Preliminary Final WAFL Preview

TWO teams with equally strong cases to get behind lock horns in Sunday's WAFL preliminary final with East Fremantle hosting Claremont with the winner to advance to next Saturday's 2022 Grand Final.

The Sharks and Tigers do battle in the preliminary final for 2022 on Sunday afternoon at East Fremantle's New Choice Homes Park in a rematch of the qualifying final at the same venue two weeks ago.

East Fremantle proved too strong on that occasion as they now look to take advantage of playing at home attempting to reach a first Grand Final since 2012 in what is their first preliminary final appearance since 2014.

Meanwhile, Claremont is playing in a third preliminary final of the past four years and is desperate to avoid losing the third in that time with the Tigers playing in a fifth straight finals series and having won a final in each of those seasons.

There's so much fascination about the match up with the winner to go on to the Grand Final next Saturday at Leederville Oval against West Perth.

It's a full day of preliminary final action at New Choice Homes Park on Sunday beginning at 9am with the colts contest between Peel Thunder and Claremont.

The reserves preliminary final will then begin at 11.35am also at Shark Park between Claremont and Subiaco.

The winners of both the colts and reserves preliminary finals will also play West Perth next Saturday in Grand Finals at Leederville Oval.

WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON 2022 – PRELIMINARY FINAL 

EAST FREMANTLE v CLAREMONT

East Fremantle and Claremont meet for the third time in five weeks on Sunday and this time there's a Grand Final spot on the line in the preliminary final at New Choice Homes Park.

The Sharks and Tigers will be facing off for the third time in the last five weeks having played one another at Revo Fitness Stadium in Round 19, and then in the qualifying final at East Fremantle Oval.

East Fremantle won both those games ahead of playing host to Claremont this Sunday with the winner to advance to the Grand Final against West Perth next Saturday at Leederville Oval.

Not only is it the third time the two teams have played in five weeks, but the last premiership Claremont won was by beating East Fremantle back in 2012 which is also the last Grand Final that the Sharks have played in.

Sunday will also be the first preliminary final for East Fremantle since 2014 where they shot themselves in the foot against Subiaco by kicking 7.26 in a five-point loss.

Claremont doesn’t have pleasant recent preliminary final memories either, though, having lost to South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval both in 2019 and 2021.

Claremont has actually lost its last four preliminary finals with its last win coming in 2005 before losing the Grand Final to South Fremantle.

East Fremantle's last preliminary final victory was in 2012 when they beat Swan Districts on the way to then losing the week later to Claremont in the Grand Final.

Sunday will also be only the fifth ever final that East Fremantle has hosted at New Choice Homes Park. 

The Sharks lost to East Perth in a first semi-final in 2010 but have since defeated the Royals in the 2012 first semi-final, Swan Districts in the 2014 first semi-final and then the qualifying final two weeks ago against Claremont.

It's only the second ever final the Tigers have played at the ground while prior to that they had won their last three, and seven of their previous eight trips to Shark Park against East Fremantle.

Following that win for East Fremantle by 48 points in the qualifying final against Claremont two weeks ago, there were mixed fortunes for both teams last week.

East Fremantle went down to West Perth by 20 points in the second semi-final at Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium while Claremont were terrific at home beating Peel Thunder by 59 points to set up this week's preliminary final.

For a lot of reasons Sunday's preliminary final is fascinating and none the least because East Fremantle has dominated Claremont in their past two meetings over the last month.

However, that brings up the prospect that the Sharks could continue to have the better of the Tigers or Claremont might indeed turn it around.

East Fremantle coach Bill Monaghan has looked closely at some of the things Claremont changed last week in its win over Peel after losing to the Sharks in the qualifying final, but ultimately his focus is on having his side ready to replicate the form from last two clashes with the Tigers.

"From a structural point of view Ash and people at Claremont have clearly stated that they overused the handball last time against us," Monaghan told 91.3 SportFM.

"Is that a result of our pressure or instruction or game plan from them I'm not sure, but what they did last week was win the ball at the source and advance it forward which was a significant difference to the game they played the previous week against us. They also made a couple of structural changes.

"In terms of us, what we all aim to do at the start of the year is make a Grand Final and everyone is at a different stage of their development. Whether we thought we could play a Grand Final or if others did or didn’t is somewhat irrelevant, and obviously it would mean a lot.

"But one thing we've talked about is the noise around about how long since we've made a Grand Final and how great it would be, but we are fully aware that our No. 1 priority is to play good footy this Sunday. We haven’t looked past that and for East Fremantle supporters out there, that's our goal but we know our focus has to be on Claremont this week."

Claremont coach Ashley Prescott couldn’t have been happier with his team's response last Sunday to beat Peel by 59 points in the first semi-final on the back of the 48-point qualifying final loss to East Fremantle.

He now has great belief in his Tigers team that they can win to what would be a third Grand Final he's taken them to after also being in charge for the 2004, 2005 and 2007 Grand Finals Claremont made.

"When I talk about a brand of footy we want to play, it's off the back of hot pressure and if you can do that you will give yourself opportunities to turn the ball over quick," Prescott told 91.3 SportFM.

"We were able to keep the ball in our forward half for about 70 per cent of last week's game and that allows you to play off a shorter field, it allows yours backs to set up and gives your forwards multiple opportunities.

"We've been really good all year at applying pressure and getting the ball back but our execution at times has let us down. What was most pleasing last week was our pressure and hunt around the ball.

"I think we now have a fair bit of belief for this week, I certainly have it. It's quite a unique situation where we will play East Fremantle three times in about a month so we have to look at those last two as practice matches as such. 

"We weren’t good enough and there were certain reasons why they were able to beat us, but there's a great opportunity now for us and a strong believe within us. We've put ourselves in a position where we get another crack at them and making a Grand Final."