Round 6 Wrap: Perth defeat Claremont

CLAREMONT 7.11 (53) lost to PERTH 11.4 (70)

Claremont and Perth have played out some cracking contests in recent seasons and Saturday at Revo Fitness Stadium was no different with Perth ending up prevailing to take a giant leap towards ending their finals drought.

The winner of Saturday's game was always going to take a significant step closer to finals and for Claremont that would mean a fourth straight appearance having returned to finals in 2017, won a final in 2018 and reached the preliminary final in 2019.

But for Perth, reaching the finals will be a significantly bigger achievement with the Demons having not played a single final since 1997.

That set the stage for the game on Saturday With Claremont opening the scoring when Alec Waterman kicked truly. Perth answered courtesy of Lennon Marlin but the Tigers went into quarter-time nine points up after Harry McCracken kicked truly.

Chris Masten closed the gap to four points for Perth with the first goal of the second term which was answered soon after by Anton Hamp who outmarked two Demons defenders, and went back and kicked truly.

However, Marlin soon added a second for Perth and Jack Richardson added another against his former team and that saw the Demons take a three-point edge into the half-time break.

Claremont did retake the lead to start the second half with a goal to Ben Edwards, but that was immediately answered with three in seven minutes for Perth and the Demons were back out to a 13-point advantage.

However, Waterman's second brought Claremont back within six points by three quarter-time.

Perth young gun Logan McDonald put the Demons back up 12 to start the last term but suddenly two goals in as many minutes to Waterman had scores all tied up with the scene set for a big finish.

And it was Perth who answered the call with the last three goals of the contest to Samuel Stubbs, Fraser McInnes and debutant Nathan O'Driscoll to win 11.4 (70) to 7.11 (53).

Lennon Marlin and Logan McDonald kicked two goals apiece in the win for Perth.

Matthew Taylor was superb again for the Demons with 29 possessions while Brady Grey gathered 28 disposals, Chris Masten 24, Jacob Coniglio 23, Andrew Fisher 19 and Michael Sinclair 15.

Written by Chris Pike. Originally published here.