Claremont have started their 2026 WAFL campaign off strong with a commanding 74 point victory over West Perth on Saturday.

The Falcons were kept scoreless in the first quarter, with a dominant midfield performance allowing the Tigers to keep putting goals on the scoreboard and extend their lead, now boasting a percentage of 242.31 at the top of the ladder.

Ollie Eastland recorded 35 hit outs to add to Claremont’s tally of 46 for the day – the two captains in Bailey Rodgers and Callan England benefitting from the centre bounce coming away with 27 disposals and four goals, and 28 disposals respectively.

The Claremont ruckman joined SportFM this morning.

“It’s pretty easy playing with those two. They’re very good players and just know how to find the footy… they hunt and contest the ball, they can play most positions and they’re just such good players and leaders of our footy club,” he said.

“Callan and Bailey I think are really perfect for it [captaincy]… I think they’ve started really well and I feel like they’re just going to grow and grow as they go further into their journeys as captains… they’re really going to step up when we need them to.”

Key forward Jaiden Hunt booted four majors, with brother of Melbourne Demons’ Jacob van Rooyen, Sam, putting three up on the scoreboard.

Tyson Headland in his debut for Claremont was a standout, managing eight inside 50s and 21 disposals alongside fellow young gun Talon Delacey who put up 24 and four majors.

The new rules speeding up the flow of the game has been particularly favoured at Claremont, with their fast style of play now benefitting from the changes. 

“I think it’s gonna help us massively. I think we’ve brought in a few players that can run off half back like Pearce, who used to play at Claremont, went to East Perth and now he’s back.”

“We’ve got really good runners like Cal and Bailey, Mainy, all those boys that are really quick. It’s helped us a lot with that last touch rule, just moving it on quick, using our run and carry through the midfield and that’s what we try to pride ourselves on.

“I think Tyson’s going to bring that. He had a massive preseason, he’s come from South [Fremantle] and had a year off and now he’s back with us and he just loves playing footy … he’s been a really good new voice and a new head in the midfield group and I feel like if he keeps growing into his role and understands how we play he’s just going to get better and better.”

The new ruck rule barring ruckmen from crossing the centre line has prompted Eastland to change the way he plays, with him saying the jumping ruckmen are benefitting more as opposed to the body ruckmen who previously would use their strength over the line to contest.

With Peel Thunder fixtured at home for next week, Eastland will be facing premiership ruckman Mason Cox in his first big test of the 2026 season after he recorded 45 hit outs against East Fremantle.

“He’s a very, very tall player and he’s very smart. He’s a very good mover for his size, very good tap ruckman and yeah, I’ve learnt a lot from that preseason game.”

“If I play him again, we’ll change a few things up but it looked like he had a big impact on the weekend and just with that extra height and all it’s very hard to contain him.”

Claremont will face the Thunder at 2:30pm on Saturday at Revo Fitness Stadium.

IMAGE: Drew Muirden