Rookie listed player Sam Menegola played a vital role in East Fremantle’s win over East Perth in last Saturday’s WAFL Elimination Final.

Senior development and assistant coach Simon Lloyd said Sam’s hard work throughout the season had paid off.

“Sam has definitely shown positive development in his football,” Lloyd said.

“His focus for a major part of the year has been his contested football.

“You can see in the increasing numbers of contested ball wins and examples of winning ground balls that Sam has improved on this. “

Llyod shared his notes on all Fremantle players in the WAFL last weekend.

Sam Menegola (EF) 15 disposals (13 kicks, 2 handballs) 6 marks, 4 tackles, 1 goal
Sam played on the wing for the entire game. Although his disposal count was low, we felt that he ran and contested aggressively. He worked very hard defensively and created a lot of score opportunities through his run and carry. There was one passage of play where Sam displayed courage in the air, taking a great contested mark against Paul Johnson. He finished the game strongly in testing conditions with his elite running ability. Overall it was a really solid finals game for Sam.

Lachie Neale (SD) 27 disposals (12 kicks, 15 handballs) 5 marks
Lachie played inside mid and was opposed to Luke Blackwell, who is a very accomplished player for Claremont. Early in the game Blackwell did get away from Lachie, but he improved in the last three quarters and paid him more respect around stoppages. After the first quarter he showed a stronger attack toward the ball, a real urgency to join in and demonstrated a lot of effort to work back into defence. His kicking inside 50 was very effective and overall he ran really hard for four quarters. One of the positives was that he showed improvements in his tackling and his contested ball.

Jon Griffin (EF) 16 disposals, (8 kicks, 8 handballs) 20 hitouts
Jon played approximately 80 per cent in the ruck and 20 per cent forward. The key strength to Jon’s game was that his tap work was very good. Around the ground he used his strength well and positioned to give the mids good supply and he often positioned defensively behind play to deny them the down the line kick. The best part of Jon’s game was the third quarter, where East Perth challenged East Fremantle, where he took several marks and was involved in disputed contests and used the ball well by foot.

WAFL League Results - Elimination Finals
East Fremantle 16.15 (111) defeated East Perth 11.8 (74)
Claremont 17.17 (118) defeated Swan Districts 14.2 (86)