Peel have celebrated captain Brendon Jones’ 200th WAFL game with an emphatic victory over East Fremantle at Rushton Park. Jones (left) played his typical hard-working role in the midfield, Jonathon Griffin controlled the ruck, Matt Taberner kicked four goals, Lachie Weller kicked three goals and Max Duffy was good against his old team. Jamie McNamara worked hard for the disappointing Sharks.
Peel 15.14 (104) East Fremantle 6.13 (49)
At Joondalup West Perth also celebrated a milestone. It was Andrew Strijk’s 150th and the Falcons thrashed the poor old Demons. Chris Keunen dominated the ruck and fellow big men Marcus Adams and Nic Rodda were damaging players for the Falcons. Michael Lourey kicked six goals. Aidan Tropiano and Liam McKenna were again good for Perth.
West Perth 22.9 (141) Perth 9.8 (62)
If you put your money on Subi going through the season unbeaten you’ve learned a lesson – don’t bet on footy.
It didn’t take long for East Perth to take control of the Leederville Oval derby on Good Friday and the grand final rematch was like a Collingwood premiership – a cakewalk.
Brant Colledge probably played the game of his career for the second week in a row and capped things off with three goals. The ruck battle was interesting with Paul Johnson missing for the Royals but Fraser McInnes proved an able replacement with an unlikely ruck partner in Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls who played the most unusual game of his career. Steven Payne and Craig Wulff were again good for East Perth, Murray Newman kicked four goals and 2012 Bomber Brendan Lee returned to footy in great shape.
Scott Worthington battled hard in defence for the Lions and Shane Yarran kicked three goals. There was an interesting happening about 11 minutes into the second quarter when, perhaps for the first time in WAFL history, Sudanese players had consecutive kicks in a game. East Perth’s Agid Gardoud, who made a promising debut before hurting a shoulder, kicked a nice goal and then David Madut, who battled strongly in the ruck for Subiaco, kicked the ball out of the centre clearance.
East Perth 17.13 (115) Subiaco 7.9 (51)
South Fremantle remain unbeaten after an all-the-way Good Friday win over Claremont under lights at Fremantle Oval. Ryan Cook, Marlon Pickett and Ashton Hams kept the ball moving for the Bulldogs and ruckman Brock Higgins had another good game.
Shane McAdam kicked three goals for the Tigers, John Williams was in good form and Sam Petrevski-Seton made an interesting debut.
South Fremantle 12.19 (91) Claremont 8.5 (53)
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. Co-founder with Vin Maskell of scoreboardpressure.com. Founder of australianrules.com.au and the Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/abandonedcricketpitches/
Great stat about the two Sudanese players, Les. I saw the game and, from a Royals’ perspective, was very impressed with Agid Gardoud in his first game in blue-and-black. It was a shame injury interrupted his debut.