Tigers junior shines for Bulldogs

By Ken Casellas

A few years ago devout Claremont supporters marvelled at the skill of a blond lad in the club’s under-14, under-15 and under-16 development squads.

And at Fremantle Oval last Saturday they were somewhat taken aback when they watched the same young fellow, considerably taller, dominating the opening quarter of the Claremont-South Fremantle reserves qualifying final.

The player in question is Tim English and he was wearing the No. 60 jumper for the South Fremantle side and it was due to his dominance in the ruck and splendid play around the ground that the Bulldogs led, 4.3 to 0.0, at the quarter-time break. .

English, who turned 19 last month, was also captain of the Christ Church Grammar School first 18 in 2015. But because his parents have a farm in Pingelly (as well as a residence in Claremont) he was declared ineligible to play for the Tigers colts side last year. Pingelly is in South Fremantle’s country zone and English was deemed to be bound to that club.

He has blossomed at South Fremantle this year, playing nine matches in the colts side, five for the reserves and one in the league side. He also was a shining light for Western Australia in the under-18 national championships and looks certain to be snapped up in the AFL draft this year.

English has had a remarkable growth spurt over the past three years, putting on 20 to 25cm. He now stands a towering 203cm.

In his time with the Tigers English was a polished midfielder and now he is an agile ruckman, whose athleticism, marking ability and skilful disposal by hand and foot has attracted the attention of most AFL scouts.

Claremont’s come-from-behind victory over the Bulldogs last Saturday was due to no small degree by the ability of the experienced Dylan Ross to curb the effectiveness of English after quarter time. Ross, who played at centre-half-back in the first term, was switched by coach Kepler Bradley to the ruck to keep English in check.

At Joondalup on Sunday the Claremont reserves and colts sides will come up against East Perth and Perth, respectively, in semi-final matches in which both opposition sides will be coached by former Claremont stalwarts.

The East Perth reserves side, which finished the qualifying rounds in top spot with 16 wins, is coached by Luke Dwyer, who made 105 league appearances for the Tigers between 2000 and 2007 after playing 41 senior matches for the Royals between 1997 and 1999.

The Perth colts side is coached by former Claremont league ruckman Andrew Ruck and also won 16 of its 20 qualifying-round matches. Ruck, from, the Royals club in Albany, won the Jack Clarke Medal as the fairest-and-best player in the colts competition in 2004 and he played 74 league matches for the Tigers.     

The Claremont reserves side will be without the versatile and experienced Ian Rowe, who tore his left hamstring in the final quarter of last Sunday’s match against South Fremantle.

The 29-year-old Rowe was an outstanding player for the Claremont colts in 2004 and 2005 and went on to play 72 league matches for the club before retiring in 2012 and deciding to work in London for a few years. In this his comeback year Rowe has appeared in 14 reserves matches.

Bradley’s troops are in high spirits and have been training enthusiastically before Sunday’s showdown against East Perth. And it has been most pleasing to watch almost the entire league squad joining in the full training sessions in the past two weeks.

And it was wonderful to see league star Jye Bolton don the pink shorts and shirt to act as team runner with Corey Yeo in last Sunday’s reserves match against South Fremantle. He’ll be in action again in this role at Joondalup on Sunday.