Peel Thunder 5.5 (35) def East Fremantle 3.4 (22)
East Fremantle and Peel played on Saturday night. The most significant thing from a Fremantle perspective was the return of defender Alex Williams from her ACL. Most importantly, she got through that game completely unscathed with growing confidence.
Alex got better as the game went on and she was kept busy as the ball was down at the East Fremantle backline for most of the night. She performed as well as we could have hoped in her first game back after a long time out.
Phil Seth was clearly East Fremantle’s best player. She played back where she had a lot of work to do, as well as a few stints in the midfield. She was the number one possession winner on the ground in her first game back. She always has good fitness and she showed her run on Saturday night.
Swan Districts 2.5 (17) lost to v Subiaco 6.8 (44)
Subiaco were a bit too strong all over the ground. Bianca Webb was one of the best for Swans, it was really pleasing to see her play a midfield role and really run hard to get to the outside link up play. At one stage she had three bounces down the wing. It was a good development opportunity for her because when she played for us, she often had to play secondary roles to the likes of Kiara Bowers, Hayley Miller and Kara Antonio. She had the chance to play her own game at the weekend and it’s really exciting to see what she could develop into in the future.
Hayley Miller had her first game back on limited time and played predominantly as a forward. She was really good and was very unlucky not to kick a couple of goals. She had one disallowed from a shepherd off the play and one touched on the line by a team mate. It was one of those days where she didn’t hit the scoreboard but her forward pressure was great and that delivered two goals for her team. It was really pleasing to see her get through that first game.
Lindal Rohde had a really solid game on the wing. She ran hard to get some uncontested possessions and linked up well with her teammates. It was pleasing to see her get back to her WAFLW form of last year.
Janelle Cuthbertson had her first game for Subiaco as well as her first WAFLW game ever. She played a bit of forward and back for Subiaco and got better as the game went on. In the second half the Swans couldn’t get the ball past her.
It’s also great that our forwards coach Amy Lavell has three wins from three games as the senior coach at Subiaco, who are sitting on top of the ladder. It’s her first gig as a head coach and she’s doing really well there.
South Fremantle 1.3 (9) lost to Claremont 9.12 (66)
Claremont were far too strong for South Fremantle. Defender Sarah Garstone was our only player in that game. She didn’t have too much to do as Souths didn’t trouble the scorers too much. Sarah’s working into her full fitness and she’ll be better for that run and I’m looking forward to seeing her get challenged next week when Claremont play Peel.