TABtouch Team of Round 2

ROUND 2 of the 2019 WAFL season saw a host of standout individual performances while Subiaco and Claremont won big for the second straight week, Perth remained undefeated and East Perth and the West Coast Eagles both opened their accounts.

All five Round 2 WAFL matches took place on Saturday afternoon starting at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with Perth holding on in a thriller over South Fremantle, winning 11.10 (76) to 10.13 (73).

Optus Stadium then hosted a home and away WAFL fixture for the first time and it was a historic occasion with the West Coast Eagles winning their first game as a standalone club, beating Peel Thunder 11.11 (77) to 6.14 (50).

Claremont made it a second straight thumping to open the season beating West Perth 14.4 (88) to 4.8 (32) at HBF Arena while Subiaco also won big again, thrashing East Fremantle 13.12 (90) to 7.3 (45) at New Choice Homes Park.

It was another tight affair at Leederville Oval with East Perth beating Swan Districts 7.14 (56) to 7.6 (48) for their first win of 2019 to leave the Black Ducks winless with two narrow defeats.

PLAYER OF THE ROUND – ANTON HAMP
It's not often a defender who doesn’t rack up huge intercept or rebounding numbers will get highlighted by winning an award like Player of the Round, but Anton Hamp once again showed just how valuable he is to Claremont in Saturday's win over West Perth.

The biggest threat to the Tigers not coming away from HBF Arena in the Round 2 contest was if Andrew Strijk kicked a bag of goals for West Perth, especially in the absence of the suspended co-Bernie Naylor Medallist from last year, Tyler Keitel.

While Hamp didn’t spend the entire game opposed to Strijk, he did spend extended periods opposed to him and the fact that he helped hold him scoreless was a significant factor in the Tigers coming away with the 56-point victory to remain unbeaten to start 2019.

The start to the season for Hamp continues a tremendous run of form as one of the league's best and most consistent defenders now. Coming through the ranks as a key forward, he could never quite cement his place in the strong Claremont Grand Final teams to start this decade.

By the time he did cement a spot in 2013, the Tigers' were on the back end of their dominant stretch and then when the goals weren’t quite coming, he was moved down back and has never looked back.

Hamp is now a 130-game WAFL veteran with Claremont and would be the first player picked every single week by coach Darren Harris for the way he is so consistently impassive in whatever defensive role he's asked to play.

While also criminally underrated outside the walls of Tigerland, he remains one of the most important factors in Claremont's push to be a genuine premiership threat in 2019.

Players of the Round
Round 1 – Kyal Horsley (Subiaco)
Round 2 – Anton Hamp (Claremont)

TABtouch TEAM OF THE ROUND
BACK: Blayne Wilson (SF), Anton Hamp (C), Michael Sinclair (P)
HALF-BACK: Nathan Blee (EP), Tony Notte (SD), Jackson Nelson (WCE)
CENTRE: Kyal Horsley (S), Jye Bolton (C), Kane Mitchell (C)
HALF-FORWARD: Haiden Schloithe (SF), Lachlan Delahunty (S), Brant Colledge (P)
FORWARD: Gerald Ugle (PT), Tom Lee (C), Jake Waterman (WCE)
RUCK: Brock Higgins (SF), Corey Yeo (P), Leigh Kitchin (S)
INTERCHANGE: Jacob Dragovich (SF), Hayden Kennedy (S), Tom North (PT), Rohan Kerr (EP)

UNLUCKY BUNCH
There were plenty of players who delivered tremendous performances across Round 2 but couldn’t quite fit into the Team of the Round, including:

Subiaco's Ryan Borchet, Rhys Waters, Josh Deluca, Max Walters, Rowen Powell, Greg Clark and Jordan Lockyer.

East Fremantle's Jarrad Jansen, Jayden Schofield and Morgan Davies.

East Perth's Jackson Ramsay, Will Maginness and Angus Scott.

Swan Districts' George Hampson and Nathan Blakely.

Claremont's Lachlan Martinis and Declan Mountford.

West Perth's Shane Nelson, Corey Chalmers and Trent Manzone.

Peel Thunder's Mitch Crowden and Ben Hancock.

West Coast's Matthew Allen, Brendon Ah Chee, Hamish Brayshaw and Fraser McInnes.

South Fremantle's Mason Shaw, Zac Strom, Jake Florenca, Kade Stewart, Brendan Verrier, Chad Pearson and Zac Dent.

Perth's Corey Byrne, Cody Leggett and Matthew Taylor.