WAFL 2025: South Fremantle wary of East Perth outfit ready for grand final redemption despite dominant season

The number 15 looms large over South Fremantle entering Sunday’s WAFL grand final.

The red-hot Bulldogs are chasing a 15th consecutive victory that would deliver the club a 15th premiership - but they’re wary of an East Perth side hellbent on redemption and favoured by improved weather conditions for the Optus Stadium clash.

South Fremantle coach Craig White said despite his team having lost just once all year, they were on alert for a fired-up Royals outfit who will be desperate to avoid a grand final loss for a second straight season.

“I feel like it’s totally different from a conditions point of view… the conditions on Sunday are conducive to a good quality brand of footy,” White said.

“As a whole, this last six to eight weeks has been tough conditions for everyone and it is again on the weekend but it’s really hard to now both teams have to flip back into that dry weather footy.

“That gives East Perth probably the comfortable conditions which they want for their kick-mark (game) and their ability to score.”

Royals skipper Christian Ameduri is part of an East Perth core that has the memory of last year’s 33-point grand final defeat to Peel Thunder fresh in their minds.

He said that match had been a driving force for the squad this season, with the chance to atone now in the players’ hands.

“We were probably the No.1 team all year (last season). We were hard to beat, had a really strong playing group, a lot of talent and a strong culture and let ourselves down on the day that it counted the most,” Ameduri said.

“That drives a lot of the boys, especially some of the younger guys that haven’t been around for the last year or didn’t get the opportunity last year, they’re out for a little bit of redemption.

“We’ve got a strong culture, and they want to win for the guys that missed out last year and the experiences that we have from last year will hold us in good stead.”

The Bulldogs head into the clash with almost a full list to choose from, which leaves them a big selection headache around premiership captain Dylan Main.

Main has played only two league games this season due to a series of injuries, the last of them coming in the round eight WA Day derby win over East Fremantle.

The 30-year-old former skipper has done everything to put his hand up for the decider, playing in the Bulldogs’ last four reserves games including a best-on-ground performance in their semifinal defeat to the Royals.

White said Main’s selection had been a source of debate since they beat the Royals in the second semifinal to book their place at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

“In his last game he was best-on-ground for the reserves in a losing final and that was the form we needed to see from Dylan,” White said.

“That’s four games in a row now, so that continuity around the risk of injury has probably gone and evaporated and being able to see him execute on game day was great.

“Now it’s whether that’s enough to warrant selection over the 22 that are still fit, that have done a fair majority of the work over the year and had a good second semifinal and in the last probably five games of the year as well.”

East Perth have felt the brunt of South Fremantle’s best, having been restricted to a combined seven goals in their previous two encounters which they lost by 47 and 59 points respectively.

Royals coach Ross McQueen said they needed to lock the ball in their front half better if they were going to kick a winning score.

“Any time you’ve got to play against quality teams like South Fremantle, Claremont, East Fremantle if you’ve got to try to transfer the ball from the back half to the front half too many times in a game of football you just cant score enough so we’ve got to find a way to get that front half game,” McQueen said.

“Get our midfield to get on top of the ball, get it in early, get some repeat stoppages and that’s the challenge against South Fremantle.

“In the second semifinal they took 11 or 12 intercept marks in the defensive 50. Anytime they’re taking those marks it’s just coming straight out so we need to make sure our connections good.

“We’ve worked hard at that at training and it’d be a real focus about that connection going inside 50.”