WAFL v SANFL State Game PreviewFriday, May 14, 2021 - 2:00 PM - by Chris Pike

THE Kia Australia WAFL State Team is back in action on Saturday against the best of the SANFL looking to replicate a scintillating performance also at Adelaide Oval three years ago.

It might be a dramatically different looking WAFL State Team this time around than the one that did beat the SANFL by 26 points back in 2018 at Adelaide Oval, and indeed that lost to South Australia at Optus Stadium in 2019.

However, it's a strong and exciting looking WA team that will head to Adelaide to take on the Croweaters on Saturday looking to extend their overall lead in the interstate battles Currently the Black Swans have won 48 and South Australia 47 from the previous 95 clashes dating back to 1904.

Only captain Leigh Kitchin from Subiaco, Claremont's dual Sandover and Simpson Medallist Jye Bolton, Subiaco Sandover Medal winner Lachlan Delahunty, Swan Districts ruckman Corey Gault, and Tigers wingman Bailey Rogers are the only players in the 23-game to have previously represented the WAFL in State Games.

That means the other 18 players are on debut for WA with the defence set to be made up of Claremont's Lachlan Martinis, West Perth's Noah Pegoraro, South Fremantle's Blake Schlensog and Chad Pearson, and potentially Subiaco's Greg Clark and Claremont's Declan Mountford.

Gault, Delahunty and possibly South Fremantle's Zac Strom will all share the ruck duties while spending time forward while the on-ball brigade of consist of Kitchin, Bolton, Swan Districts' Sam Fisher, East Fremantle's Josh Schoenfeld and Cam Eardley, and West Perth's Connor West.

The outside run will come from South Fremantle's Matt Parker, Claremont's Ben Edwards, Rogers and Clark.

The forward-line will be spearheaded by West Perth's Tyler Keitel and Subiaco's Harry Marsh with the lively Cody Ninyette from South Fremantle, Tyrone Thorne from Peel Thunder and Callan England from Claremont at ground level.

Meanwhile, the SANFL squad features plenty of familiar faces too including Bryce Gibbs, Tyson Stengle, Riley Knight, Luke Partington, captain Jack Hayes, Cameron Sutcliffe, Matthew Broadbent and Michael Knoll.

WA coach Geoff Valentine will be in charge of the State Team for the first time, and is proud and excited at the honour, and couldn’t be happier with the squad he'll be going into battle with on Saturday in Adelaide.

"Firstly I think the balance of the squad was pretty good to start off with but obviously Haiden Schloithe not being available was disappointing, but I really appreciate the way he went about that by making a personal call on the Friday," Valentine said on 91.3 SportFM.

"Then we had Patmore and Sokol out with injury and brought in Dec Mountford to stiffen us up in the back half a little bit, and we made the decision after training on the Monday where we thought we had the right 23. 

"We put those guys in the team at ease by letting them know so they could focus on preparing and bonding together, and for the other five guys we wanted to give them enough notice so they knew where they stood. It's been a really positive week and we are looking forward to getting into the game now."

It can have its challenges to get much of an idea of the opposition you'll come up against in a State Game, but Valentine is confident they know enough about the SANFL team to have hopefully come up with a winning plan against them.

"They are going to have some big bodies in the midfield and they will want to control our run on the outside with our speed and run so they are obviously going to be mindful of that," Valentine said.

"Their back half will be talented with Bryce Gibbs, Broadbent and Joey Haines, and they all play with South Adelaide and are great distributors of the ball so we can't let them do their own thing. And they are going to have to mind some pretty dangerous forward. 

"It will be like most games and we are going to need to generate enough of our own ball through the contest and then use it well going forward. I think we've got a forward-line that can kick a winning score. But so do they so it's going to be a great contest either way."

WA captain Leigh Kitchin will be making his sixth appearance for the Black Swans, but this will be his first time as captain and he can't wait for the opportunity to replicate the win at Adelaide Oval back in 2018.

"It's the first time for me actually. We obviously didn’t play last year and the couple of years before that Kyal Horsley was the captain so I'm definitely very grateful and honoured to get to lead the team on the weekend," Kitchin said on SEN.

"It's been well documented that it's a young group with 18 debutants but with that comes a lot of enthusiasm and the excitement, and good nervous energy. 

"I'm excited for the group they have brought together and I think it's a good mix of electrifying smalls, highly-skilled good finishers and then strong midfielders with some experience and pace on the outside with explosive young players. 

"And then we have some dour defenders as well. Often these teams have midfielders all over the park, but we have role specific players as well so I think it's a really good mix."

KIA AUSTRALIA STATE GAME
SANFL v WAFL

TIME: 2:05PM (WST) Saturday 15 May

LOCATION: Adelaide Oval

HOW TO WATCH: If you can’t make it to the match, you can watch the action LIVE through the WAFL Facebook page. A link will be provided to this closer to the match on the website.

Broadcast will begin from 2.00pm (WST)

The match will also be broadcast on radio and through the SEN app via SEN WA.