Delacey Delivers with Career-best Display

John Townsend

It was almost exactly a year ago that Ollie Eastland identified cool-headed Talon Delacey as the team-mate he would most want to have the ball if a late kick for goal were required for victory.

Perth were charging 12 minutes into the last quarter at Revo Fitness Stadium on Saturday.

Claremont were two goals up in the low scoring slog but the margin left the Tigers vulnerable after Perth had halved the half-time deficit and were playing with considerable intensity.

Enter Delacey.

He marked on the 50m line when Zac Mainwaring squared the ball after spotting his team-mate in a more dangerous position.

The pair shared the goal-kicking award last season and shared the moment that proved critical in Claremont winning their fifth match of the season, 8.13 (61) to 6.6 (42), to move within percentage of the top five.

Delacey was unruffled as he assessed his challenge, made excellent contact with his kick and drove the ball directly through from outside 50.

It was to be the final goal of the match as Claremont maintained their composure while heeding coach Ash Prescott’s instructions at the last break to be bold and use the ball through the centre corridor at every opportunity.

Those orders were followed to the letter at the start of the quarter when Bailey Rogers read the play superbly to cut off a Perth defensive exit, hooked the ball deep into the corridor to Alex Manuel’s advantage where the forward completed a remarkable mark under pressure and converted from 45m.

The animated Prescott put the acid on key defender Anthony Davis to lift in the final stages and the left-footer responded with great character to claim three strong intercept marks in the opening minutes before kicking long through the corridor to the open space ahead.

Winning a match while having two goalless quarters is unusual but Claremont’s class was evident when the game was on the line.

Delacey was one of the catalysts with the first 20-disposal effort of his 30-game career.

Twelve of those possessions were won in contests – behind only evergreen centreman Jye Bolton (13) – while that pair and Callen England had a profound say in the second term when Claremont overcame a stuttering start to dominate the match.

Bolton and England both had 12 of their eventual 33 disposals in that period while Delacey found the ball nine times, kicked his first major to spark an unanswered five-goal burst in 10 minutes, and complemented the excellence work of his midfield colleagues.

Two goals came in rapid time as Kieran Gowdie, whose muscular presence in attack has coincided with Claremont playing their best football in the past month, converted strong marks to reward the work done further up the field.

Both teams were without their spearheads – Alec Waterman was a late withdrawal with illness while Perth’s leading goal-kicker Harry Quartermaine was dropped, but the Tigers found other avenues to goal.

Claremont have turned the corner after searching for connectivity and fluency in the early stages of the season when they were 1-4 after the first five matches.

That record is 4-1 in the past five rounds with forthcoming matches against East Fremantle (5th) South Fremantle (3rd) and Swan Districts (4th) not only providing opportunities to reverse the earlier results but offering a block of fixtures likely to be critical in deciding ladder places in September.

CLAREMONT 0.6 6.9 6.12 8.13 61

PERTH 1.1 3.2 5.6 6.6 42

GOALS – CLAREMONT: Gowdie, Delacey 2; Manuel, Rogers, Sheldrick, Smallwood.

PERTH: Cachard 2; Chaplin, Clark, Kemp, Thompson.

BEST – CLAREMONT: Delacey, Bolton, Rogers, England, Eastland, Gowdie, Elliott.

PERTH: Thompson, Cachard, Byrne, Davis, Taylor.