CHRIS Phelan's 150-game milestone might have hardly gone to plan personally but as he nears a return from his knee injury suffered back in Round 10, the dual premiership winning midfielder has reflected on a journey he almost gave up on back in 2011.

Phelan has had a remarkable last four years with Subiaco playing in two premierships and three grand finals, two fairest and best awards and a state appearance for the WAFL, but it wasn’t always a given that the prolific midfielder would make it with the Lions.

When he was coming up through the ranks Subiaco was in the middle of a premiership hat-trick between 2006 and 2008. His lone game in 2008 came when Daniel Chick missed a game with an ankle injury but he was then straight back out missing the premiership of that year.

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The West Australian Country Football League has announced a 30-man 2017 New Holland State Country Squad to take on South Australia at Fremantle Community Bank Oval next Saturday, July 29.

Head Coach Craig Walker and his selection panel finalised the squad following the Landmark Country Championships earlier this month.

SOUTH Fremantle's reserves finished strongly on Saturday to maintain its lead atop the ladder while East Fremantle also continues to hold off Claremont in the colts with the Tigers in second spot in both minor grades.

Three of the four reserves matches took place on Saturday with Perth defeating East Fremantle 12.14 (86) to 10.8 (68) at East Fremantle Oval, Peel Thunder beating East Perth 8.14 (62) to 8.13 (61) at Leederville Oval and South Fremantle prevailing 8.11 (59) to 4.10 (34) at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Then on Sunday at Leederville Oval, Claremont defeated Subiaco 14.15 (99) to 9.8 (62).

IT might have been wet on Saturday for Round 17 in the WAFL, but that didn’t mean there weren’t some standout forward performances by Matt Taberner, Ben Sokol and Matthew Watson while South Fremantle's defence sparked another strong comeback from a slow start.

All four WAFL Round 17 matches took place on Saturday afternoon starting in Esperance with Subiaco making it 14 wins on the trot beating Claremont 14.10 (94) to 7.12 (54).

Swan Districts made a flying start at Fremantle Community Bank Oval to lead South Fremantle by 41 points midway through the second quarter. But from there the Bulldogs kicked 14 of the last 15 goals to win 15.13 (103) to 9.9 (63).

Round 16 of the WAFL Colts competition saw East Fremantle defeat Perth by 74 points at East Fremantle Oval, Swan Districts secure a 37-point win over South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, East Perth take home a seven point win over Peel Thunder and Claremont defeat Subiaco by 29 points at Leederville Oval. 

Click here for the match results.

Check out the top Maccas Moments from each round of the 2017 McDonald's WAFL Premiership Season in the videos below.

SUBIACO won a 14th straight match, Peel Thunder made it five in-a-row and South Fremantle four in succession in Saturday's Round 17 WAFL action while East Fremantle also scored its second victory of 2017.

The Round 17 action got underway in the first regional fixture of 2017 as part of the Department of Sport and Recreation's Country Sport Enrichment Scheme with Subiaco taking on Claremont at Ports Oval in Esperance.

The Lions proved too strong beating the Tigers 14.10 (94) to 7.12 (54) to make it 14 consecutive victories while Claremont missed a chance to move into the top five.

EAST Perth and Claremont have chances to break into the WAFL top five with wins over teams already in there in Round 17 on Saturday while two in-form teams battle at the port and the wooden spoon is on the line at Shark Park.

There are four games with plenty at stake on Saturday afternoon throughout Western Australia beginning in Esperance with the league-leading Subiaco putting its 13-game winning streak on the line up against the sixth placed Claremont.

Then in the metropolitan area, South Fremantle and Swan Districts will both be trying to win a fourth consecutive match when the top four teams lock horns at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Deppro WA State 16s claimed the NAB AFL National 16s Championship with a thrilling one-point win over Vic Metro today, Friday July 14 at the GABBA.

Western Australia 11.8-74 defeated Vic Metro 11.7-73 to remain undefeated at the championships after earlier wins over South Australia and Vic Country.

The game against Vic Metro came down the last quarter as scores were levelled and both teams traded goals, with the lead changing hands four times before East Fremantle's Trey Ruscoe booted his third goal with only minutes remaining to seal the win. 

East Fremantle teammate Jeremy Sharp also played an important role in the final quarter with two crucial goals. Leno Thomas from Claremont was WA's other multiple goal-scorer with two in the first quarter that helped WA get off to a strong start.

Check out the top 3 contenders for the AHG Mark and reiwa.com Goal for Round 16 in the videos below.

Don't forget to cast your vote now using the WAFL App. The app can be downloaded from the Play Store for Android devices and the App Store for iPhones.

Round 17 of the WAFL this weekend sees four games with plenty at stake on Saturday afternoon throughout Western Australia, beginning in Esperance with the league-leading Subiaco putting its 13-game winning streak on the line up against the sixth placed Claremont.

JAYDEN Schofield has become one of, if not the best, attacking defenders in the WAFL and as he approaches his 100th game on Saturday he desperately wants to help East Fremantle back to being a powerhouse of the competition.

Schofield could never quite settle his position or find the role that best suited his attributes as a hard-running, highly skilled natural ball winner once he returned to East Fremantle after an AFL season with the Western Bulldogs in 2011 on the back of starring in the Sharks' 2010 colts premiership.

He did play 68 league games but also 15 in the reserves over those first four seasons back with the Sharks and he readily admits that he never really felt settled or confident in his ability to be a consistent league performer.

The West Australian Football Commission is calling on all footy fans to get along to the last ever Carlton Draught Derby at Domain Stadium this Sunday, July 16, in a bid to set a new attendance record.

A total of 1,795,683 people have attended the 45 Derbies played at Subiaco since 1995. The largest crowd ever was 43,527 for a West Coast Eagles home game in Round 21, 2006.

"With over 40,000 fans expected to be in attendance the atmosphere for the match should be electric and will take the total crowd figure for all 46 Derbies to more than 1.8 million," WAFC CEO Gavin Taylor said.

It has been almost 40 years since East Perth won the 1978 WAFL Premiership but 100-year old trainer Ted O'Callaghan remembers it like it was yesterday.

"It was a great win on a very wet day, I remember we got flooded on the bench," he said.

O'Callaghan, who turns 101 on July 20, was an honoured guest of the West Australian Football Commission at the recent Fremantle v St. Kilda AFL game.

He was joined by 1978 East Perth captain-coach and Hall of Fame Legend Barry Cable and 1978 East Perth assitant coach Grant Dorrington, who is now a WAFC Commissioner.

Cable drove O'Callaghan to the game, which was the first he had attended in almost 20 years.

SOUTH Fremantle's reserves extended its lead on top of the ladder with a win over the second-placed Claremont in Round 16 on Saturday while East Fremantle won big in the REDiMED Colts to hold off the chasing Peel Thunder and Claremont.

The Round 16 reserves matches all took place on Saturday beginning with the league-leading South Fremantle beating Claremont 13.9 (87) to 9.8 (62) at Claremont Oval.

Subiaco hammered Perth 24.14 (158) to Perth 6.6 (42) at Leederville Oval, East Fremantle won a thriller 10.14 (74) to 10.13 (73) over Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval and Peel Thunder prevailed in a tight one over West Perth 13.10 (88) to 11.14 (80) at HBF Arena.