Top AFLW prospects set to shine on the national stage as under-18’s WA team prepare for Claremont warm-up

Western Australia’s top AFLW draft prospects will get a golden opportunity to push their case to clubs at the weekend in a curtain-raiser to Saturday night’s western derby. WA will face WAFLW premiers Claremont in a practice match before the under-18’s national championships. West Coast coach Daisy Pearce and Fremantle captain Ange Stannett were on hand to offer advice and wish the players well ahead of their opening match against Queensland on August 3 at Revo Fitness Stadium. The WA team includes WAFLW superstar Zippy Fish, who is touted as a potential No.1 pick in this year’s draft. Fish’s East Fremantle teammate, Natasha Entwistle, received her jumper from her father at a ceremony earlier this week ahead of her second campaign representing the State. “He’s lead me up to this point in my life, he’s such a big role model,” she said. Aside from Fish, Entwistle believes Sharks team mate Tiani Teakle is an underrated prospect and a strong chance to be picked up. Teakle’s older sister Julia is already playing at Port Adelaide and cousin Brynn spent time at the Power and is now playing for North Melbourne. “She deserves to get drafted, her work rate at training and in games, her talk, just everything she’s an amazing player,” Entwistle said. With limited game-time together before the tournament, Saturday afternoon’s clash with Claremont at Optus Stadium is crucial for the group. “It’s a chance for us to get to know how each other plays and for us to work together as a team,” Entwistle said. Coach Beau McDonald, a Brisbane premiership player and Fremantle ruck coach, believes it’s the best team he’s had in five years at the helm. “The agility, the skill, the speed everything’s improving, we can play with more ball speed now we’ve got skills to be able to do things with the ball,” he said. “Our girls are AFLW standard if not above, three or four of them could probably walk straight into an AFLW game with the numbers they do on the GPS” “South Australia have been terrific for the last three or four years, Victoria are always good, I suppose the challenge for our girls is just to try knock over Queensland first and go from there.” McDonald says they are grateful for the opportunity to play on WA footy’s biggest day. “We want to get lots of learnings, they’re physical and it will be good for our girls and great for Claremont to come together to help us,” he said. “They’ve just won a premiership I’d be in Bali if I was one of them but for them to be here and giving back and helping our girls prepare for nationals is really good.” With six teams in the competition, the team that finishes top are crowned the winners. South Australia are chasing a three-peat of titles. WA face Queensland next week before playing Victoria Country and South Australia away.