Round 2: WAFL Team of the Round

ROUND 2 of the Optus WAFL Premiership Season saw South Fremantle, Claremont and Perth remain undefeated while East Fremantle bounced back impressively and we have quite the exciting talent named the Player of the Round.

It was a fascinating Saturday afternoon of WAFL action in Round 2 and it was East Fremantle who pulled off a 137-point turnaround from a week earlier to see them defeat Peel Thunder 13.9 (87) to 6.9 (45) on home soil at New Choice Homes Park.

Two winners from Round 1 then locked horns at Joondalup's Provident Financial Oval and in a surprisingly dour affair it was South Fremantle that kept its good recent run over West Perth going to win, 5.9 (39) to 4.7 (31).

Claremont backed up its impressive Round 1 win over Subiaco by remaining unbeaten too defeating Swan Districts 13.7 (85) to 7.6 (48) on their home ground at Revo Fitness Stadium in front of the round's biggest crowd of 2276.

Then it was Perth who also improved to 2-0 to start the new season with an encouraging 14.4 (88) to 10.7 (67) victory against East Perth at Lathlain's Mineral Resources Park.

PLAYER OF THE ROUND
Excuse us for having two players from Perth as back-to-back Players of the Round to start the 2020 WAFL season, but Logan McDonald's performance for a second consecutive week to start his career just couldn’t be ignored.

It has been a simply stunning start to the league career for the 18-year-old who originally arrived at the Demons from the Applecross-Mt Pleasant Football Club in the East Fremantle district.

But the exciting young forward is with Perth and he has spent the past two years with the colts for the Demons, but in this extended off-season leading into the 2020 WAFL season, he quite simply banged down the door to make his debut.

Then he got his chance in Round 1 and was remarkable in Perth's victory against Peel Thunder for a teenage debutant. He ended up with three goals in that game form 16 possessions and four marks.

He then showed that it was no fluke this Saturday by producing an even more outstanding performance in Perth's victory against East Perth at Mineral Resources Park.

McDonald set the Demons faithful alight with what was judged a best on ground performance by most in attendance. He finished the game with four goals from 15 possessions and seven marks, and most importantly the Demons won the game by 21 points.

It has been the sort of debut that has set the talent scouts' tongues wagging as he quickly shoots up the draft order to enter the AFL later this year.

But more importantly in the immediate future, he very well could be massively influential in Perth's quest to break their finals drought that dates back to 1997. 

If he keeps this form up, there might be no stopping the Demons from finally taking part in that ever elusive first finals campaign this century.

Players of the Round
Round 1 – Chris Masten (Perth)
Round 2 – Logan McDonald (Perth)

TEAM OF THE ROUND 
BACK: Blake Wilhelm (WP), Chris Luff (SF), Michael Sinclair (P)
HALF-BACK: Andrew Fisher (P), Noah Strom (SF), Ben Hancock (PT) 
CENTRE: Trent Manzone (WP), Jordan Snadden (EF), Chris Masten (P)
HALF-FORWARD: Callan England (C), Jimmy Miller (SF), Blaine Boekhorst (EF)
FORWARD: Alec Waterman (C), Logan McDonald (P), Milan Murdock (EF)
RUCK: Corey Gault (SD), Jake Florenca (SF), Jackson Ramsay (EP)
INTERCHANGE: Aaron Black (WP), Brock Higgins (SF), Aidan Lynch (EP), Tom Bennett (EF)