The Claremont Tigers Rogers team displayed a strong outfit on Sunday afternoon as they went head-to-head in the season opener against last years premiers the East Fremantle Sharks. Played on neutral ground at Pentanet Stadium in Joondalup, Claremont took home their first victory of the season defeating the Sharks, 9.5 (59) to 4.7 (31). Claremont’s physicality in the contest combined with their superb vision, created plenty of avenues to scoring. This allowed seven tigers to get involved in the forward frenzy, with Bec Anderson and Jayde Musika combining for multiple goals between them. This high scoring outing showed that Claremont was not afraid to use the width of the ground as they carried the ball forward with impressive aerial prowess.

Jorja Elisseou set the tone early, drifting up the ground to attack the bowl ferociously at every contest, whilst applying pressure with smothers and tackles. Elisseou had no trouble finding the ball, being one of the main ball winners of the day. Her defensive forward 50 pressure acts, meant that for long parts of the first half, the ball remained in the tigers forward line. This physicality flowed throughout the team as Bridie Garlick and Ruby Freeman also applied immense defensive efforts. A strong sense of endurance and strength must have been instilled into this Tigers side throughout the pre-season as they consistently fought hard for four quarters. Bec Anderson starred in this match as she dominated the ruck work at the stoppages, whilst also floating down to supply some height to the forward line. Anderson took some strong marks as the midfield provided her with some clean forward 50 entries.

The first outing for the Claremont Tigers Rogers team shows a lot of promise for the season ahead. With a decorated WAFLW team to follow in the footsteps of, the Claremont Rogers display the results of a strong pre-season, with impressive ambition for a full season ahead. Next week the Claremont Tigers face Peel Thunder, for their first home game back at Revo Fitness Stadium. Where they will look to continue their positive 2022 season form against Peel and in turn build upon their 2023 winning form.

Claremont Goal Scorers:

Bec Anderson 2, Jayde Musika 2, Ruby Freeman 1, Georgia Webb 1, Ella Gilbey 1, Savannah Muir 1, Charlotte Tompkin 1

Author: Seb Hasluck