Round 12 Optus WAFL PreviewFriday, June 28, 2019 - 11:54 AM - by Chris Pike

IT is another full round of WAFL action on Saturday afternoon and with all 10 teams still in the finals, there's plenty on the line including West Perth trying to continue its good form by coming up against the league-leading Subiaco.

All five matches will take place on Saturday afternoon and with plenty at stake for all 10 clubs involved as the race for finals positions heats up, with milestones to celebrate and statements to be made, it looms as a fascinating round.

It all gets underway with the earlier starting game between South Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

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The other four matches all take place at 2.15pm with East Fremantle hosting Claremont at New Choice Homes Park with star midfielder Cameron Eardley celebrating his 100th appearance with the Sharks.

The first Grand Final rematch from last year then takes place at HBF Arena with West Perth taking on Subiaco. 

The Lions are out to further consolidate top spot while the Falcons are looking to continue their good form at the same time that two of their star performances, Shane Nelson (150) and Kris Shannon (100) reach significant milestones with West Perth.

East Perth and Perth both need a win with the Royals trying to stay in touch of a finals berth and the Demons out to stay inside the top five when they meet at Leederville Oval.

Two more teams who will meet for the first time this season, Peel Thunder and Swan Districts, then also play off at Mandurah's David Grays Arena.

The earlier starting Round 12 WAFL match on Saturday takes place at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with South Fremantle hosting the West Coast Eagles.

Despite their positions on the ladder, it's the Bulldogs coming into the game following a defeat and the Eagles coming off a strong victory making for quite the intriguing contest at the port.

South Fremantle does remain in second position on the ladder with an 8-2 record while West Coast is seventh at 3-7, but last week saw contrasting fortunes for the two teams in the wet weather.

The Bulldogs suffered their second loss of the season ending a seven-game winning streak, but it was the first time they've genuinely been outplayed in 2019 at the hands of Subiaco to end up losing by 33 points also at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

The Eagles were in action at East Fremantle Oval earlier in the day and with Nic Naitanui's return attracting the headlines, beyond that the West Coast team was perhaps the strongest it has fielded all season and the end result backed that up with a 72-point victory over the Sharks.

That win kept the Eagles in finals contention especially if they can back it up with a win over a Bulldogs team who do remain in second position but with a percentage below that of Claremont who they play next week at Claremont Oval, they do need to keep winning stay ahead of the Tigers.

The two teams have already played one another this year at Fremantle Community Bank Oval and on that occasion it was a commanding and impressive 59-point victory for South Fremantle.

But West Coast's team should be significantly different in terms of personnel this time around while it's going to be fascinating to see how South Fremantle responds after last week's performance against Subiaco after such an impressive first nine games of 2019.

From that South Fremantle team that lost to Subiaco by 33 points last Saturday, ruckman Brock Higgins returns following his one-week suspension.

The Bulldogs have made just the one change and that sees Brendan Verrier go out of the team following the best and most consistent run of form so far this season in career which has seen him average 21.6 disposals a game.

While the Eagles have named Brendon Ah Chee, Matthew Allen, Brayden Ainsworth, Jarrod Brander and Tom Cole out of the team from the side that beat East Fremantle last week, most if not all of them still look like taking on South Fremantle on Saturday.

Tom Barrass and Nic Naitanui won't play with the Eagles in the WAFL, though, while Nathan Vardy will come in to play in the ruck while Mitch Curnow, Andrew Fisher, Joel Ashman, Chaz Flint, Kieran Hug and Liam Robilliard have all been added to the squad.

Claremont and East Fremantle will always do battle at Claremont Oval on Saturday afternoon from 2.15pm with the Tigers looking to keep their momentum going and the Sharks attempting to bounce back.

Claremont comes into the game in third position on the ladder with a 7-3 record having won their past three matches and with a better percentage than South Fremantle above them, a win for the Tigers and loss for the Bulldogs would see them improve to second position.

Leading into a clash with South Fremantle next Saturday, these next seven days could very well set up Claremont's season as they look to become genuine premiership threats for the first time since their run of four successive minor premierships from 2010 to 2013.

East Fremantle was in tremendous form heading into last Saturday's clash with the Eagles winning three of four matches, but the Sharks fell to a 72-point loss to a strong West Coast line-up.

The Sharks will be looking to bounce straight back from that to keep their finals hopes alive on Saturday while also celebrating the 100th game of inspirational midfielder Cameron Eardley.

From last week's Claremont side that beat East Perth, Jake Murphy and Jared Hardisty come into the line-up with the experienced midfield pair both playing their first games of 2019.

Jye Bolton goes out of the side with the dual Sandover Medallist copping two heavy head knocks in the space of six days with Bailey Bennett also out.

East Fremantle has made just the one change from the side that lost to West Coast a week ago with James Harrold coming in at the expense of Lachlan Bailey.

Potentially the game of the round will then take place at Joondalup's HBF Arena with West Perth hosting Subiaco in the first meeting between the two clubs since the Lions' thumping victory in last year's Grand Final.

But the Falcons now come into Saturday's clash in tremendous form having won five of their past six matches having started the season with four successive losses under coach Geoff Valentine.

That has West Perth in fifth position on the ladder with a 5-5 record and coming off wins against the West Coast Eagles and Swan Districts by a combined 93 points so they are playing some tremendous football.

