WAFL Elimination Finals PreviewSunday, September 4, 2016 - 9:43 AM - by Chris Pike

PEEL Thunder and East Perth have had some fascinating WAFL match ups in recent years and only one will advance following Sunday's elimination final at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

The Thunder and Royals are both partnered with WA's AFL clubs Fremantle and West Coast adding extra intrigue to the contest that is a cut-throat affair between the fourth and fifth placed teams from the end of the 2016 McDonald's WAFL Premiership Season.

Also on Sunday in the reserves elimination final, East Fremantle plays Subiaco and in the colts, Swan Districts takes on East Perth.

The 2016 AHG Finals Series got underway on Saturday with the qualifying finals. South Fremantle beat West Perth in the league contest 18.13 (121) to 10.9 (69) while Claremont beat South Fremantle in both the reserves and colts.

WAFL Qualifying Final Results 

LEAGUE ELIMINATION FINAL
PEEL THUNDER (11-9, 4th) v EAST PERTH (10-10, 5th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 3.10PM
Selected teams
Broadcast – 7mate, 720 ABC Perth, KIX Digital

Peel Thunder and East Perth will do battle in the WAFL finals for a second straight year in Sunday's elimination final and the season will be over for one of them afterwards.

The Thunder and Royals met in last year's first semi-final also at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium and it was East Perth winning on that occasion ending Peel's season and advancing to the preliminary final against West Perth.

The prize for the winner is now similar this time around with a first semi-final battle against West Perth at HBF Arena next Sunday awaiting. The loser will see their 2016 season come to a close.

Thunder want historic finals win before looking further 
Payne, Blee likely set for key roles in show of Royals' depth 

Peel has qualified for the finals now two straight years after an 18-year drought since entering the WAFL in 1997. After losing to both West Perth and East Perth in last year's finals series, the job ahead of the Thunder is to win a final for the first time.

They booked in fourth position on the ladder at the end of the 2016 home and away season with an 11-9 record having won three of their last five matches.

East Perth, meanwhile, entered last Saturday's clash with East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium needing to win or else miss out on finals altogether for the first time since 2011.

The Royals dominated the clash with the Sharks to win by 48 points in the finish to end up on a 10-10 record to claim fifth position and book in a fifth straight finals appearance.

East Perth did lose in a first semi-final in 2012 to East Fremantle before making grand finals in 2013 and 2014, and then the preliminary final last year before losing to West Perth.

Peel and East Perth have met in some fascinating contests in recent years as well including in 2016.

The Royals won the opening match between the two this year by 30 points in Mandurah before the Thunder won by 14 points also at Bendigo Bank Stadium and then again by 36 points at Medibank Stadium in Round 20.

They also had four meetings in 2015 with Peel winning the first two and then East Perth the next two including the first semi-final at Bendigo Bank Stadium by 22 points.

Peel Thunder had the unfortunate situation on its finals debut in the qualifying final of 2015 of losing the majority of its Fremantle-listed players when they were required by the Dockers who were resting the majority of their AFL regulars that weekend ahead of the finals.

But it's the opposite situation heading into Sunday's elimination final with East Perth with Fremantle's season over, the Thunder will have 18 Dockers' players made available to selection for them.

It does appear that all 18 of them will play as well on Sunday and that includes Alex Silvagni, Darcy Tucker, Ed Langdon, Michael Apeness, Shane Yarran, Connor Blakely and Matt de Boer who all played in Fremantle's final game of the AFL season against the Western Bulldogs last Sunday.

Peel has the services of four Fremantle-listed big men as well not only with Apeness coming back in but with Zac Clarke, Jonathon Griffin and Jack Hannath all remaining. It will be fascinating how Peel coach Cam Shepherd uses all four of them and mixes their time between the ruck and forward.

Either way it leaves a massive job for East Perth veteran Paul Johnson up against all four of them only with support of Fraser McInnes with Jonathan Giles now locked into the West Coast team following the injury to Nic Naitanui.

