TOPIC:

A huge game coming up this weekend as we take on the Sharks at the WACA.
Last time we played back in Rd2 we lead until the last few minutes of the game before being overrun late although we did have a handful of late outs on the morning of the game with covid, hopefully that is not the case this time around.
Old Easts have played well at the WACA Ground all season with the firm ground suiting their run and carry and we will have to play at our best to compete there.
Not sure how our injured players are fairing and when they will be right to come back....was good to see Erceg and Palmer back but Ireland and Collins must have been out for nearly a month by this Saturday, Beck & Noble both missed against WCER whilst Germs was expected to be back for the last round from memory?
EF should welcome back both Marsh & O'Reilly this week and possibly a couple of other regulars like Meade, Simpson, Murphy, Monaghan etc.

Season on the line stuff for Swans on Saturday. Will be very tough for them to make the finals if they drop this game. Will be a difficult assignment as the Sharks play the WACA very well and our guys have never played at the ground. At least it looks like we will have a fine day for a change so that will be welcome.
If we can get over the line here, maybe the players can then draw on some inspiration from next weeks 80s premiership reunion at Bassendean and upset West Perth. Would also be useful if Claremont could do us a favour and knock off Peel this week as well. 

mikeh wrote:

Season on the line stuff for Swans on Saturday. Will be very tough for them to make the finals if they drop this game. Will be a difficult assignment as the Sharks play the WACA very well and our guys have never played at the ground. At least it looks like we will have a fine day for a change so that will be welcome.
If we can get over the line here, maybe the players can then draw on some inspiration from next weeks 80s premiership reunion at Bassendean and upset West Perth. Would also be useful if Claremont could do us a favour and knock off Peel this week as well. 

Claremont wouldn’t just be doing Swans a favour mike, they’d also be doing the integrity of the WAFL a favour as well.

Going to be a tall order for Swans one feels. Although I think the two clubs had a close tussle earlier in the season whereby East Fremantle had a narrow win. This match is like an elimination final for Swans. In the previous 10 matches between these two clubs, they've both won 5 and lost 5. Given the fact they come against West Perth the following week, is important they have a win against the Sharks. Sadly Swans final qualifying match is on the road and one would think that will be a hard day at the office. They haven't played very well on the road given they've currently only had the one away game win.

Going to be disappointing for one of our clubs boys, not only this weekend but after the final H&A round.....just can't see how Peel don't make the finals..........big percentage  booster v WCER nexr weekend for them......gotta hope Cl beat them and you guys beat them too......obviously good for the comp with finals fight going deep into the last round.....EF probably need 2 wins I reckon, SF need 2 as do Cl, whilst SD need all 3 TBH  to secure finals....down to the wire stuff.....good luck....bar to Peel of course.

If Swans don't make the top 5, they won't have to analyse the reasons too much. Swans record at Bassendean this year has been near flawless with 8 wins out of 9 games, but their away record is the opposite, only 1 win out of 8 games. The galling thing is that they have been competitive in all these games with the biggest losing margin only 18 points. Particularly disappointing were the defeats to East Perth in Round 1 and Subiaco in Kalgoorlie where they had control of the game at 3 quarter time. Also losing to South by a point where they had a chance to snatch it in the dying minutes. 
If we had been able to win just 2 more of these away games we would be safely entrenched in the top 5. An away win this week is crucial.

Clearly the match of the round ahead of the CL v Peelmantle game. Should be a great contest in fine weather on a good surface.
For the sake of the comp I'd like to see Swans win and Claremont to smash Peelmantle.

mikeh wrote:

If Swans don't make the top 5, they won't have to analyse the reasons too much. Swans record at Bassendean this year has been near flawless with 8 wins out of 9 games, but their away record is the opposite, only 1 win out of 8 games. The galling thing is that they have been competitive in all these games with the biggest losing margin only 18 points. Particularly disappointing were the defeats to East Perth in Round 1 and Subiaco in Kalgoorlie where they had control of the game at 3 quarter time. Also losing to South by a point where they had a chance to snatch it in the dying minutes. 
If we had been able to win just 2 more of these away games we would be safely entrenched in the top 5. An away win this week is crucial.

All true, but I will take it further. We will only become a premiership threat when we get close to even supply of ball out of the the middle. The energy spent in defence repelling opposition feed from the middle is wasteful and risky. 

This being one of the matches of the year I would have thought. The weather on game day is looking to be favourable.
The other big game is SF taking on Subiaco. After last week, one would not rule out Souths having a loss whilst Subiaco finished last weeks match strongly.
Does anyone know if SportFM covering the EF - SD  match?

Assuming Germs is not right yet, if Swans play a genuine ruck in Morris as a replacement they will win this game. Noble will return after being an out with personal reasons. Not sure of Beck, Collins, Ireland. If the latter was available I’d still play Morris with Ireland his chop out and Noble a permanent fwd which is allowing Jones to go back or swing if need be.