WAFL PRELIM FINAL MATCH REPORT

WAFL Reserves Preliminary Final 202 Match Report

What a day, what a win, what a great opportunity ahead this Sunday for this emerging group of young WPFC footballers.

Going into the game for the third week running with the same selected 23 players across all final’s games to date, produced another winning performance with everyone playing their role. An improved first quarter from the week before, with Nate Dimanlig kicking two, & Lachlan Acres hitting the scoreboard late in the first, resulted in a narrow five-point lead to East Perth at quarter time. An evenly matched second term, with some inaccuracy in front of the sticks from East Perth, resulted in us narrowing the gap to one point at the main break. From the fourteen-minute mark of the third, we kicked four consecutive goals, including an electrifying goal from speedster Xavier Vallejo, in what was a BOG performance from the quite achiever nicknamed “Whisper”. East Perth drew the margin back early in the fourth to eight points, however the boys responded kicking five of the last six goals of the match, resulting in a thirty-point win to advance to the Grand Final at Optus Stadium.

With a whole of squad mentality, this playing group has well & truly earnt the right to be playing for some silverware come Sunday. It was fantastic to see once again the many smiles in the rooms post-match, family, friends, girlfriends, supporters & extended squad members, a real great vibe around this group as we chase “one more win” to complete a brilliant finals campaign. This Thursday at our home deck in Joondalup, we will have an open session of which we would love to see family, friends and supporters attend in strong numbers, we will have a BBQ up & running along with the downstairs bar open for anyone wishing to have a quite drink, whilst the playing squad train. Our last victorious Reserves premiership was in 2019, let’s get on down to Optus Stadium in club colours this Sunday, kick off is at 9:45am. Post-match, we welcome all back to our club house to celebrate the efforts of this group, and as importantly generate & build upon this positivity as we look towards improvements in all areas of our great club moving into 2027.

Written by Clint Rudd (Head of Senior Men’s Football)