PRESCOTT'S MILESTONE

BY KEN CASELLAS

Few coaches, if any, have made such an extraordinary start to their careers as Claremont’s league coach Ash Prescott, who will notch his century as a WAFL senior coach when the Tigers clash with South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval on Saturday.

Prescott made his league coaching debut at Mandurah’s Rushton Park on March 20, 2004, with the official score showing Claremont defeating Peel Thunder, 17.15 to 0.0 --- a margin of 117 points.

The scoreboard showed Claremont winning, 17.15 to 10.10. But WAFL officials discovered that Peel had used an unregistered player, and therefore, under WAFL rules, had their score deleted.

Prescott has a league coaching record of 71 wins and 28 losses, and he has a 6-5 win-loss record against South Fremantle. He made a successful start against the Bulldogs, with Claremont winning by 16 points on an extremely wet and windy afternoon in Denmark on June 12, 2004. Then, on August 21 the Tigers led for most of the match at Fremantle Oval before losing by 11 points, mainly due to inaccuracy, with a total of 7.17.

There have been several close encounters between the two clubs since then, with Claremont registering a two-point victory at Fremantle Oval in 2005 and a four-point win at Claremont Oval in 2007 and suffering a five-point loss at Claremont Oval in 2005 and two three-point defeats in 2006 --- under lights at Fremantle Oval in June and in the preliminary final at Subiaco Oval in September.

Prescott’s most memorable win over South Fremantle was at Claremont Oval on May 7, 2006 when the Tigers scored 19.13 and restricted the Bulldogs to 6.10 to record an 81-point victory, thus ending South Fremantle’s sequence of 15 consecutive wins.  

Prescott would have reached his century in the match against West Perth at Joondalup last Saturday week if he had not missed the game against East Perth at Claremont Oval on June 16, 2007 when his first son, Xavier, was born. Filling in as league coach on that day was Claremont stalwart Brad Wira, and the Tigers were successful, 14.12 to 12.2.