Blockbuster EGT WAFL Colts Grand Final looms between Souths, ClaremontThursday, September 18, 2025 - 10:10 PM - by Denholm Melrose

The 2025 EGT WAFL Colts Grand Final looms as one of the most exciting and mouthwatering battles in recent memory, with the back-to-back premiers in Claremont coming in as underdogs against the minor premiers, South Fremantle.

Claremont enter their sixth Colts Grand Final in the last seven years, having won on three of those occasions to total 18 Colts flags as a club.

The most successful Colts team in history has a chance to add yet another trophy to their cabinet at Optus Stadium on Sunday after premierships in 2015, 2016, 2019, 2023 and 2024 in the last decade.

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They boast five players who played in last year’s Grand Final in co-captain Max Hansen-Knarhoi, hot draft prospects Charlie Banfield and Cody Curtin as well as Oscar Willis and Joshua Grahame.

South Fremantle, minor premiers after winning 12 of their 16 games this season and with a league-high percentage of 186.2 per cent, are chasing Colts premiership No.10, with their last flags coming in 2011 and 2012.

The Bulldogs’ last premiership team came in a derby against East Fremantle and included notable names in Dylan Main, Tim Kelly, Mason Shaw, Ben Sokol, Jacob Dragovich and Jarrod Pickett.

This season, South Fremantle have put together a star-studded midfield with WA under-18s 18s captain Fred Rodriguez, Jack Clarke medallist Toby Whan and WA U16s MVP Lucas Robinson.

The trio have averaged a combined 81.5 disposals per game in the Colts competition in 2025 and have proven a near-impossible cohort to stop in the engine-room.

In their last outing against the Sharks in their Second Semi-Final win, they won a combined 82 possessions, took 15 marks, laid 19 tackles and kicked two goals.

None of those three played in alongside each other in either of the side’s match-ups with the Tigers this year, meaning anything could happen in the decider.

The proposition of taking on a brand-new midfield, all of whom are highly touted AFL Draft prospects who are clearance beasts would worry plenty, but for Tigers co-captain Hansen-Knarhoi the process remained the same.

“They’ve got a star-studded midfield. There’s no shying away from that,” he said.

"It’s about not getting too focused (on them), we’ve got a really solid midfield, and clearances are great and all but if you’re not prepared to work around the ground and work hard defensively to help out your back six then clearances don’t really mean anything anyway.

"We’ll be well prepared come Sunday and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Claremont were also without some stars in the two matchups between the clubs this year, which they split results in 1-1.

Charlie Banfield and Cody Curtin were also part of WA's AFL National Under-18s Championships side this year and were missing in both games against the Bulldogs.

Banfield, who played as a winger for Western Australia and mostly as a forward for West Coast in his two senior WAFL appearances, has transitioned into more of an inside midfielder role in the back-end of the season for the Tigers’ Colts side, and will have a huge influence in the battle with South Fremantle’s talented inside brigade.

Curtin, arguably the competition’s best forward who has booted 26 goals in just eight games this season, also plays South Fremantle for the first time this season on Grand Final day.

Curtin is coming off bags of five-plus goals in three of his last five games but slotted just one in each of the two finals against East Fremantle.

In those match-ups he took on key back Jye Sander, who managed to reduce his impact despite the Preliminary Final loss.

For South Fremantle, the matchup will likely go to key defender Lucas Cattalini, who had a fantastic season, rewarded with selection in the EGT WAFL Colts Team of the Year.

Cattalini has taken many scalps on key forwards this year and coach Matt Rogers has full faith that his star key defender could win that battle.

“We know Cody’s ability, we did a pretty good job of holding him earlier in the season, know what his strengths are and how we think we can minimise them, but if they get big inside-50 numbers and he gets plenty of looks he’s going to take his fair amount of catches. He’s a beautiful set shot,” Rogers explained.

“We’ll have someone for him and if that doesn’t go to plan we’ll have Plan B. A lot of it will be pressure on the ball up the ground to make sure that those kicks don’t come deep and on his head where he wants them.”

Rogers sang the praises of Cattalini, expressing how impressed he was with the season of his rock down back.

“He’s been outstanding all year ‘Catta’, his numbers stack up. His intercept marking has been amazing. He’s had double-digit marks in most of the games he’s played and he reads the ball really well," Rogers said.

He didn’t confirm whether Cattalini would get the Curtin match-up though, stating that “he’ll be crucial to us getting the job done on Sunday, whether that’s on Curtin or elsewhere.”

Another superb battle will be in the ruck, with two of the best ruckmen in the competition pitted head-to-head.

Benji van Rooyen may be a bottom-age prospect, but the younger brother of Melbourne’s Jacob won more hit-outs than all but one player this year, with South Fremantle’s Byron Foster right behind him in third.

Though Jay Elliot-Tidemen will do plenty of ruckwork, the Foster-versus-van-Rooyen match-up is fascinating as it will determine who gets first use between the two brilliant midfields.

The game will be extra meaningful for the Bulldogs, who have a chance to win a premiership in honour of their great mate Nick Campo, who sadly lost his life in July last year in a car accident while celebrating his 18th birthday.

Rogers spoke of the impact that the event had on the squad.

“It had a massive impact on our group, particularly last year’s squad," Rogers said.

"There’s still a decent crop of those boys with us this year who no doubt think about it every single day.

"We rightly or wrongly steered pretty clear of it this year, recognising the anniversary but week-to-week leaving it alone to let the boys sort of move on.

“No doubt it’s something that is driving the group behind the scenes.

"I’m incredibly proud of the resilience that they showed as 16, 17, 18 year olds. It was well beyond their years.

"These boys played the weekend following the tragic event which spoke volumes about their character and how they grouped together. It absolutely rocked them but I’m really proud of them."

Captain Jacob Donald echoed those thoughts, stating that it was “unreal” to get to this point on the field but also off the field, referencing how far the group had come since the tragedy.

“To get to this point where we’ve rallied together and brought each other along, I’m unbelievably proud," Donald said.

The weather looks good for Sunday and it’s set to be a cracking Colts Grand Final between two superb sides, so be sure to get to Optus Stadium or catch all the action on 7 Plus from 12:10pm.