But trying to take down Subiaco is the biggest challenge in the WAFL still with the Lions now a game and percentage clear on top of the ladder following last week's 33-point win over the second place South Fremantle.

That has the Lions on a four-game winning run and a 9-1 record coming into the Grand Final rematch with West Perth.

Subiaco has won the past eight games it has played against West Perth by an average of 42.4 points.

On top of it being a big day on home turf for West Perth hosting Subiaco, it will also be a big day for two of their star players with triple Breckler Medallist and prolific midfielder Shane Nelson playing his 150th game for the Falcons with speedster Kris Shannon also reaching 100 matches for West Perth.

West Perth has made just the one change from the team that beat Swan Districts with ruckman Ben Delaporte returning at the expense of Brayden Antonio.

And from Subiaco's side that defeated South Fremantle, the Lions are taking in an unchanged line-up.

Then at Leederville Oval, two teams desperate for a win lock horns with East Perth hosting Perth.

The Royals have now lost their past two matches to Claremont and East Fremantle in disappointing fashion to slip to a 3-7 record on the season so they need a bounce back win on Saturday to stay in the finals hunt.

The Demons do still occupy fourth position on the ladder, but they have now lost their past two matches and four of the past five following a stunning 5-0 start to the season.

So with Perth needing a win to stay in the top five and East Perth trying to keep its season alive, it's a game with plenty on the line at Leederville Oval.

East Perth has made wholesale changes with its defence strengthened with the returns of Tom Gorter and Tony Olango. Patrick McGinnity should also return and then a host of young players are in the mix, Mahli King, Ben McGuire, Jacob Msando, Harley Stack and Nelson Waite.

Jaxon Cahill, Jamie Rudrum, Joel Houghton, Nathan Arbon and the suspended Julian Ameduri go out.

While Michael Bennell returns for Perth, two other excitement machines Zareth Roe and Gordon Narrier go out.

Shaun Smith, Lennon Marlin, Ethan Hansen and Jacob Coniglio have been added with Coniglio a chance to play his first game for Perth having crossed in the past month from Swan Districts.

Peel hosts Swan Districts in what should be another fascinating match up on Saturday at Mandurah's David Grays Arena.

Both teams need a win to maintain touch with the top five and depending on other results, a victory could see the Thunder climb into the top five while Swans just need a victory to get off the bottom of the ladder and to restore some confidence.

Peel is coming into the contest on the back of a dominant 42-point win at Lathlain over Perth last Saturday in the wet conditions. 

It was likely the Thunder's most emphatic performance of the season and it came just a week after a three-point loss to South Fremantle which was another game they perhaps should have won.

So the WAFL premiers of 2016 and 2017 are starting to build into some good form and another strong showing on home soil on Saturday and there's every reason they should be aiming for a return to finals action in 2019.

Meanwhile, Swan Districts just needs something to boost their flagging confidence at the moment.

Since beating the West Coast Eagles back in Round 7 at Steel Blue Oval, Swans have lost to Perth by a goal, Claremont by 34 points and then last Saturday in the wet 57 points at the hands of West Perth on home turf at Bassendean.

That leaves the black-and-whites entering Round 12 on the bottom of the WAFL ladder with a 2-8 record. 

But considering the fifth place team only has five wins and with Swans possessing a reasonable percentage, if they can get a win and some confidence, there's no reason their season needs to be over despite some of the doom and gloom that begins to mount during any sort of losing run.

The game will be the first meeting between Peel and Swan Districts in 2019. Their last meeting was back in Round 13 last year so it's been a full 12 months in between clashes. 

On that occasion also in Mandurah, it was Peel that won a tight affair by 18 points but Swans had won the previous two contests prior to that between the two sides.

Coming off last week's impressive win against Perth, Peel has made plenty of changes to its team with Keegan Power, James Sturrock, Lloyd Meek, Luke Valente, Dillon O'Reilly, Matt Bogensperger and Jordan Boullineau all coming into the line-up.

Harley Bennell goes out with a torn calf with Bailey Banfield, Lachie Schultz, Scott Jones, Cam McCarthy, Corey Morris and Adam Cerra also out of the Thunder line-up.

Meanwhile for Swan Districts following last Saturday's hefty loss to West Perth, the black-and-whites will blood another two debutants with Jackson Beck and Lachlan Riley coming into the team.

Brayden Noble will also return after a stint in the reserves last week to provide Swans with another marking target in attack alongside Corey Gault and Leigh Kohlmann.

Warrick Wilson, Graydon Wilson and Patrick Italiano are the three players to go out of the Swan Districts team.
 

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 12

SOUTH FREMANTLE (8-2, 2nd) v WEST COAST EAGLES (3-7, 7th) – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 1.15PM
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Broadcast – KIX Digital 

EAST FREMANTLE (3-7, 8th) v CLAREMONT (7-3, 3rd) – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM

WEST PERTH (5-5, 5th) v SUBIACO (9-1, 1st) – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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EAST PERTH (3-7, 9th) v PERTH (6-4, 4th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
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Broadcast – 720 ABC Perth

PEEL THUNDER (4-6, 6th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (2-8, 10th) – DAVID GRAYS ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Live scores, stats