Sam Bevan, used to good effect at centre-half-back in the first couple of rounds this season, made a wonderful return to the Claremont side at Rushton Park under lights on Saturday night when he gave a commanding performance in his favoured position at full-forward.

The tall, angular Bevan booted two goals in each of the final three quarters as he celebrated his first appearance for the Tigers since the round eight match against East Perth on May 10.

He and several other members of the State under-18 side are now back with the Claremont side which is poised to make a strong bid for premiership honours.

Bevan and centre-half-forward Alex Manuel (four goals) were in sparkling touch and they played leading roles in Claremont’s runaway 81-point victory over bottom side Peel Thunder. Bevan took nine marks and had 11 kicks and Manuel took eight marks and had 15 kicks, which included five inside 50s.

The Tigers have won eight of their 14 matches and with 32 points are in third position on the premiership table behind Swan Districts (52 points) and South Fremantle (36), with East Perth (28) in fourth spot.

Statistics show that each side on a cold Saturday night gained 29 clearances from stoppages and that Claremont penetrated their 50m attacking zone 46 times to Peel’s 38 entries. But, remarkably, Claremont scored 17.8 to Peel’s paltry 3.11, with the Tigers taking 120 marks to Peel’s 68, having 233 kicks to 167 and making 154 handpasses to 65.

Midfielders Alec Waterman (23 disposals, six clearances and four inside 50s), Sam Humphry (22 disposals, eight clearances and two inside 50s), Isaac Baum (20 disposals, four clearances and two inside 50s) and Bailey Rogers (16 disposals, four tackles, two clearances and five inside 50s) were a dominant force, while Matt Palfrey, back from State under-18 duties, was a livewire performer on a half-forward flank. Talented wingers Harry Taylor and Matt Guelfi completed a powerful midfield.

It was extremely heartening to see Rogers back in action after spending many weeks on the sidelines after he tore a tendon off a finger in the final seconds of the match against South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval on May 3. This necessitated surgery to re-attach the tendon.

The Claremont players will have little time to recover fully. They will line up against the powerful Swan Districts side at the Showgrounds at 6 o’clock on Wednesday evening.

Then a squad of 22 players will leave Perth early on Friday morning, flying to Broome in the heart of Claremont’s Kimberley district. After arriving at Broome airport the players and officials will travel by bus to Bidyadanga, 180km south of Broome, where they will hold a clinic in the afternoon.

In Broome on Saturday evening a match will be played between the Claremont colts and a Kimberley colts side which will include Tigers and WA under-18 player Francis Watson.

A few players were rested for the match against Peel and this allowed 17-year-old Hale School student Alex Forster to make his debut for the Tigers. He did well with his five marks, eight kicks, four effective handpasses, three tackles and three inside 50s.

The Tigers took a little while to warm up in Friday night’s match and the Thunder were the first into stride with a goal to Nathan Fahey after seven and a half minutes. It took Claremont 14 minutes to post their first goal, after a mark to Manual at centre-half-forward. Harry McCracken and Lawrence Evans followed with majors to give the visitors a 14-point advantage at quarter time.

Claremont assumed control in the second quarter when Bevan scored his side’s first two goals for the term. Greg Colbung followed with a goal soon afterwards and later in the quarter a Colbung pass found Jacob Delaporte for Claremont’s seventh goal. In the dying moments Delaporte delivered to Guelfi, who got the ball on to Manuel for another major as the siren was sounding.

The Tigers restricted Peel to a solitary behind (to Fahey late in the quarter) while they added five goals in the first 18 minutes of the quarter, the first coming from Guelfi from close range in the first minute.

Four minutes later an excellent pass from Manuel was marked by Bevan for the next goal, and two minutes after that Forster delivered to Bevan for another.  Then it was Palfrey to Josh Barty to Harry McCracken for Claremont’s twelfth. Manuel got the 13th after running on to a long kick from Baum from the left wing.

The final term opened with a tremendous bullet pass from Palfrey to ruckman Will McSweeney, but his short veered to the left to register a behind. Eight minutes passed before Bevan burst i8nto the limelight again with two goals in the space of two minutes, the first coming after a forward thrust involving Humphry and Rogers and the second coming after Manuel had delivered the ball to the goalsquare.

A Taylor pass found Evans for his second major, a splendid shot from 50m out. Two minutes later Palfrey booted the ball long into attack where it bounced and Baum, revealing wonderful awareness, tapped it on cleverly to give Manuel his fourth.  

Then followed eight minutes without either side troubling the scoreboard. Finally Peel’s Lewis Stanton took a mark 10m out. The siren sounded and Stanton’s simple shot gave the home side its only major in the second half.

Details:

Claremont 17.8 (110) beat Peel Thunder 3.11 (29)

Scorers---CLAREMONT: S. Bevan 6.1; A. Manuel 4.1; L. Evans, H. McCracken 2.0; G. Colbung, J. Delaporte, M. Guelfi 1.0; W. McSweeney 0.2; S. Humphry, M. Palfrey, H. Wilkinson 0.1; 1pt forced. PEEL: N. Fahey 1.3; B. Milward 1.1; L. Stanton 1.0; M. Wallace 0.2; J. Cosgrove, B. McGowan, J. McMahon 0.1; 2pts forced.

Best---CLAREMONT: S. Humphry, H. Taylor, A. Waterman, AS. Manuel, S. Bevan, H. McCracken, M. palfrey, I. Baum, J. Delaporte, G. Colbung, M. Guelfi, B. Rogers. PEEL: S. Shackles, K. Shanahan, M. Curnow, B. Smith, N. Meritt, M. Wallace.