WAFL Round 4 PreviewThursday, April 4, 2013 - 4:00 PM - by Chris Pike

WAFL Round 4 action sees another Friday night fixture at Fremantle Oval before three big games on Saturday afternoon.

South Fremantle will host West Perth at Fremantle Oval on Friday night before on Saturday, East Perth takes on Claremont at Leederville's Medibank Stadium, East Fremantle hosts Subiaco at East Fremantle Oval and Swan Districts battles Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

There's some big news at selection across the board too with Travis Casserly, Dayle Garlett, Michael Swan, Alex Silvagni and Daniel Kerr among the inclusions, and Jason Salecic, Andrew Embley, Blayne Wilson, Andrew Foster, Mitch Brown and Garrick Ibbotson among those going out for their respective sides.

SOUTH FREMANTLE (0-2, 9th) v WEST PERTH (2-0, 1st) – FREMANTLE OVAL, FRIDAY 6.45PM

Selected teams

It might be the winless South Fremantle hosting the unbeaten West Perth at Fremantle Oval on Friday night, but both sides will head in confident of a strong performance.

The Bulldogs have played away the opening two games going down to Claremont at Claremont Oval in Round 1 and then narrowly losing to Perth at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium last week.

The Falcons have started the 2013 season in tremendous fashion beating East Perth by 75 points in Round 1 at Arena Joondalup and then backing that up with a 24-point win over Subiaco at Leederville's Medibank Stadium in Round 2.

They have had the bye last weekend over Easter to freshen up and prepare to head to Fremantle Oval.

South Fremantle coach Paul Hasleby has elected to name the same 22 that played Perth last week with Adam Doughty (pelvis) and Andrew McCarrey (ribs) at this stage looking to have overcome their sore bodies to take their place in the side.

Young defender Nick Borovac is on standby, though, for the pair and could come in for his first game of the season after battling a thumb injury with John Sgherza also a chance to return if needed after he returned solidly in the reserves last week after an injury-interrupted pre-season.

Not only has Fremantle Oval been a popular venue for Friday night games in the past for players and spectators alike, South Fremantle has also enjoyed some tremendous success on the occasion.

Since 2004, South Fremantle has played 33 night fixtures down at the port and won an impressive 23 of them. That record alone should be enough to suggest that the Bulldogs should look to play more night games at home particularly at this time of year when the weather is conducive to it.

Despite that impressive 23-10 record over the past eight seasons, South Fremantle and West Perth have played just four night games at Fremantle Oval on a Friday in history, and it's the visitors who have had the better of the battles.

West Perth first won at Fremantle Oval back in Round 6, 2002 by a solitary point and has since backed it up with a 36-point win in Round 1, 2004 and then by 26 points in Round 21, 2010.

The only loss to the Bulldogs came by 64 points in Round 16, 2010 when the Falcons managed just the three goals on that night.

However, that history shows that playing Friday night games at Fremantle Oval certainly holds no fears for West Perth.

A big factor behind West Perth's strong start to the season has been the health of the squad. Even though captain Jason Salecic goes out of the side to face the Bulldogs, Marc Crisp, Trent Manzone and Anton Saylor are all quality players desperate to try and replace him.

EAST PERTH (1-2, 7th) v CLAREMONT (2-0, 2nd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

East Perth and Claremont might have been predicted to both be premiership contenders this season, but the Royals now need to put in a strong performance at home to the Tigers on Saturday to avoid slipping to a 1-3 start under new coach Brian Dawson.

The Royals made minimal changes to their squad coming into the 2013 despite Dawson replacing Tony Micale as coach, and then Brendan Lee returning to the midfield to offset the loss of Nick Kommer to Essendon.

Then with the addition of some West Coast players through the new alignment, many expected East Perth to be a real premiership contender in 2013 but things haven’t gone to plan so far.

There was the Round 1 75-point thumping against West Perth and then after a scrappy win over Peel, the Royals went down last Good Friday by 15 points against Medibank Stadium co-tenant Subiaco to be 1-2 heading into Saturday's clash with Claremont.

Coming off the last two WAFL premierships and three straight reserves flags, depth has always been Claremont's strong suit even if the likes of Kane Mitchell, Tom Lee, Lewis Stevenson and Gerrick Weedon are among those premiership stars no longer at Tigerland.

It hasn’t slowed Claremont with the Tigers so far recording a 48-point win over South Fremantle and 61-point thumping of Swan Districts to open the 2013 campaign as they search for a rare premiership hat-trick.

East Perth could not afford to lose any defenders this week coming up against Claremont and the likes of Chad Jones, Anton Hamp, Jeremy McGovern, Ian Richardson and Paul Medhurst, but West Coast looks set to give Blayne Wilson a debut.

Small forward Shaquille McKenzie also loses his place in the side after a quiet start to the year with Arthur Bennell his likely replacement following five goals in the reserves last week against Subiaco.

