SOUTH FREO’S vice president says they’re a team to keep an eye out for in 2025 after a rebuild, with their sights set on rejoining the finals after finishing a disappointing sixth last year.
Bulldogs’ VP Anthony Van Der Wielen is confident the team will have what it takes to be a finals-worthy competitor: “We haven’t been too far away from success over the last couple of seasons,” he says.
Van Der Wielen says the rebuild has been slow and patient, recruiting former AFL players Trey Ruscoe, Jamaine Jones, Hamish Free and Ethan Hughes.
He says they’ll offer “experience, on field speed and leadership” and “fill spaces in the team which were required”.
Jones was delisted by the West Coast Eagles at the end of last season after playing 59 games for the club; initially drafted by Geelong as pick 48, he played just seven games for them before being picked up by the Eagles.
Van Der Wielen says former Docker Hughes, also a delistee at the end of last year, will bring “wonderful leadership qualities and can play as a utility type all across the ground”.
The team has also signed former player Craig White as coach after he took the Curtin Wesley Football Club to two premierships.
Coming into the season with their rebuild, the Bulldogs look forward to the round 8 derby against long-time rivals, East Fremantle’s Sharks.
It’s the “best rivalry in Western Australia for 125 years”, says Van Der Wielen, and helps keep the team on their toes.
The Bulldogs have the upper hand, winning 8 out of 10 of the previous derby’s but losing the most recent.
East Freo hope to capitalise on this, with CEO Adrian Bromage confident of a win because it’s scheduled to be a Shark’s home game – even if played on the Bulldogs’ own Fremantle Oval because East’s home ground still isn’t finished.
The Sharks are looking forward to a successful season celebrating 100 years of WAFL football, marking two significant events; the first reserves teams and the introduction of the zones which formed the WAFL as we know it today.
As well as this, Bromage says the Sharks have coach Bill Monaghan’s contract in “hopes of winning a premiership” and in recognition of the work he’s put into the team so far.
The 2025 WAFL pre-season kicks off for the two this weekend, with the Bulldogs taking on Subiaco and East Freo up against East Perth.
by JAZ BROOKS
Perth Voice Interactive 
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