Peel's other Fremantle-listed players include defenders Ryan Nyhuis, Sam Collins and Anthony Morabito while Ethan Hughes and Tucker can be used off half-back as well.

Blakely, de Boer, Tendai Mzungu, Langdon and Nick Suban will play through the middle while Yarran and Josh Deluca will be part of the forward-line at the feet of the tall brigade.

All of that means that there are going to be precious few spots available for Peel players. Veteran Rory O'Brien, captain Gerald Ugle, defender Josh Bootsma and lively forward Blair Bell do appear the obvious four WAFL players from the Thunder to play.

But Andrew Haydon and Brayden Lawler in particular are two more players who have made a strong case to play given their form this year. Highlighting just how tough it is for a spot, former Carlton player Brad Walsh can't even break into the extended squad for Sunday's game.

Two players to already lose their positions following Peel's last round win over Claremont are Traye Bennell and Calvin Thorne.

East Perth isn’t quite in the same situation as having all its West Coast qualified players available for selection.

With the Eagles set to play the Western Bulldogs on Thursday at Domain Stadium in an AFL elimination final, any players who would be even an outside chance of playing for West Coast won't be playing with East Perth on Sunday given playing four days later would be too much to ask.

That means that even if the likes of Mitch Brown, Jackson Nelson and Jack Redden can't break into the West Coast team on Thursday night, they won't be risked to play with East Perth on Sunday just in case they are required.

The Royals will have good representation of Eagles players still, though, with Eric Mackenzie, Patrick McGinnity, Jamie Bennell and Liam Duggan all to take the field in the black and blue.

What the unavailability of several West Coast players does, though, is open up opportunities again for usual East Perth regulars who have been forced out of the side of late.

Steven Payne is a fairest and best winning 104-game wingman, but he has spent the last six weeks in the reserves on return from injury and racked up 75 possessions the past two weeks in the reserves. He should be an automatic selection this Sunday for the Royals.

As should defender Nathan Blee who has been as reliable and consistent a performer as East Perth has had both before and after his time in the AFL with Port Adelaide.

Brant Colledge is another West Coast-listed player who should play on Sunday and he gives good versatility able to play both in the midfield and to be a goal kicking option up forward.

East Perth's reserves have been outstanding to finish the season and finished on top of the ladder to earn the break in the first week of the finals.

From that team, Callum Hart, Tom Hodgson, Corey Adamson and Mitch Lague all finished the season in strong form last week against East Fremantle and are more than capable of having an impact at league level if called upon.

RESERVES ELIMINATION FINAL
EAST FREMANTLE (11-9, 4th) v SUBIACO (10-8-2, 5th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 12.25PM
Selected teams 

East Fremantle and Subiaco's reserves do battle in an elimination final on Sunday at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

The Sharks qualified for the reserves finals in fourth position with an 11-9 record to be the only team from the club to take part in the September action.

The reserves can provide some positivity for East Fremantle particularly with the disappointment of the league season that ended with a whimper after looking so positive at the half-way mark of the year.

Subiaco's reserves, meanwhile, held on to fifth position despite the bye in the final round with 10 wins, eight losses and two draws.

With the Lions league side finishing as minor premier and hunting for a third straight premiership, the pressure is on for spots and a host of players will be looking for strong performances on Sunday to try and take part in that.

The winner of Sunday's clash between East Fremantle and Subiaco will take on South Fremantle in the first semi-final next Sunday while the season will be over for the loser.

It is a strong looking East Fremantle's reserves team that will feature Jack Perham, Jacob Green, Lewis Krakouer, up forward and then Dylan Winton, Tyler Chalwell, Josh Cuneo, Tom Hooker down back.

Andrew Stokes will return from the league team late in the season to carry the ruck with Jesse Adamini and Jake Schleicher among the ball winners to run through the middle.