Peel Overwhelm Claremont

By Ken Casellas

Congratulations and well done to Peel Thunder for producing a highly skilled side which gave an imperious performance to crush Claremont in the one-sided WAFL league grand final at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

This was only to be expected from a Peel side which was bolstered by 14 full-time AFL-listed Fremantle Dockers professional footballers with a combined total of 690 AFL matches, a major advantage against an opposition with two former AFL players, Dec Mountford and Alec Waterman, with a combined tally of 36 AFL appearances, in its ranks.

The Claremont Tigers, with an annual salary cap of $275,000, were simply annihilated by the Thunder whose team of 23 earned more than $4 million this year.

But there were no signs of any capitulation from the Claremont men, who fought valiantly throughout the contest which ended in a runaway 62-point victory for Peel, whose best players included commanding defenders Bailey Banfield and Hugh Davies, who were drafted from Claremont by the Dockers.

Several disappointing results in favour of Peel against the Tigers in recent years have also haunted Claremont’s diehard supporters. They include a Blair Bell goal in the final seconds of the first semi-final at Rushton Park on September 8, 2024, which gave the home side a one-point victory, and a goal after the siren from Aiden Riddle, a Claremont youngster drafted by Fremantle, which enabled Peel to win by three points at Rushton Park in round 13 this year.

Peel simply dominated Sunday’s match with a dazzling display of football skills. They proved too fast, took slick, physically too strong and far more creative and efficient in what appeared to be a case of lambs being led to slaughter.

Sadly, the Tigers were to blame for the heavy defeat when errant handpasses and poor disposal by foot led to a mountain of turnovers. Peel feasted on these mistakes and many of their 16 goals resulted from turnovers.

Most of the modest crowd of fans left Optus Stadium short-changed at having to watch a match of one-way traffic and agreeing that there is a desperate need for the competition to become more of a level playing field.

It was a terrible pity that the showcase of the WAFL failed to produce any levels of excitement, and that is in no way a criticism of Peel Thunder, who played by the rules and gave their supporters considerable enjoyment.

A philosophical Claremont coach Ash Prescott addressed club members and supporters at Revo Fitness Stadium on Sunday evening when he said: “Regardless of who we played, if you don’t turn up when the whips are cracking, it is disappointing.

“We can learn from that and we can get better. I want to thank a lot of people in this room who have been amazingly supportive. And, above all, thanks very much for your efforts; they have been much appreciated.”

“I think we have the best coaching group in the WAFL competition. We need to get better and we will leave no stone unturned to get better. I’m already looking forward to pre-season. We are going to make sure we do the work.”

Peel ambushed the Tigers on Sunday, with Tobyn Murray scoring the opening goal after 42 seconds and Charlie Nicholls getting the second after three minutes. This was followed by four consecutive behinds for Peel, including a poster from Cooper Simpson.

A diving mark by Talon Delacey in the left forward pocket saw him go back a steer a clever screw kick through for Claremont’s first major at the 13-minute mark. But this was the side’s only moment of joy in the first term when several handling errors proved extremely costly.

Goals early in the second quarter to Murray and Kyelan Sanders had Peel leading 8.8 to 1.4 when unfortunately, the result was a forgone conclusion.

The Tigers managed two goals for the quarter — from Jack Musika (after marking a pass from Zac Mainwaring) and Alec Waterman (after marking a kick forward from Kieran Gowdie).

The Thunder led 12.9 to 3.4 at half-time and after goals from Jack Sears and Scott Tuia in the first four minutes of the third quarter Claremont were trailing by 72 points. But the Claremont players refused to throw in the towel, with a great smother off the boot by Joey Hopkyns an indication of the side’s endeavour against the odds.

Late in the quarter Sam van Rooyen gave the Claremont fans something to rejoice with a couple of goals after he marked a kick forward from Max Minear and soon afterwards marking a Minear pass for another major.

There was a ball-up in Claremont’s left forward pocket 90 seconds into the final quarter when Gowdie leapt to tap the ball to Mainwaring, who swivelled and snapped truly. It was 24 minutes later when Mainwaring scored his second goal, and soon after that the siren sounded to end the lop-sided contest.

Details:

Peel Thunder 16.17 (113) beat Claremont 7.9 (51)

Scorers—PEEL: C. Nicholls, S. Tuia 3.1; J. Carr, T. Murray, C. Tregenza 2.0; J. Sears, J. Sharp, C. Simpson 1.2; K. Sanders 1.0; C. Scerri 0.2; T. Bryce, J. Hewitt, J. O’Meara, L. Tardrew 0.1; 3pts forced. CLAREMONT: Z. Mainwaring 2.1; S. van Rooyen 2.0; A. Waterman 1.3; T. Delacey, J. Musika 1.0; G. Gale, T. Headland 0.2; A. Davis 0.1.

Best—PEEL: J. Sharp, B. Banfield, N. O’Driscoll, L. Tardrew, C. Simpson, C. Scerri, J. O’Meara, H. Davies, T. Murray, J. Carr, J. Hewitt, T. Whan, T. Bryce. CLAREMONT: B. Rogers, M. Minear, O. Eastland, D. Mountford, Z. Mainwaring, C. England, J. Peace, A. Pearce, B. Elliott, A. Waterman, S. Alvarez.