Peter will this weekend equal Collingwood great Wayne Richardson’s 277 game record for most games played by a Western Australian in the VFL/AFL.
Peter is currently sharing the mantle of having played the second most VFL/AFL games by a Western Australian with Glen Jakovich (276) but is certain to over take the former West Coast Eagle when Fremantle face the Tigers at Subiaco Oval this Sunday.
Des will also have reason to celebrate as he chalks up his 150th AFL match. His 150th official AFL appearance will be his 98th for Fremantle and he was today praised by former Brisbane Lions team mate and current Fremantle Assistant Coach Chris Scott for reaching the milestone.
“It’s a fantastic effort from Des,” Chris said of the 27 year old reaching 150 games.
“I remember when he left Brisbane everyone was really disappointed to lose a player that we thought was just staring to show his full potential.
“He was an outstanding junior who struggled when he first came into AFL level and that was probably a product of being at a club that had a pretty senior group in place. It was pretty hard to break into that side.
“Des is 27 now and we still think his best football is in front of him. He has had a great pre-season and given himself every chance and we’re really excited about what he can give us over the next year or two at least.”
Chris said the players would draw on both Peter and Des’ milestone games for inspiration but ultimately the drive to put back to back wins together was enough to encourage the best out of the group.
“It’s good to get a bit of momentum to our season,” he said.
“It would have been very difficult if we were 0-3. The challenge now for us is to string a few (wins) together.
“We’ve had an eight day break so physically we should be OK.
“We’re starting to play more of the football we want to play. We’re not there yet, there’s still a lot of things we need to work on, but the signs are good.”
Fremantle finalised its team from yesterday’s preliminary squad of 25 players to its starting 22. Scott Thornton will make his first appearance for the club this season on Sunday and is joined in the line up by the returning Chris Tarrant, Dean Solomon and Luke McPharlin.
Robert Warnock and Ryan Murphy have been named as emergencies alongside Garrick Ibbotson.
Round 4 – Sunday 13 April
Fremantle vs. Richmond
Subiaco Oval, 2:40pm (WST)
Fremantle Team – Round 4 v Richmond
B: Hayden, McPharlin, Grover
HB: Mundy, Mi Johnson, Dodd
C: Crowley, J. Carr, Headland
HF: Bell, Tarrant, Mayne
F: Schammer, Pavlich, Gilmore
FOLL: Sandilands, Solomon, Palmer
I/C from: Duffield, Farmer, Thornton, Peake
Emerg: Warnock, Ibbotson, Murphy
In: Thornton, Solomon, Tarrant, McPharlin
Out: Black (omit), M. Carr (omit), Warnock (omit), Murphy (omit)
