CLOSE matches weren’t the order of the day in WAFL Round 22 action over the weekend but East Perth, Claremont, East Fremantle and South Fremantle all recorded impressive and crucial thumping victories.

The round began on Saturday with East Perth beating Perth 20.16 (136) to 13.10 (88) at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and that saw the Royals improve to third position on the ladder to all but secure a finals position with games against South Fremantle and Subiaco to finish their season.

There were then three matches on Sunday highlighted by East Fremantle thumping West Perth 20.14 (134) to 9.7 (61) in front of 6195 fans at Arena Joondalup with the result seeing the Sharks move up to fourth spot on the ladder.

Swan Districts fell out of the four when Claremont beat the black-and-whites 19.10 (124) to 9.11 (65) at Claremont Oval while South Fremantle hammered Peel Thunder 24.16 (160) to 9.13 (67) at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Swan Districts beat Claremont on its last visit to Claremont Oval and needed to do so again on Sunday to stay in the top-four.

The black-and-whites started strongly with an eight-point quarter-time lead, but from there Claremont kicked 16 goals to five for the rest of the afternoon to end up winning by 59 points.

Paul Medhurst kicked four goals for Claremont with Ian Richardson adding three as did Anton Hamp with ruckman Mark Seaby and full-forward Chad Jones adding two each.

Luke Blackwell was again outstanding with another 35 possessions with Jake Murphy finishing with 30 disposals, Andrew Foster 30, Jack Bradshaw 27, Ryan Neates 27, Jesse Laurie 22 and Tom Taylor 20.

Ryan Davis and Kirk Ugle both kicked two goals for Swan Districts with Shaun Hildebrandt picking up 32 possessions, Wayde Twomey 28, Kyle Hams 25, Matt Riggio 20, Graham Jetta 20, Tom Roach 20 and Dayle Garlett 19 to go with five tackles and six entries inside 50.

ROUND 22 RESULTS

 
LEAGUE
Claremont 19.10.124 def Swan Districts 9.11.65

RESERVES
Claremont 11.14.80 def Swan Districts 11.5.71

COLTS
Claremont 21.19.145 def Swan Districts 4.3.27

CLICK HERE for more Round 22 WAFL Results

Courtesy of www.wafl.com.au