M & J Chickens Player of Round 4Tuesday, April 24, 2018 - 7:25 PM - by Chris Pike

THE M & J Chickens Player of Round 4 is prolific West Perth ball winner Shane Nelson for yet another dominant performance in the Falcons midfield during Saturday's ANZAC Round victory against Swan Districts.

There were plenty of impressive performance right across the ANZAC Round of WAFL action that started back on Thursday night with Subiaco beating Claremont by 86 points at Leederville Oval. Rhys Waters and Chris Phelan were among the Player of the Round contenders from Subiaco.

Then on Saturday, East Perth beat Perth by 37 points at Lathlain Park with Sharrod Wellingham the standout players on the ground for the Royals with 25 possessions and three goals.

South Fremantle then scored a thumping ANZAC Derby victory against East Fremantle on Sunday by 94 points with Brandon Donaldson the standout performer in his first league appearance of the season finishing with 28 possessions and three goals.

But it was during West Perth's 31-point victory over Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday where the standout performance of the weekend came from Shane Nelson for the Falcons.

It's hard to imagine that the 24-year-old could still be improving considering he already is a triple fairest and best winner, a premiership player and 121 games with West Perth, but the signs are that he very well could be to date in 2018.

He is coming off another superb 2017 season where he claimed his third Breckler Medal in a team that once again played finals and now Nelson's start to 2018 has been blistering.

He had games of 39, 36 and 41 possessions in the opening three rounds against Claremont, East Perth and South Fremantle, and then put the Falcons on his back on Saturday and led them to the 31-point victory against Swans at Bassendean.

Nelson finished the afternoon with 47 possessions, nine marks, three tackles and a goal in a remarkable performance against a midfield from Swans that included such experienced talent as Rhys Palmer, David Ellard, Matt Riggio and Adam Faulkner.

The only thing Nelson hasn’t accomplished to date in his WAFL career is win a Sandover Medal and it's hard to imagine he wouldn’t be leading the count right now in 2018 after four rounds.