By Ken Casellas

Zane Sumich, one of Claremont’s key recruits for 2024, made a dream start for the Tigers in the reserves match against East Fremantle at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday.

He lined up at full-forward opposed to Kale Paton, and was under notice in the opening couple of minutes with a wholehearted tackle, and then his first two kicks in the navy and gold resulted in excellent goals, the first of Claremont’s tally of 16 in an outstanding 71-point victory.

A long pass from Sam van Rooyen was marked deep in the right pocket by Sumich, who then kicked truly from an acute angle, particularly for a right-footer. Soon afterwards Sumich took another mark, this time close to the boundary about 50m out on the right flank. An unerring kick gave Sumich his second major.

Van Rooyen was dominating, and after taking an excellent high mark on the wing he took another mark and another Tigers recruit Kim Kantilla took a contested mark in the right pocket.

A behind resulted, but Kantilla made amends late in the quarter when Kai Dehavilland’s long kick forward eluded a leaping bunch of players, and Kantilla, cleverly positioned behind the pack, held a chest mark and his goal gave Claremont a handy lead, 4.2 to 0.3.

But the Sharks hit back with three goals (to Harrison Hyde, Koen Sanchez and Jack Cocking) in the final three minutes of the quarter.

After that, Claremont took control, scoring 12 goals to East Fremantle’s two in the final three quarters. It took 18 minutes before the first goal was scored in the second quarter. It came from the boot of van Rooyen.

Sumich was under notice with a mark on the right wing, and he delivered accurately to Talon Delacey, whose pass was marked by Jack Musika for Claremont’s sixth goal and the first of his three majors. Sumich got his third goal late in the term and the Tigers led 7.9 to 4.9 at half-time.

Sumich notched his fourth goal in the final quarter, while Kieran Gowdie, who scored three behinds in the second quarter finished with four majors, with Musika scoring three in the second half.

Details:

Claremont 16.14 (110) beat East Fremantle 5.9 (39)

Scorers---CLAREMONT K. Gowdie 4.4; Z. Sumich 4.1; J. Musika 3.1; T. Delacey 1.3; K. Kantilla, S. van Rooyen 1.1; D. Mulligan, O. Sheldrick 1.0; C. Jackman 0.2; 1pt forced. EAST FREMANTLE: J. Cocking, K. Sanchez 1.2; L. Blackiston, H. Hyde, M. Tassone 1.0; J. Cripps 0.2; A. Ball 0.1; 2pts forced.

Best---CLAREMONT: J. Musika, O. Sheldrick, A. Treacy, K. Gowdie, S. van Rooyen, K. Dehavilland, M. Rohr, C. Jackman, T. Delacey. EAST FREMANTLE: J. Cripps, M. Tassone, E. Burrows, L. Blackiston, C. Holmes, J. McManus, P. Campbell.