Sharks look to bite into Subi streak

The East Fremantle Sharks will take on the undefeated Subiaco Lions this Saturday in their second consecutive away clash at Medibank Stadium.

The Sharks are buoyant after surging to defeat East Perth by 37 points after the Royals kicked the first four goals of the contest.

Speaking on SportFM's WAFL World show, Sharks’ coach Rob Wiley said that last week’s win has instilled some important belief into his side as they go into the toughest fixture in the league.

“When I reflected on the week it was great that we were about to play at Medibank on Sunday against East Perth,” said Wiley.

“The players can go back with confidence knowing that they played the ground well, although obviously against different opponents.

“I think the boys are really looking forward to the challenge, we played South Fremantle the week before when they hadn’t been beaten and it went to the wire. If we can bring the game that the boys have training for and what we’re trying to develop that then who knows.”

Coming into his first clash against the Lions under the helm of East Fremantle, Wiley is under no illusions about what it will take from his side to challenge the back-to-back premiers.

“Subiaco are very talented side right across the board," said Wiley

“Having watched a fair bit of their vision the last couple days, you certainly can’t put the clamps on one person because others will bob up so it will have to be a very good team effort this week.

“We’ll have to play at our very very best to obviously be competitive against Subiaco, but we go in with confidence. There’s great self-belief at the moment, the boys are fit and we’ll have a pretty strong squad to pick from. It’s about testing and challenging yourself as an individual and as a team to go to the next level, and we’ll certainly get that test on Saturday.”

In last week’s top of the table clash with South Fremantle, the Lions suffered from a goalless third quarter to allow Souths to get within two points early in the final term, but Subiaco raced home with five of the last six goals to win by a comfortable 31 points.

Subiaco forward Ben Sokol did the bulk of the damage up front with seven goals, but the Sharks will have plans of their own to limit his influence after some great defensive performances against East Perth.

The Sharks were able to apply plenty of pressure which lead to a 54-32 tackle count against the Royals -- causing plenty of turnovers as the team rebounded well from their defensive fifty.

“We created some pretty good pressure. There are many parts to a game of footy and if you piece them all together you end up with a pretty good day,” said Wiley.

“First of all we needed to pick up in our defensive stuff and from that flows some pretty good ball work. I thought Brock O’Brien and Ryan Lester-Smith used the ball really well coming off our backline, and they helped set it up.”

The Sharks have named one change to their side with Miles Franklin making way for Josh Simpson who was outstanding a fortnight ago against South Fremantle.

For Subiaco, Max Walters has been named as a follower to make his League debut in place of Rhys Waters who had his lone League appearance in Round 7.

Both the Colts and Development League  will be looking to bounce back after fading in the second half of their respective games last week.

The Colts have a couple of injuries and as a result will blood three debutants, with Dane Jenzen, Jackson Bennett and David Aspinall looking at their first Colts’ game, whilst into the side come the Sorrell brothers.  Joey Eardley will also play his first game of the 2016 season.

The focus from the coaching staff this week has been on skill execution under pressure, after the boys turned the ball over far too easily last week, but with a lighter week after a 6 day turnaround the Sharks will come out ready to give a good account of themselves. 

The Development League boys were disappointed with their second half, especially the last quarter of the East Perth game where they conceded 8 goals and are hungry to make amends, against a strong Subiaco outfit who are in good form.  Nick Menegola will come in for his first game, along with Carl Green who returns for his first run of the season.  

Coming off three straight losses, the Colts side will hope to get back to form against Subiaco, who have gone winless from six games this season.

The Colts will bouncedown at 9am, with the Development League at 11:30am and League at 2:15pm.

Spectator info 

East Fremantle fans are allowed into the Subiaco bar area, as the East Perth bar will not be open.

Sharks can also access food options in the Subiaco Alfresco Area, including coffee and cakes from Expresso Delight and great food from Topolinis To-Go.

Down the other end of the ground The New York Hot Dog Cart will be there at 12:30pm providing New York style hot dogs and drinks throughout the day.