Peel Thunder's first WAFL game

March 30, 1997 Peel Thunder v South Fremantle

Match report from Real Footy, 5th April 1997

The thunder and lightning that welcomed back the Real Footy season was a day early to Herald the arrival of Peel Thunder. But the message was still there.

Football, like the weather, can be unpredictable and while the debut effort from the new boys on the footy block was as critics expected, there will be moments in the coming weeks when Peel rivals will be wondering where the script went wrong.

The maiden performance under lights at Mandurah’s Rushton Park had a final scoreline of 160 to 52, but what excited most of the 5781 fans that was the fact that Peel kicked the first two goals and showed enough spirit in the opening term to confirm the claim from coach Geoff Miles that they will be converted.

Given time, that is.

Let's put the Peel challenge into perspective.

They lined up against a quality South Fremantle side that have five AFL players, the most experienced being Jon Dorotich whose 263 games of senior football easily eclipsed the total league games of the enter opposition.

Peel had eight players with a WAFL background with skipper Phil Gilbert notching his 100 senior game as he lead the Thunder into battle. That came after 60 at Claremont and 39 at Fremantle and Melbourne. Next in line was Bruno Italiano who has not played league football in the city for four years. Scott Simester played three games for Melbourne four years ago, if that still counts.

”Belief” was the word that Miles preached for his senior coaching debut. It's a word that will take some pounding in the weeks ahead and one that the coach himself must persevere with.

For, in reality, this was a bunch of country cousins mixed with a few WAFL wonderlusts who were tackling a team hell bent on atoning for missing last year's finals and guided by a coach in John Todd who was entering his 29th season of senior coaching.

But the pre-match preparation, the ground facilities and the atmosphere was far from a bunch of rookies graduating to the upper form. The build-up in the rooms was as professional any AFL club and while there were a few minor teething problems as the ground catered for it's biggest crowd, football proved it can survive in the Peel region.

Game details including full match scores, goalkickers and team lists: Peel Thunder v South Fremantle, Round 1, 1997