted with his development in the ruck.

"I think he's probably got some tools that clubs at the AFL level would look at too with his mobility and agility and height, and ability to run," Curley said.

"I think you saw again this week that he showed he can also go and play forward to give you a good target, and something different. He's had a pretty good second half of the year."

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