Fremantle senior development coach Marc Webb is no stranger to finals, winning four premierships as a player at Subiaco and another as the coach of Claremont. With Peel Thunder securing a spot in the WAFL Grand Final at the weekend, Webb said he’s excited for Fremantle’s first year players to gain finals experience.

This comes off Sunday’s 24-point second semi-final win over Subiaco, with impressive performances from first year players Sean Darcy, who racked up two goals and 24 hit outs, Luke Ryan with 25 disposals and Taylin Duman with 22 disposals.

Webb said the extra training time during Peel’s week off will be vital for the players’ preparation.

“To have that extra bit of one-on-one time has been really good and the players have been able to prepare and understand themselves each week,” Webb said.

“Not having the core senior group has made sure they work and discipline themselves to keep performing well.

“It’s exciting for them, so we’ve made sure we’ve kept the environment upbeat and their attitude has been really good.”

Webb credits the development of the younger core to leadership of senior Fremantle players.

“We’ve had that benefit of some strong experience from a few of the senior players, like Zac Dawson, Jon Griffin, Nick Suban and Danyle Pearce,” Webb said.

“A few of them played last year and they can talk about how exciting it was to get there on the day and the application it needed.

“Then they can bring together those younger players, who have played a fair bit of AFL football this year, but also help them understand that this is a big game in the scheme of things.”

Peel will face the winner of Sunday’s preliminary final between Subiaco and South Fremantle in the Grand Final at Domain Stadium on Sunday 23 September.

Peel has played both sides previously in the finals series and won.

“You’ve got two weeks to prepare yourself, not knowing for the first week who you’re playing,” Webb said.

“We have the benefit of playing both teams in the past couple of weeks, which does help for your planning but really the first week is a big review week.

“Then on the weekend, we get a great opportunity for both the Peel players and the Freo players to come together and train on Sunday, which is exciting for the Peel Football Club and the players at Fremantle as well.”