peterss
Brownlow Medallist
- Aug 22, 2004
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This is from the WAFL Website.
EDIT - Can mods please edit the title so it reads Clarence -V- Claremont.
CLAREMONT travels to Tasmania to take on Clarence at Bellerive Oval on Saturday night keen to keep its unbeaten run to start 2011 alive and become the second WAFL club into the quarter finals of the Foxtel Cup.
So far in the inaugural Foxtel Cup this season reigning WAFL premiers Swan Districts went down to Williamstown, while East Perth got up in a thriller over triple VFL premiers North Ballarat.
Both those games were at Subiaco's Patersons Stadium and now this week Claremont becomes the first WAFL team to travel for the new competition.
Claremont will likely not have AFL-listed players Lewis Stevenson, Lewis Broome, Gerrick Weedon and Anton Hamp who all played in last week's hard fought win over Subiaco, and also have some injury troubles.
Andrew Browne, Alroy Gilligan and Brett Jones will also go out of the side through injury, and Chad Jones won't be making the trip despite nine goals in the reserves last week on his comeback from a serious hamstring injury, but depth is Claremont's greatest strength.
The likes of Tom Ayton, Ian Rowe, Henry Roberts, Brad Nisbett, James Thomson and Aaron Holt have all been in good form in the reserves and could receive the chance to show what they can do on a national stage via the Foxtel Cup.
Andrew Foster and Ian Richardson will also return and add plenty of quality, experience and goal scoring power after missing last week's game against Subiaco with back and ankle complaints respectively.
Captain Clancy Rudeforth and reigning fairest and best winner Luke Blackwell won't make the trip though.
The Tigers have started 2011 in tremendous form with strong wins over East Fremantle, Swan Districts, Peel, East Perth and Subiaco, and will be sure to want to keep that form going and progress to the next round of the Foxtel Cup.
Clarence is a relatively unknown commodity but is coached by Brett Geappen, the brother of Swan Districts' star forward and premiership player, and will be sure to be tough opposition on their home ground.
Claremont star Trinity Handley returned to some outstanding form last week in the win over Subiaco through the middle and up forward. He is looking forward to getting away with his teammates to play in Hobart.
"New experiences are something that you should relish and certainly this is one that is a great opportunity for our boys to travel interstate as a team, and play an unknown team," Handley said.
"We know they are quality, but other than that we don’t know really anything about them. It's going to be a great experience."
While Handley might adjust better than most of his teammates to the different conditions after playing with Port Fairy in Victoria last season, going from the 34 degrees last Saturday to playing at Bellerive Oval in a night game is sure to throw out some challenges too for the Tigers.
"It was pretty warm out there this week, but it certainly won't be like that down there," he said.
"It might be a little bit of an advantage for me, though, having played in Victoria last year where it was pretty cold most games. It will certainly be interesting to see how the boys cope with the colder weather."
Handley is also keen to go out there and perform strongly to not only show how strong of a club Claremont is on a national stage, but to also show the WAFL in the best possible light to a new, and larger, audience.
"I hadn’t really thought about it as representing the WAFL, but it is. One of the questions a lot of people ask is how does the WAFL compare to the SANFL, VFL or other leagues," Handley said.
"You'd like to think it compares pretty well so something like the Foxtel Cup is a great test to see that. I suppose you just approach this game like most others in that you want to win, however, knowing that it doesn’t count too much in terms of our own season back here in the WAFL. We want to win every game possible though."
SOURCE: http://www.wafootball.com.au/wafl/2566-claremont-foxtel-cup-preview-v-clarence
EDIT - Can mods please edit the title so it reads Clarence -V- Claremont.