WAFL Round 7 Saturday PreviewThursday, April 25, 2013 - 8:00 AM - by Chris Pike

PEEL faces a big ask in the only WAFL game on Saturday afternoon to finish off Round 7 action against the unbeaten two-time reigning premiers Claremont, but the Thunder are coming off their first win of the season and are at home at Bendigo Bank Stadium. 

Claremont has won the last two WAFL premierships and is yet to lose this season after so far beating South Fremantle, Swan Districts, East Perth, Subiaco and West Perth to remain on top of the ladder.

Peel was competitive in the early rounds but lost to Perth, East Perth, East Fremantle and West Perth but last Sunday at home in the wet the Thunder put in a tremendous performance to beat Swan Districts by 14 points.

While generally Peel has been a better side in recent years at home in Mandurah, its last two wins against Claremont have come at Claremont Oval – by 14 points in Round 11 last year and by four points in Round 7, 2009.

In between that, Claremont has beaten Peel nine out of the last 10 times with a massive average winning margin of 79 points but that is boosted significantly by the 194-point win back in 2010.

Just three weeks ago Peel had three Fremantle-listed ruckmen at its disposal with Zac Clarke, Jack Hannath and Craig Moller, but now on Saturday against Claremont the Thunder have none with Clarke and Moller out injured, and Hannath called up for his AFL debut against Richmond.

That means that coach Cam Shepherd has had to turn to Kyle Westwood to carry the load in the ruck and go up against AFL and WAFL premiership ruckman Mark Seaby and his partner in crime, dual Claremont premiership ruckman Mitch Andrews.

Defender Chris Luff is also a chance to come into the Peel side with the job of matching up on one of Claremont's dangerous forwards with Brennan Gillam, Ryan Mulgrave and Mitch Green also making a case to come into the side.

Claremont loses dual premiership pair Trinity Handley and Jesse Laurie after last week's win in the top-of-the-table clash over West Perth, but have some more than handy inclusions.

Captain Andrew Browne is back after missing the last couple of games with experienced dual premiership pair Andrew Foster and Byron Schammer also back. Richard Cronin and Matthew Goyder are also making a case to coach Marc Webb for inclusion.

PEEL THUNDER (1-4, 8th) v CLAREMONT (5-0, 1st) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams