First Semi-Final Preview – West Perth v ClaremontSunday, September 9, 2018 - 1:05 AM - by Chris Pike

WEST Perth and Claremont fight for survival in Sunday's first semi-final at Joondalup Arena on Sunday and given the recent history of nail-biters between the two teams of late, expect no different this time around.

The Falcons and Tigers remarkably have only been separated by an average of 10 points throughout their last 17 meetings and now in a cut-throat first semi-final on Sunday, things go up another level between two teams that seem to bring the best out of one another.

The game will take place on a hectic Sunday at the Joondalup venue as well with the Perth Wildcats playing the Adelaide 36ers in an NBL pre-season fixture at HBF Arena's new basketball stadium as part of the redevelopment at Joondalup Arena.

That will be taking place on the same afternoon as the WAFL first semi-final so it's fair to say Joondalup Arena will be the place to be for top-class sporting action come Sunday.

But the first semi-final in the WAFL shapes as a beauty and gets underway in the traditional 2.15pm time slot.

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West Perth put together a strong home and away season finishing in third position on the ladder with an 11-7 record to earn themselves a double chance, which the Falcons needed after a disappointing start to the 2018 WAFL Finals Series.

West Perth was only five points behind South Fremantle midway through the second quarter in last Saturday's qualifying final at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

But the Bulldogs went on to kick 16 of the game's last 17 goals to hammer the Falcons by 98 points giving West Perth a big job to do to turn things back around eight days later on home turf against Claremont in a cut-throat first semi-final.

Claremont had a tough start to the 2018 season and finals certainly looked decidedly unlikely when the Tigers lost five of their opening six games, and even when they held a 3-7 record by the end of Round 11.

But Claremont went on to win six of the last eight games of the home and away season to qualify for finals from fourth position and then deliver a strong performance last Sunday at Claremont Oval to beat East Perth in the elimination final to book their place in the first semi-final.

The teams met twice during the 2018 season with West Perth winning in Round 1 by 18 points at Joondalup Arena before a cracking contest in Round 11 at Claremont saw the Falcons win by a point.

Going back to last year too, West Perth won in the last round by four points in remarkable fashion at Claremont Oval to book in a finals appearance as a result.

And the games between the Falcons and Tigers have been remarkable in recent years. Claremont did go through a period of five straight wins at an average of 57.8 points from the second semi-final of 2011 through Round 12, 2013.

But the past 15 matches since then have been remarkably tight beginning with West Perth ending that losing run against Claremont with a four-point win that should have been significantly more with straighter kicking in the second semi-final of 2013 on the way to the premiership.

The past 15 meetings between the clubs has seen West Perth win 10 of those including the past three and seven of the past eight. But considering the average winning margin across each 15 of those games is just 8.5 points and there's not much between the teams.

Remarkably 10 of the last 15 games have been decided by single-figure margins setting the stage for quite a tantalising match up on Sunday with the seasons of both on the line at Joondalup Arena.

West Perth comes into the first semi-final on the back of a 98-point qualifying loss to South Fremantle, but coach Bill Monaghan will show faith in 21 of those 22 players to turn things around on Sunday.

The only change to the West Perth team for the first semi-final is the hard-running Connor West coming in for what will be the eighth game of his career.

He replaces forward Tyson Moulton who had a quiet game against South Fremantle with just four kicks and failing to hit the scoreboard. Unfortunately for him, West Perth's reserves were eliminated last week so he won't have the chance to go back and find form either.

But that one personnel change isn’t going to make the difference for West Perth, the Falcons will need a lift in intensity and production right across the board from last week if they hope to earn a spot in the preliminary final.

Claremont delivered an impressive performance to virtually control last Sunday's elimination final against East Perth from the outset before winning by 28 points.

As a result of that, the Tigers have elected to go in with an unchanged line-up for the first semi-final against West Perth at Joondalup Arena.

That means that Tom Curren's 29 possessions and six tackles in the reserves last week weren’t enough to earn a recall and nor were 32 disposals from Rylie Morgan and the Tigers have elected to not go with the extra size by bringing in Eddie Simpson.

WEST PERTH (11-7, 3rd) v CLAREMONT (9-9, 4th) – JOOONDALUP ARENA, SUNDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM, Footy Radio