Claremont Midfielder Jye Bolton is confident his side’s best is good enough to beat any side on the day after bouncing back from a rough start to the season. 

In the first five rounds of the season, the situation looked dire for Claremont with just one win to their name. 

Since then, they’ve bounced back to wins three on the trot against Peel, East Perth and Perth, and are knocking on the top five’s door. 

In the last month, Bolton told SportFM Claremont had done behind-the-scenes work to address issues with consistency and redirected the playing group which has resulted in this surge in form. 

“We had a few meetings which is usually a sign of a crisis point I suppose,” he said.

“We just wanted to change a few things and then take a bit of responsibility from the playing group and raise our standards mid-weekend in-game.

“It has worked well at this stage and it’s just a matter of us being consistent with that over each game. 

“We’ve got our backs to the wall so if we want to be any sort of part of this year and finals that’s probably just a shift in attitude.” 

WAFL. Swan Districts v Claremont at Revo Fitness Stadium in Claremont. Pictured – Jye Bolton of Claremont. Picture – Justin Benson-Cooper / The West Australian

Despite seeing an increase in performance over the last month, there are still areas to work on for Claremont after just keeping Perth at bay last weekend. 

The Tigers still came away with the four points but were kept goalless for two quarters. 

Bolton says the lack of consistency across the four quarters was disappointing and something to learn from moving forward.

“We felt as though we had quite a good first half, the conditions weren’t obviously ideal for a spectacle, but we were a bit disappointed in our effort across the four quarters,” he said.

“It sounds cliche that when you’re not in the form that you have been in previous years, you really do have to go back to basics and make sure that they’re getting ticked off,” 

“We felt as though we came away from that a little bit, and maybe the attitude going into the second half was one that we thought the job may have been done. We just kept Perth in it. 

“On reflection, got to be better than that, and the way that the WAFL competition is, any team can win on the day if you’re not on for the whole game. 

“We were disappointed in that, and we came away with a win but certainly a lot to learn from it.”

IMAGE: The West Australian