Reality check for Tigers in top-of-the-table clash

John Townsend

Claremont have received a confronting reality check at the hands of league leaders South Fremantle.

Entering the top-of-the-table clash in excellent form and with a strong history of success in the Jimmy Melbourne Cup matches played in NAIDOC round, the Tigers were unable to combat a team whose twin pillars in defence complemented a midfield on top for most of a match played at grand final intensity.

The 27-point result, 10.9 (69) to 6.6 (42), was Claremont’s biggest loss of the season and the largest margin between the two teams in half a decade of spirited rivalry at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

And if not for the outstanding work of several young defenders, the margin might have been significantly greater.

Anthony Davis racked up a career-high 33 disposals and a goal as he ran hard from half-back, Jasper Peace did a superb shutdown job on the dangerous Trey Ruscoe, Josh Howard make a good fist of his late call-up in place of the ill Dec Hardisty, Max Minear had a strong presence and Jack Lewsey was a reliable and boisterous stopper deep in the backline.

Their contributions were matched by Ronin O’Connor’s impact in quietening South’s creative dynamo Matt Parker and Ollie Eastland who shaded Hamish Free in an absorbing ruck battle.

But Claremont’s problems started in the middle where they could not convert Eastland’s supremacy into effective forward moves.

Eastland won the bulk of Claremont’s 56 hit–outs, an advantage of 23 over the Bulldogs, but the home team won clearances by 17, 45 to 28, and kicked seven goals from stoppages.

That meant the ball rarely entered Claremont’s scoring zone with any precision while the South defenders had the better of the contests when it did.

Big forwards Kieran Gowdie (one goal from two disposals) and Jaiden Hunter (one from seven) were starved of opportunities while the crumbers had little to feed on.

Claremont ended up with just 30 disposals in their forward 50 zone with Zac Mainwaring and Joel Westernnot getting a touch inside the arc, and Gowdie and Tyron Smallwood managing just one each.

Talon Delacey kicked the team’s only goal late in the opening quarter after South had struck early twice while Claremont, who had the better of a gruelling and ferocious second term, scored the only goal just before the long break when Hunter converted a strong pack mark after Bailey Rogers drove the ball forward.

The intensity did not diminish in the third term with South kicking two early majors before Gowdie, who briefly escaped Chad Pearson’s close attention, answered and Ben Elliott kicked one of the goals of the season when he hooked a ball home from deep in the forward pocket.

When Jye Bolton kicked a superb 50m running goal to start the last quarter, Claremont had cut the margin to five points, the smallest gap since the opening moments, and appeared to have the momentum to charge home.

It was not to be. South midfielders Parker, Jake Florenca and Tom Blechynden lifted their rating, and when Isiah Winder found enough space to kick two goals and become the only multiple scorers in the match, the Bulldogs had weathered the storm.

They added several more goals in the dying moments when the sting had gone out of the contest but the margin flattered Claremont who won only a handful of positions on the field and could not counter the opposition’s greater options.

Claremont have won 12 of the 19 matches played for the Jimmy Melbourne Cup, the trophy named for Australia’s first Aboriginal league player, after club chief executives Brian Ciccotosto and Todd Shimmon instituted the annual NAIDOC fixture in 2007.

CLAREMONT 1.1 2.2 4.4 6.6 42

SOUTH FREMANTLE 3.5 3.7 5.9 10.9 69

GOALS – CLAREMONT: Hunter, Bolton, Elliott, Gowdie, Davis, Delacey.

SOUTH FREMANTLE: Winder 2; Ferreira, Ruscoe, Z Strom, Drage, O’Hehir, Bourne, Parker, Artemis.

BEST – CLAREMONT: Davis, Peace, Eastland, O’Connor, Lewsey, Minear.

SOUTH FREMANTLE: Winder, Parker, Pearson, N Strom, Florenca, Ward, Blechynden.