MILESTONE | CHAD PEARSON 100 GAMES

IT has been a remarkable run for Chad Pearson to celebrate 100 games with South Fremantle on Sunday and already he's established himself as one of the WAFL's leading defenders, but his focus is all on another successful finals campaign.

Pearson broke into the South Fremantle team late in the 2017 season and while he couldn’t quite hold his place in the side that went through to the preliminary final, from Round 2 of 2018 he was in the side and hasn’t looked back.

In that time since, the only game that Pearson has missed was because of COVID but in his 99 games with the Bulldogs he has cemented himself as one of the standout consistent defenders equally adept at locking down an opponent, taking intercept marks and then setting up play going the other way.

Already Pearson is a premiership player with the Bulldogs from 2020 on top of having played twice in the WAFL State Team and being named to the WAFL Team of the Year in 2019 and 2020.

He has had every bit as good a season again in 2022 with the 24-year-old now set to reach his 100th game in Sunday's elimination final for South Fremantle against Peel Thunder at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

While his focus solely is on another finals series and trying to win that second premiership over the next month, he is rightfully proud of reaching the 100-game mark so early in his career and to etch his name forever onto the No. 12 locker.

"It is something I'm pretty proud of. I haven’t had much time to really think about it much this week and am too busy to worry about the finals on Sunday," Pearson said.

"But having a quick think about during the week and being able to have the name on the locker, and being able to play 100 games pretty early in my career is something I feel pretty lucky about. 

"I got the opportunity when I was a bit younger to play a few games to try and cement my spot in the team, and to have already played 100 games is something that does mean a lot."

Not only is Sunday a big day for Pearson to celebrate his 100-game milestone, but his premiership teammate Haiden Schloithe will also be bringing up 200 WAFL appearance and any time you play in a final, naturally it's a significant occasion.

So for a lot of reasons Pearson can't wait to get to Fremantle Community Bank Oval on Sunday to take on Peel in the elimination final.

"It will be great to have it at home as well and hopefully we'll get a good crowd down there for the first final and there's a big build up for it," he said.

"Obviously Schloithey's 200th takes the limelight a little I reckon and it's a great achievement, and he deserves everything that comes his way. He's been fantastic for the club and for this playing and hopefully we can get a big crowd down there, and hopefully get a win."

Pearson has never played a WAFL season where South Fremantle hasn’t at least made a preliminary final and he's now been part of the Bulldogs' side that's been there in the past three Grand Finals including the premiership triumph of 2020.

While he knows all about preparing for finals, the excitement levels still go up once the time actually comes each year and this week is no different getting ready for Sunday's match up.

"I think the excitement does go up a bit this week and it kind of resets the season in a way, and you feel like you can get a bit of a fresh start at it and anything can happen," Pearson said.

"We are going into it think it's like a new season now and we get a crack this weekend against Peel. They've been in some great form lately so it's going to be a great test to see how they are going, but our goal now is to just win four more from here starting on Sunday."

That back-line combination Pearson has now formed over several years with Noah Strom, and in more recent times with Blake Schlensog, Toby McQuilkin, Jordan Boullineau, Josh Cuneo and Steve Edwards has been remarkably effective throughout 2022.

The defence is clearly the great strength of the South Fremantle outfit this year and is the standout back-line across the WAFL, and Pearson takes great pride in the work they've done to build that chemistry as a unit.

"It's probably a big one on the back six or seven that we've got each week. We've all been training hard all year to become as close-knit as we can and just defend as well as we can as a group back there," he said. 

"Then on top of that we've been great as a whole team all year with our defensive pressure and having that defensive mindset to be able to stop teams and score as much as we can. 

"I think we're improving over the last month or so with our scoring which had been our downfall a bit at times, but our defensive areas have always been our strong suit. 

"To be able to keep that going especially this week is going to be a big task with some of those names that they've got in their forward-line, but it brings upon a great challenge for our back seven to be able to do our best against them and to nullify their forwards as best we can."

South Fremantle is only conceding 55.5 points a game this season and averaging 7.8 goals against them a week which is a remarkable effort, and a big reason why they won another 12 games this season to book in a seventh consecutive finals appearance.

While Pearson and the back-line group might not sit down and analyse those goals so much, they do set themselves targets each week and have generally been happy with their work so far this year.

"We don't really get a chance to sit down and look at the numbers or anything like that, but we do have some KPI's that we set each week around how many goals we want to limit the opposition to, and that relates to the feedback we get during the week if we meet those targets or not," he said.

"But this year has been great where the whole team has bought into the defensive mindset and we've been able to defend so well. When the forwards and mids defend as well as they have been, that makes our jobs a lot easier as well."

Pearson deserves to be delighted with how his WAFL journey has gone so far with South Fremantle from the start of 2018 after getting that initial taste of league football late in 2017.

To have already played in a premiership, twice represent Western Australia, twice be named in the Team of the Year and to now be about to reach 100 games while only 24 is all a lot to be proud of, but for Pearson there's a lot of people he's thankful to.

"I'm feeling really good about how it's all gone so far. In a way I got kind of lucky where there was a few back-line regulars like Josh Pullman and Chris Luff were just finishing up as I was starting out so there was a spot there up for grabs for guys like myself and Noah," Pearson said.

"I have to thank TC and the coaching staff for giving me an opportunity pretty early to have a crack and I was lucky enough to get an opportunity, and then end up being able to cement a spot. 

"Then with injuries, touchwood I've been pretty lucky and I've been able to pretty much play every game. We were joking around the other day and the only game I think I missed was because COVID since debuting. That's been a pretty good run and hopefully it can continue for another 100."