Round 7 Preview - Peel Thunder v East PerthFriday, April 28, 2017 - 3:42 PM - by Chris Pike

PEEL Thunder and East Perth do battle for the second time already this season when they meet at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Saturday as a precursor to the Western Derby.

With the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers playing one another later on Saturday night at Domain Stadium, their two aligned WAFL clubs will be locking horns at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The game gets underway at 2.40pm and will be broadcast live on Channel 7.

Both teams have a fascinating history against one another in recent seasons as well since becoming the official aligned clubs.

Peel eliminated East Perth from last year's finals series with an elimination final victory at Bendigo Bank Stadium. Twelve months earlier and East Perth eliminated Peel from the finals at the same venue in the first semi-final.

The two teams have already played one another earlier this season back in Round 1 under lights at Leederville Oval. Peel won that contest by 17 points in a low-scoring affair.

From there, the Thunder won the next week as well to beat East Fremantle by 86 points to extend their winning run to seven on the trot dating back to 2017 and including the premiership.

However, since then Peel has lost its last three games going down to South Fremantle by 43 points, Subiaco by 13 and West Perth by 35 on Good Friday.

East Perth, meanwhile, made a disastrous start to the 2017 season losing to Peel by 17 points, West Perth by 21, Swan Districts by 10, Claremont by 36 and Subiaco by 91.

But the Royals finally got on the board under new coach Luke Webster last Saturday recording a hard fought 20-point victory over Perth at Leederville Oval.

With just the one change at Fremantle not impacting selection with Peel for Saturday's clash with East Perth, the Thunder might just lose one emergency out of Nick Suban, Jonathon Griffin and Matt Taberner.

Darcy Tucker is also out of the side from the one that lost to West Perth on Good Friday due to earning his place with the Dockers.

Brad Walsh, Calvin Thorne, Hayden Matthews, Brennan Cox, Danyle Pearce, Luke Ryan and Michael Tassone are the other players all looking to come into the Peel team to take on East Perth and try to return to the winner's list.

From last week's East Perth team that defeated Perth by 20 points, the Royals lose Lewis Wilson who went down early in the contest and didn’t have any impact in the victory.

Kurt Mutimer goes out of the side due to making his AFL debut in the derby for the Eagles but Will Schofield should return after losing his place for West Coast.

Lewis Jetta and Mark Hutchings have both been named emergencies for the Eagles but at least one of them should still play with East Perth in Mandurah on Saturday afternoon.

Luke Partington is also out of the Royals side while captain Patrick McGinnity is set to return for his first game since the Round 2 loss to West Perth at HBF Arena.

Stan Wright, Malcolm Karpany, Matthew Allen, Nelson Waite, Callum Hart, Jack Hick and Jordan Snadden are the other players vying for selection with East Perth on Saturday.

PEEL THUNDER (2-3, 6th) v EAST PERTH (1-5, 8th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.40PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – Channel 7, Footy Radio (WAFL App)