Former captain and 157-game veteran Michael Swan returns for the Royals following a suspension and then appearance in the reserves last week. Jacob Payne, Ashley Boyes and Lewis Wilson are among those also pressing claims for selection.

Claremont loses dual premiership half-forward/midfielder Andrew Foster but Fremantle's Alex Silvagni returns for a possible defensive job on East Perth big man Josh Smith.

Dual premiership ruckman Mitch Andrews could also return to help Mark Seaby take on Paul Johnson and Scott Lycett with Jesse Laurie and Nic Chidgzey also in the mix for the Tigers.

EAST FREMANTLE (1-1, 4th) v SUBIACO (1-1, 5th) – EAST FREMANTLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Subiaco heads to East Fremantle Oval to take on the Sharks on Saturday with the confidence of the most remarkable recent winning run behind them.

The Lions might have won just 114 games from 338 games in history against the Sharks, but recent years has seen Subiaco completely dominate East Fremantle both at East Fremantle Oval and away from Shark Park.

Subiaco has won its last five games against East Fremantle but more significantly 25 of the last 26 meetings between the two sides since late 2002.

East Fremantle's only win in that period against Subiaco came in Round 21, 2010 when the Sharks prevailed by 11 points but Subiaco had won 20 straight before that and now five on the trot since.

Even more significant is Subiaco's dominance at East Fremantle Oval this century.

East Fremantle last beat Subiaco at home in Round 13, 2000 by just three points and since then the Lions have won all 14 clashes at Shark Park.

That is quite the history for East Fremantle to try and overcome this Saturday at East Fremantle Oval, but if the Sharks want to again be a premiership threat in 2013 after making last year's grand final then it is something they must overcome.

East Fremantle has started the season with a loss to Swan Districts and win over Peel with Subiaco beginning with a loss to West Perth before beating East Perth last week.

East Fremantle had 10 AFL-listed players in its side last week against Peel and will lose key defender Mitch Brown to West Coast this week.

Even though Brad Sheppard, Sam Menegola, Bradd Dalziell, Garrick Ibbotson, Cameron Sutcliffe and Jacob Brennan have all been named as outs, most will still line-up for the Sharks but former Docker Brock O'Brien won't.

West Coast star midfielder Daniel Kerr will come in for East Fremantle with Brad Cooper, Scott Jansen, Jayden Schofield, Scott Hancock, Mitch Boyle, Matthew Jupp and Rhys Cooyou pushing for selection as well.

Subiaco could lose ruckman/forward Callum Sinclair but with East Fremantle down a ruckman as well with Rob Young injured, it might not be as big a blow as it could be against other sides.

Kyle Halligan, Seva Martin, Simon Moore and Scott Worthington are all a chance to come in for the Lions.

SWAN DISTRICTS (1-1, 6th) v PERTH (2-0, 3rd) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Perth has been the surprise packet of the 2013 WAFL season to date winning its first two games and now will be looking to make it three against a Swan Districts side coming off a big loss to Claremont last Saturday.

Swan Districts did start its season off on a high with a tremendous performance at East Fremantle Oval to beat East Fremantle in Round 1, but then following the Round 2 bye struggled last week after quarter-time eventually losing to Claremont by 61 points.

Perth, on the other hand, was able to back up its Round 1 win at home against Peel with another 13-point victory last Saturday against South Fremantle also at Brownes Stadium to give the Demons a 2-0 start to their 2013 campaign.

Swan Districts loses West Coast's Andrew Embley from last week's side that lost to Claremont with the Eagles veteran set to return to the AFL after a solid run last week for the black-and-whites.

Back-up ruckman Nathan Blakely also goes out of the black-and-whites line-up with Travis Casserly and Dayle Garlett heading the list of inclusions.

Casserly is in line to play his first WAFL league game since the 2010 premiership win against Claremont.

The classy running defender missed the last two years through suspension, but has been solid the first two rounds in the reserves and could come in and strengthen Swans' forward-line, and potentially be given the job of trying to stop one of Paul Bevan, Kyle Reimers and Simon Donovan.

That trio kicked 13 of Perth's 16 goals last week against South Fremantle.

The other important inclusion at Swan Districts is the supremely talented Garlett.

While his off-field antics might have stopped him being drafted into the AFL despite his talent, there is no doubting what he can do on the field and that was highlighted with his 28 possessions, nine marks, eight inside 50s and three goals in the reserves against Claremont last week.

Lance Daly, Blain Boekhorst and Adam Faulkner are also pushing to be included in the Swans' team to take on the Demons.

Perth loses West Coast's Sam Butler who had 29 possessions last week against South Fremantle with exciting forward Brennan Stack set to return. Midfielder Julian Jacobs, defender David Johnston and ruckman Daniel Murray are also in the mix to return for the league side for the Demons.