Now for the WAFL finals

There was an upset in the Perth derby but the final round of WAFL fixtures predictably made no difference to the ladder order of the top four.

At Leederville West Perth led all day and held off a late East Perth challenge. Former Royal Mark Hutching put in a stunning midfield performance to be clearly best on ground, Aaron Black gave great support, Brent LeCras would have had an even more memorable last game if he’d kicked straight and Drew Rhode (nephew of Peter) was impressive on debut. Garry Moss kicked three goals in the last quarter and finished with five in a nice finals warm-up while Aaron Sweet and Nick Kommer ran well for the Royals.

West Perth 14.14 (98) East Perth 12.12 (84).

Claremont will storm into the finals after yet another thrashing. This time the victims were from Subiaco and the margin was 101 points. A nine-goal first quarter made things comfortable for the Tigers. Kane Mitchell was sensational again for Claremont and must be a Sandover Medal chance, Ian Richardson kicked five goals, Tom Lee got four, Jake Murphy was strong in the midfield and Alex Silvagni played a timely top game in defence. Antoni Grover, who later did a lap of honour at Subiaco Oval, was strong in the backline for the Lions and Dom Sheed showed promise.

Claremont 23.15 (151) Subiaco 7.8 (50)

Perth put in one of their best games of the season, sticking with Swan Districts all afternoon, before going down by 19 points. Tom  Roach and Shaun Hilderbrandt were excellent in the midfield and the defenders including Graham Jetta and Tallan Ames were again solid and enterprising while Tony Notte had his best game in ages. Ash Smith, Nick Lower and Alistair Smith played well for Perth.

Swan Districts 14.16 (100) Perth 12.9 (81).

Down at Mandurah Peel didn’t score in the first quarter, East Fremantle scored 4.5 and breezed into the finals in good form. Leith Teakle kicked four goals for the Sharks, Cam Suttcliffe impressed with his use of the ball, Brad Dick kicked three goals and Russell Gabriel worked hard. Brendan Jones finished the season well and Brad Holmes kicked three goals for the Thunder.

East Fremantle 18.15 (123) Peel 10.9 (69).

The ladder: Claremont 60; Swan Districts 60; East Fremantle 56; East Perth 46; West Perth 38; South Fremantle 28; Subiaco 28; Perth 24; Peel 20.

About Les Everett

A Footy Almanac veteran, Les Everett is the author of Gravel Rash: 100 Years of Goldfields Football and Fremantle Dockers: An Illustrated History. He is the footyalmanac.com WAFL correspondent and uses the money he makes from that role to pay for his expensive websites australianrules.com.au and talkingfrankie.com and fund the extravagant Vin Maskell at scoreboardpressure.com

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