McDonald's WAFL Round 14 PreviewFriday, June 24, 2016 - 1:11 PM - by Chris Pike

IT is Know Your Score Round for Men's Health in the WAFL this Saturday highlighted by a clash between two in-form teams in the top three positions while East Fremantle and Peel Thunder try and consolidate their top five spots, and Subiaco look to maintain top position.

The undoubted match of the round takes place at HBF Arena as a West Perth team on a seven-game winning streak hosts South Fremantle who sits in second position and could potentially regain top spot with a victory.

The league-leading reigning premiers Subiaco also host Claremont at Medibank Stadium while Perth takes on an East Fremantle side at Lathlain Park needing to bounce back after a thumping from Subiaco.

Peel Thunder's winning run also ended last week as they look to rebound on Saturday hosting the bottom placed Swan Districts at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

The sixth placed East Perth has the bye hoping to see East Fremantle and Peel go down to remain two games out of a spot in the top five.

WEST PERTH (8-4, 3rd) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (9-2, 2nd) – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 720 ABC Perth

West Perth and South Fremantle enter Saturday's clash at HBF Arena sitting in third and second position respectively and the result could go a long way to determining a top two finish come the end of the season.

The Falcons are currently the form team in the WAFL having won seven matches in succession and now another win on Saturday over the Bulldogs would see them just percentage off a top two position.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs bounced back from losing the WA Day Foundation Derby prior to the state game beating Peel Thunder last Sunday at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

They might have dropped top spot to Subiaco on percentage, but do have a game in hand on the Lions and a win over the Falcons would leave South Fremantle well placed for the minor premiership.

The two teams haven’t played since Round 1 of the season when South Fremantle beat West Perth by 35 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

While West Perth won the last meeting between the two teams at HBF Arena last year, going to Joondalup holds no fear for South Fremantle with the Bulldogs having won the previous four meetings at the venue prior to 2015.

South Fremantle remains the best attacking and second best defensive team in the league coming into Round 14 while West Perth is averaging a score 73.8 points a game, but is solid enough defensively conceding just 75.1 with those numbers improving dramatically in the seven-game winning run.

South Fremantle is the second best starting team in the league and the best last quarter team while West Perth has scored 64 points fewer than its opponents in first terms, and 17 less in last stanzas during the season.

West Perth is the form team of the competition having won its last seven matches but the Falcons continue to find injuries with Nick Rodda (quad) and Trent Manzone (hand) the latest to be sidelined.

Manzone would be missing anyway after a four-week suspension following last Saturday's win over Claremont.

The loss of Rodda will be partly offset with another big man Mark Hamilton right to return after missing the win over Claremont with an ankle injury suffered prior to the state game break against East Perth.

Joel Leeson looks to be the natural replacement for Manzone as well after making a strong return in the reserves last week with 21 possessions and two goals after a hand injury of his own.

Then coach Bill Monaghan has some interesting decisions to make on the selection of premiership veteran Chris Keunen and Luke Tedesco.

Keunen played the best of his five reserves matches off a broken leg last week against Claremont with 19 possessions, 29 hit outs, five marks and a goal.

So he could come in to provide support to Seva Mozhaev in the ruck against Brock Higgins, or Monaghan might like to allow Mozhaev to go one-on-one opposed to the South Fremantle workhorse.

Tedesco has also been in solid form since losing his place in the side with a back injury but his position is currently well stocked by the likes of Luke Meadows, Steven Browne, Blake Wilhelm, Laine Rasmussen and Drew Rohde making it tough for him to break in for what would be his 150th appearance.

South Fremantle might be coming off a good win over Peel Thunder, but is suffering some injuries to key players.

Coming into that game the Bulldogs were without Haiden Schloithe (foot) and Blaine Johnson (hamstring) and then during the contest lost Ashton Hams to a calf injury and Adam McIntosh to a broken leg.

While Johnson is an outside chance of returning on Saturday against West Perth, it's unlikely he will take his place in the side while Schloithe, Hams, McIntosh and small defender Matthew Gundry guaranteed of not playing.

Josh Pullman looks certain to return for South Fremantle following one game back in the reserves last week where he had 21 possessions, 14 marks and a goal.

Chris Luff is also in the mix to make his first game of the season to further strengthen the Bulldogs' back-line while lively forward Tyson Pickett could make his debut following another three-goal effort last week against the Thunder.

James Laurino and Brendan Verrier are the most likely players to come into the South Fremantle side to help cover the absence of Hams in the midfield as well.

SUBIACO (9-3, 1st) v CLAREMONT (3-8, 7th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – Heritage FM 107.3

Subiaco returned to some ominous form last week to reclaim top spot on the WAFL ladder but Claremont heads to Medibank Stadium on Saturday looking to claim a big scalp after a season of frustration.

