WAFL v VFL State Game PreviewThursday, May 9, 2013 - 4:00 PM - by Chris Pike

WESTERN Australia and Victoria are gearing up for Saturday's State game in Northam with the WAFL representative side looking to beat the VFL and give the Black Swans a first win over the Big V since 1991.

History isn’t exactly on WA's side against Victoria with the Big V having won 63 of the 80 clashes between 1904-2010.

WA's last victory over Victoria came in a State of Origin clash at the WACA Ground in 1991 and beating the Big V remains the one last accomplishment for the WAFL representative side to cross off having beaten South Australia at Medibank Stadium in 2009.

The last three meetings in 2004, 2007 and 2010 between the WAFL and VFL have decidedly gone in Victoria's favour as well with an 11-point win at Leederville in 2004, 119-point hammering at Port Melbourne's TEAC Oval in 2007 and a 55-point win again at Leederville Oval in 2010.

The WA squad is without some key players through injury and most notably star key forward from East Perth Josh Smith with a calf strain.

Claremont pair Luke Blackwell and Trinity Handley would have been other key players, but Marc Webb and his coaching staff will be confident in the squad they have assembled to take on the Victorians.

The absence of Smith created the biggest quandary and rather than go for the option of pushing last year's Simpson Medal winner against South Australia Paul Johnson forward and have another ruckman do the bulk of the work, the selectors have gone a different route.

South Fremantle's Sean Tighe has carried his team's ruck the whole season and done a strong job, but he was left out of the squad in favour of Subiaco's Clancy Wheeler's who pinch-hits with the Lions both as a ruckman and key forward, so he will likely line-up alongside Tim Geappen as the key forwards on Saturday.

While the tall forward options might not be WA's strengths, the small and mid-sized ones are all in good form led by Perth pair Paul Bevan and Brennan Stack and 2008 Simpson Medal winner Ian Richardson while West Perth's Rohan Kerr, Subiaco's Brett Mahoney, Claremont's Ryan Neates and Peel's Marlon Motlop are dangerous around the goals as well.

Johnson will have a big task carrying the ruck basically on his own with Tighe being left out of the squad and will be called upon to give his midfielders first use of the ball.

The WA midfield is a strong group consisting of inside players like Craig Wulff, Brendan Lee, Jake Murphy and Jay van Berlo with runners alongside them like Aaron Black, Rory O'Brien, Motlop, Mahoney, Wayde Twomey and Jarrod Kayler-Thomson.

The back-line will be anchored by Swan Districts captain Tallan Ames along with dual Claremont premiership player David Crawford, former Carlton player Paul Bower and Fremantle Docker Steven Dodd. Kyle Hams, Andrew Stephen and Andrew Strijk will also likely spend time back there.

The VFL team will also be without some familiar faces from its original squad including Cameron Wood, Ben Jolley, Wayde Skipper and Troy Selwood while this week former Melbourne utility Matthew Bate was also one of the final cuts from the team.

Only four players from Victoria's huge win over Tasmania – Chris Cain, Ben Ross, Sam Pleming and Myles Sewell are backing up again this year.

However, the VFL has had success in terms of providing draftees from recent State games with six players picked up from each of their teams the last two years, and again it has been a focus by coach Gary Ayres to pick some experience but also plenty of youth to showcase their talents against WA.

The average age of the VFL squad is just 24 with 14 players who are aged 24 and under.

It's a strong group, though, with seven former AFL-listed players, three Liston Trophy winners and two current VFL captains. Dom Gleeson from Geelong will captain the team that is coached by Gary Ayres.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA (WAFL) v VICTORIA (VFL) – HENRY STREET OVAL, NORTHAM, SATURDAY 12.10PM

Live radio coverage of the state game will be broadcast by SportFM 91.3 and RadioWest Northam 864 AM. ABC TV from 2pm (WST)

Live Stats: http://www.wafl.com.au/games/view/9700

WAFL SQUAD

Tallan Ames, Paul Bevan, Aaron Black, Paul Bower, David Crawford, Steven Dodd, Tim Geappen, Kyle Hams, Paul Johnson (C), Jarrod Kayler-Thomson, Rohan Kerr, Brendan Lee, Brett Mahoney, Marlon Motlop, Jake Murphy, Ryan Neates, Rory O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Brennan Stack, Andrew Stephen, Andrew Strijk, Wayde Twomey, Jay van Berlo, Craig Wulff.

VFL SQUAD

Chris Cain, Stephen Clifton, Adam Cockie, Lachlan George, Dom Gleeson (C), Riley Heddles, Kane Lambert, Sam Lloyd, Michael Lourey, Marcus Marigliani, Chris Michaliades, David Mirra, Evan Panozza, Sam Pleming, Ben Ross, Josh Scipione, Myles Sewell, Scott Sherlock, Michael Sikora, Scott Simpson, Ben Warren, Willie Wheeler, Jake Wilson.