Bolton’s medal prospects soar

By Ken Casellas

Jye Bolton strengthened his prospects of winning the Sandover Medal as the fairest and best player in the WAFL competition this year with yet another superb performance in Claremont’s match against East Perth at the Showgrounds on Saturday.

However, his dynamic display was not enough to give the Tigers victory over the Royals, whose eight-point win kept them in fifth position on the premiership table. The Tigers are languishing in eighth place after 11 defeats and four wins this season.

The powerfully-built Bolton, recruited pre-season from the Werribee Tigers, has been a wonderful acquisition for the Tigers. He also gave a sample of his class when he was awarded the Simpson Medal as the best player when Western Australia thrashed Tasmania by 134 points last month.

The 24-year-old midfielder was in the thick of the action throughout Saturday’s contest until he was dazed in a front-on tackle from East Perth’s Kurt Mutimer 22 minutes into the final quarter and had to be taken from the field on a stretcher.

Bolton was clearly the best player in the match, during which he took five marks, had 28 kicks and made eight effective handpasses. He gained the clearance from stoppages a remarkable 15 times and drove the ball inside his side’s 50m attacking zone eight times, as well as rebounding the ball out of defence another five times.

For good measure Bolton made four tackles, a tally exceeded in the Claremont side only by Ryan Neates and Ryan Lim (six each) and equalled by Keifer Yu and Tom Shanahan. He also weighed in with five hit-outs when used as the third man up.

Apart from Bolton, Claremont had outstanding contributors in Shanahan, Haydn Busher and Tom Ledger.

Shanahan was given the onerous task of tagging West Coast Eagles-listed midfielder Dom Sheed, and he exceeded expectations by effectively blanketing the highly-rated young gun, who was restricted to five kicks and ten effective handpasses.

Busher shone at full-back where he proved the master of Mitch Brown (who managed just one goal) and winger Ledger maintained his high standards with another excellent 18-kick, six effective handpass performance. He frequently drifted deep into defence with splendid results.

The Royals had the first use of the breeze and it took only 40 seconds before they opened the scoring with a behind from Brant Colledge. Just over four minutes later Ledger foiled a promising East Perth forward sortie with a strong mark in defence.

It was generally pretty scrappy football and it took almost ten minutes before the first major was posted --- by East Perth’s Pat McGinnity, who snapped truly after gaining possession at a stoppage.

Simon Tunbridge scored East Perth’s second goal at the 15-minute mark and two minutes later a point to Yu gave the Tigers their only score for the term.

The sun was shining for the start of the second quarter and after 2min. 20sec. of play Bolton gained his sixth clearance and booted the ball forward where Beau Maister took the mark and booted a goal.

Bolton gained the clearance at the resultant centre bounce, but Claremont’s attacking move fell down and a goal to Malcolm Karpany saw East Perth holding a 13-point lead which was whittled down to seven points at the 13-minute mark after Ledger had passed accurately to Yu, whose kick was marked by Jack Richardson.

Jack Richardson handpassed to Ian Richardson, who unleashed a typical long bomb for Claremont’s second major.  But Claremont managed just one more behind for the remaining 16 minutes of the quarter while East Perth took charge and added a further 3.1 to take a handy 25-point lead into the half-time break.

It was a disappointing quarter from the Tigers, who missed a couple of golden opportunities in the final moments of the term --- with the tigerish Neates failing to score from a tough angle in the right pocket and Darcy Cameron managing a behind from the opposite pocket.  

The Claremont players came out for the third term and immediately lifted the intensity. This greater application was rewarded after four minutes when Harry McCracken, Maister and Jack Richardson combined to get the ball to Cameron in the goalsquare. Seven minutes later Lim drove the ball to the goalsquare where Cameron was tackled unfairly and then made the most of the free-kick to notch his second goal.

Brown replied with a goal to the Royals four minutes later. Claremont doubled their half-time score to go into three-quarter time with 4.4 on the board, with East Perth on 7.6.

Five minutes into the final quarter Jack Beeck was awarded a free-kick after an umpire declared that an East Perth clearing kick out of bounds was deliberate. Beeck’s kick saw Maister launching himself skywards to pull down a great mark. The resultant goal saw the Tigers draw within 13 points of the Royals.

But a goal to Colledge lengthened the margin to 19 points. However, the Tigers were in no mood to lie down. However, 12 minutes elapsed before the next goal --- after a free-kick and 50m penalty to the tireless Bolton. The deficit then was just nine points. But a mark 15m out enabled Colledge to score his second goal which gave East Perth some breathing space with a 15-point lead.

Less than two minutes later Bolton was met heavily at right half-back and received a free-kick. After he had taken the kick play was halted as Bolton left the field on a stretcher.

The ball went from end to end without any score being posted until Matt Davies kicked a behind following some good work from Shanahan, Jared Hardisty and Lim.

The red digital clock showed that the quarter was 29 minutes old, with East Perth in front by 14 points. Lim was still working feverishly and he passed to Maister, who flew high to take a mark and then kick a goal to reduce the margin to eight points. But moments later the final siren sounded to end the low-scoring contest.

Details:

East Perth 9.6 (60) beat Claremont 7.10 (52)

Scorers---

EAST PERTH: B. Colledge 2.1; S. Tunbridge 1.2; M. Brown 1.1; X. Ellis, M. Karpany, T. Lamb, P. McGinnity, C. Wulff 1.0; M. Hutchings 0.1.

CLAREMONT: B. Maister 3.1; D. Cameron 2.1; J. Bolton 1.1; I. Richardson 1.0; M. Davies, B. Higgs, T. Ledger, R. Lim, T. Shanahan, K. Yu 0.1; 1pt forced.

Best---

EAST PERTH: P. McGinnity, M. Fraser, P. Johnson, P. Brophy, S. Tunbridge, T. Lamb, B. Colledge, N. Blee. CLAREMONT: J. Bolton, T. Shanahan, H. Busher, T. Ledger, I. Richardson, A. Manuel, B. Maister, R. Lim, R. Neates.