The Lions had lost three of their last five matches heading into the state game break and then last week's clash with East Fremantle. The Sharks had thrashed the Lions by 80 points in their earlier meeting, but Subiaco got revenge last Sunday beating East Fremantle by 78 points.

That win saw the two-time reigning premiers replace South Fremantle on top of the ladder courtesy of percentage but with the Bulldogs having played one less game, the Lions do need to keep winning if they want to stay on track for a second straight minor premiership.

Claremont, on the other hand, all but saw its finals hopes slip out the door last Saturday with a three-point loss to West Perth with the Tigers just falling short of what would have been a miraculous comeback.

That is now twice against West Perth this season along with games against East Fremantle, Peel Thunder, Perth, South Fremantle and Swan Districts that Claremont has lost but were in winning positions of.

That has left the Tigers struggling with a 3-8 record so finals are a long way out of reach at this point but they continue to be hard to beat and a strong performance against Subiaco could be just the beginning they are after to finish the season strongly.

Subiaco has won the last three games over Claremont, though, and remain the second best attacking and best defensive side in the league.

Claremont is scoring well at 86.7 points a game to only be behind the top two teams but is conceding 79.1 points, better than just Swan Districts, Perth and East Perth.

Depth again is suddenly a strong suit at Subiaco with the continuing return of premiership stars following a tough run leading into the state game break.

Jordan Lockyer, Lachlan Delahunty and Wayde Twomey all returned in last week's 78-point win over East Fremantle and now this week another dual premiership star Brett Robinson is set to to make his return.

Robinson started the season strongly kicking nine goals and averaging over 22 possessions in the opening eight games. He will now be back on Saturday to add another midfield and half-forward option for the Lions.

Ben Sokol and Dylan Elliott are also fighting to get back into a league line-up that now is tough to find a position in.

That is best highlighted by the fact that from the reserves Brad Stevenson, Hayden Yarran, Max Walters, Shaquille McKenzie, Matt Bogensperger and Daniel Leishman have all played strong league football previously, but can't currently get a look in.

That is not only because of the returning stars from injury, but also with the likes Braden Fimmano, Liam Ryan, Chris Bryan and Dylan Clarke grabbing their opportunities that have presented.

Claremont's hopes of staying in the finals race took a significant hit last week but only just with the three-point loss to West Perth.

And now the hopes of the Tigers taking it up to Subiaco have been hit significantly with exciting big man Darcy Cameron out through injury following that loss to West Perth. He has 22 goals this season while providing Mitch Andrews strong support in the ruck.

Claremont has several different options to bring in a replacement to the forward-line for Cameron with Ben Higgs, Rowen Powell and Gerrick Weedon all in good form.

Higgs kicked three goals last week in the reserves against West Perth as did Weedon while Powell finished with 31 possessions, eight marks and a goal.

Haydn Busher was terrific in defence last week for Claremont on Michael Lourey but he could push forward this week in the absence of Cameron. That would open the door for a return of Anton Hamp or Dylan Ross who both had good games in the reserves last Saturday against the Falcons.

Midfielder Ryan Lim will also be straight back in for the Tigers after being unavailable for selection.

Last year's fairest and best winner Matthew Davies and East Perth recruit Tom Shanahan have both been omitted.

PERTH (3-8, 8th) v EAST FREMANTLE (7-5, 4th) – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 1.40PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – KIX Digital, 7mate

East Fremantle continues to miss some key personnel and now the Sharks need to bounce back against Perth on Saturday at Lathlain Park or be vulnerable of dropping from the top five.

East Fremantle was terrific back in the WA Day Foundation Derby beating South Fremantle by 39 points and despite coming in confident last Sunday after beating Subiaco by 80 points back in Round 8, the Sharks suffered a disappointing loss to the Lions to the tune of 78 points.

That leaves the Sharks in fourth position on the ladder at 7-5 to be a game now out of third position and just percentage ahead of the fifth placed Peel Thunder.

They remain two games clear of the sixth placed East Perth but a loss would still leave the Sharks fighting with the Royals over a spot in the finals.

Perth continues to be considerably more competitive in 2016 despite having just the three wins and again last week the Demons fought hard before ending up losing to East Perth by 33 points.

Scoring continues to be Perth's biggest problem averaging just 63.6 points a game while East Fremantle's defence is rock solid conceding just 70.7.

Perth's midfield has been its great strength all season but it was missing one of the key cogs Julian Jacobs last week against East Perth.

He is averaging 27 possessions a game this season and now returns on Saturday against East Fremantle to team up with Clint Jones, Aidan Tropiano, Liam McKenna and ruckman Angus Graham.