Dhara Kerr medallist Jayme Harken says the only other medal she wants is the WAFLW premiership medal as Claremont prepares to play East Fremantle in the Grand Final this weekend.
East Fremantle and Claremont will face each other in the WAFLW Grand Final for the third consecutive year.
The two rivals came head-to-head in the second semi-final, with the Sharks beating the Tigers by three points in a nail-biter to secure their place in the Grand Final.
Last weekend Claremont knocked over West Perth 55-28 to join East Fremantle in the big dance.
Speaking on SportFM after claiming the 2024 Dhara Kerr medal, Harken says there’s plenty of respect, but it’s not all love between the two sides yet.
“It’s a pretty incredible record with the eight teams across WAFLW and crazy that we’re playing East Freo again,” she said.
“Probably not all-love at this stage, we’re pretty heavy rivals and have played each other a lot in the last three years, but a lot of respect for each team.
“The way we came out in that second semi-final, I think we’ve got a lot of confidence that we did a lot of things right and obviously we know what things we need to work on.”
East Fremantle are currently on a remarkable 12-game winning streak and will be coming off a bye having locked in their place in the grand final in the semi-finals.
Historically, however, the underdog has come out on top in their past grand final battles – East Fremantle in 2023, and Claremont in 2022.
Harken says she’s confident playing the additional game last weekend has given Claremont confidence ahead of Sunday’s Final.
“Either way, we’re going to be feeling good regardless,” she said.
“I think that the season we’ve had this year as opposed to last year has been very different as well.
“(We) had a few losses that we were ruing and really needed to learn from this year. I think just playing extra games was the best thing for us, but we would have taken it either way as well.
“Some of the older girls like myself would have liked a week off but I think playing extra games at this time of the season has been important for us and confident either way.”
Harken now has two league best and fairest medals, claiming her second consecutive Dhara Kerr medal on Monday night finishing with 27 votes.
In 2024 she averaged 24 disposals, accumulated 75 tackles and was a key figure in Claremont’s midfield.
However, Harken has yet to win the elusive premiership medal after making several grand final appearances at both Subiaco and Claremont.
“This will be my fourth grand final without that Premiership medal yet, so planning on number four being the one,” said Harken.
“It’s all you play for. You think back to preseason and all the plans you put around it.
“It’s a long season, we start back in November and finish in July, you don’t want all that hard work to not pay off.”
The WAFLW Grand Final action kicks off at Joondalup Arena at 2 pm on Sunday, July 7th and you’ll hear it on SportFM.
IMAGE: WA Football