By Ken Casellas

Ollie Eastland is an archetypical team man who shuns the limelight, and his driving force as the Claremont league side’s No. 1 ruckman is to achieve team success.

He will celebrate his 100th league appearance in the match against South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval on Saturday without any great fanfare but with a fierce determination to help the Tigers win the contest.

“This will be a good time to show our supporters that we’ve still got it and can win against a hungry South Fremantle,” he said.

“We have had a lot of games at Fremantle Oval in recent years --- preliminary finals and semis. We have had some good wins, and even the 2020 grand final (losing to South Fremantle by three points) was a good experience.”

Claremont will be desperate to bounce back to good form after the most disappointing effort last Saturday when the side suffered a humiliating 15-goal defeat at the hands of East Fremantle.

The 26-year-old Eastland has happy memories of his first season with Claremont in 2016 when he played in every match for the colts side, including the come-from-behind victory over East Perth in the grand final at Subiaco Oval.

“I played as a ruck/forward, with Jeremy Goddard doing the bulk of the ruck work,” said Eastland. The only other remaining member of that colts premiership side who is a current league teammate of Eastland is formidable defender Dec Hardisty. “We have been playing together since the under-8s,” said Eastland.

Eastland made his league debut at 19 in a round six fixture against Subiaco at East Fremantle Oval on April 22, 2017, when the Maroons won by 55 points.

“East Fremantle Oval was our home ground that year while the new facilities at Claremont Oval were being completed,” said Eastland. “We were beaten by a very good Subiaco side, and I realised how hard it is to play league footy, and against premiership players like Lachlan Delahunty and Clancy Wheeler. I learnt a lot from players like them.”

A couple of nasty injuries have delayed the arrival of Eastland’s milestone. He suffered fractured bones in a hand in a clash against East Perth ruckman Scott Jones in 2021, an injury which kept him out of action for four to five weeks.

Earlier, in the 2020 grand final against South Fremantle, Eastland suffered stress fractures in his back, a debilitating injury which hampered him in the following two seasons.

He was injury free last year when he represented Western Australia in the interstate match against South Australia and was rewarded for his outstanding performances by being chosen in the WAFL Team of the Year. He also won the E. B. Cook Medal as Claremont’s fairest-and-best player.

“It’s hard to say that I’ve enjoyed our first two matches this season (losses to West Perth and East Fremantle),” he said. “All you want to do is to win. We just aim for team success, and I’ll be doing all I can for the team this week.

“If my back is good, I’ve got five or six more years in me, particularly if a young fellow can relieve some of the burden. Kieran Gowdie can do it all, as a forward and in the ruck, and there’s progressive ruckmen in West Love and Max Rohr coming through the ranks.”