PEEL Thunder capped off its most successful season in history with a 39-point win against South Fremantle on Saturday.
Led by Leroy Jetta with seven goals Peel ran away with the game in the second half to secure third position and a second chance in the finals with a 16.12 (108) to 9.15 (69) win.
In a tight first half Peel led by 13 points at halftime before kicking 10 goals to South Fremantle’s five in the second half.
Thunder coach Cam Shepherd said he was really pleased with how his team performed under the added pressure of the game.
“It was even at quarter-time, but we believe in our own structures and were able to stretch the lead each quarter [following],” he said.
Jetta starred in the forward line for Peel with seven goals after a quiet fortnight where he kicked just one goal.
“He’d been close to doing that for awhile,” Shepherd said.
“He kicked 1.4 last week and set a lot up.”
The bag of seven has taken Jetta to second on the leading goal kickers list with 39 for the season, seven behind Shane Yarran from Subiaco.
Gerald Ugle’s great run of form continued for peel with another bag of three goals.
After a slow start to the season Ugle has hit form when it matters most having kicked 17 goals in his past five games to take his season tally to 36.
The ever consistent Brendan Jones was also among the best for Peel with 35 disposals.
Peel will now travel to HBF Arena, Joondalup to tackle West Perth in the club’s first ever final. Subiaco and a chance to go straight into the grand final await the winner.
Shepherd said he wanted the players, staff and supporters to be excited heading into a drought breaking final.
Peel has played West Perth twice this season losing on both occasions.
The games could have gone either way with West Perth triumph in the first encounter by seven points, 13.6 (84) to 11.11 (77), and four points in the next, 17.9 (111) to 17.5 (107).
“We recognise they are a pretty good footy side, we both finish on the same wins, so it’s going to be a real contest,” Shepherd said.
“They have an experienced midfield and won the premiership two years ago.”
Both teams finished the home and away season on 13 wins after West Perth was over run by Claremont in the final round to lose by two points.
However, Claremont had much more the play for than West Perth with Claremont needing to win to make the finals while West Perth was guaranteed to finish second.
Peel’s chances of defeating West Perth could however come down to the Fremantle Dockers’ who will ask the AFL for permission to rest up to 11 players against Port Adelaide on the weekend.
Dockers’ coach Ross Lyon said the club would ask to rest players but that could be as little as two or as many as 10.
If it is 10 that would significantly weaken Peel’s side for the final with 11 Dockers-listed players talking to the field for the Thunder on the weekend.
Shepherd said he would address the matter when he knew what was happening.
Peel will play West Perth on Sunday at HBF Arena at 2.10pm.
The Thunder Colts secured third position and a second chance in the finals with stirring come-from-behind win against South Fremantle.
In a game that was impacted by a strong breeze South Fremantle opened up a five goal lead at quarter-time only to see it cut to one-point at halftime.
The Bulldogs once again dominated the third quarter to lead by 18 points heading into the final term.
Peel rallied in the last quarter to come away with a two point win, 9.8 (62) to 9.6 (60).
Peel will now play Swan Districts in a qualifying final.
