With 3 rounds to go the premiership ladder is
SF 56
C 46
EP 44
P 36
EF 32
WP 24
Peel 22
The rest
Souths play East Perth, West Perth and West Coast and should win at least 2 of those to finish on top on 64
Claremont play Swans, Perth and East Perth. That last game may well decide home ground advantage for the qualifying final
East Perth have a tough 3 games with South Freo, East Freo and Claremont. I reckon they might finish 3rd
Perth have Peel, Claremont and Subiaco to finish. At very least they should beat Subiaco to confirm their finals spot. They have a poor percentage which might cost them a home final
East Fremantle play West Coast, East Perth and West Perth. If they lose to West Coast they will be in a little bit of danger.
West Perth have to win their 3 games against Subiaco, South Fremantle and East Fremantle and hope that either East Fremantle or Perth (or Both) lose all of their 3 remaining games.
Peel are only mathematically alive and if East Fremantle beat the Eagles next weekend or they lose to Perth, they will be officially in mothballs.
Odds are that the top 5 will be in the same order come the end of the qualifying round
There will be no change to the first 5 teams. That being obvious in the middle of the season. The only question being asked then was what order the first 5 teams finish the qualifying rounds. Been a bit of a boring season it needs saying. At least the Finals series will feature 5 Wafl clubs and no damned pretenders!
Top spot locked in, bottom 4 to shuffle, EF look the weakest at the moment. Yep mothballs for the rest a while back, at least the dockers and eagles will play no part…good to see perth not muching mothballs in August.
Considering Cl beat EF at the death, think Cl are close behind EF then Bazza…think SF miles ahead, with only EP on paper able to match…will be a massive choke if SF don’t make the GF TBH
At the completion of the 9th of August week 18 fixturing, South Fremantle the clear favourites for winning the premiership. Currently sitting on a dollar 70c. Claremont have slipped into 3$ 50c, and Royals on 8$. Then East Fremantle currently find themselves at 12 dollars and Perth have the odds of 14$.
Not sure how EF are at better odds than Perth for the flag. From those odds, if SF don’t win, it may go down as one of the biggest chokes in recent times…be disappointing for the SF fans if that was to happen…especially after the season SF have had…but who knows with finals footy, what will happen.
Funny thing is we have suffered our biggest losses to EF, Cl and EP yet only lost to SF by 13 points in round 1 without Aaron Clarke and Simpson and by 22 points when we just lost Josh Edwards and Michael Randall. We have defeated EP by 6 goals earlier when at full strength and a close win against EF when injuries were starting to hit hard.
Having Clarke, Paton and Johnston back and the emergence of Tristan Jaques as Edwards replacement has put the key pillars back in place. Oscar Hine-Bastons’ loss has been offset somewhat by the return of Johnno and others have stepped up to the plate like Jack Bodle and Jack Evans.
I go into this weeks clash with 2nd placed Claremont who have the healthiest list in the comp, quietly optimistic.
We now have 6 season ending injuries. Peel tops the list with 7. EF have 6.
To be honest Perths reappearance in the finals has been the only shred of interest in what has been a boring predictable season. Souths are so far in front of every one else that it would take a major meltdown for them to lose it from here. The top 5 has been pretty much set since the end of may. All the teams outside the top 5 are awful and it could be argued that East Fremantle have also fallen down the slippery dip in the last 6 - 7 weeks and are merely making up the numbers.
Very disappointing season and I hope that the Dees can knock over a few teams in September
To be honest mike, this is how a Perth supporter feels any other season. It’s always pretty evident by the halfway mark of any season who will make up the top 5.
In the $ubiaco dominant era it was pretty much copy and paste from one year to the next and a few regulars like Claremont, West Perth and SF you could pencil in. We had to endure this year in year out. Now a couple of those clubs are knowing what that feels like. Hopefully this season isn’t a one off for us.
Yeah totally understand your comment. Dees supporters on here have stuck with them through the tough times and now you guys are getting some reward for the loyalty. I hope your guys can get on a roll in September. Firstly secure that home final and take it from there
Going to be an interesting round for 4 of the top 5 teams that will have a big bearing on who finishes where and gets a home final.
2nd vs 4th and 3rd vs 5th. If results go on form you have to say nothing changes. But a couple of upsets by Perth and EF or one or the other could see a bit of snakes and ladders.
If EF knock off EP and Perth loses to Claremont then I’d say EF will secure themselves a home final on percentage. If we knock off Claremont and EF upset EP then we could finish as high as 3rd with EP facing Claremont in the last round and us playing Subi.