WAFL Round 13 PreviewThursday, June 13, 2013 - 4:00 PM - by Chris Pike

THE four WAFL games in Round 13 action are spread over Saturday and Sunday this weekend with each of them having big implications for teams trying to hold onto spots in the top-four and to break into it.

The two games on Saturday afternoon sees Subiaco and Swan Districts do battle at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and then top-of-the-table Claremont takes on eight-placed Peel Thunder at Claremont Oval.

There are then two massive matches on Sunday with fourth-placed East Fremantle hosting second-placed West Perth at East Fremantle Oval and then third-placed Perth taking on sixth-placed East Perth at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium.

Bottom-of-the-table South Fremantle has the bye.

SUBIACO (5-5, 5th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (4-5, 7th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Subiaco started to turn its season around with a win over Swan Districts only back in Round 10 and now the Lions and Swans meet again this Saturday at Leederville's Medibank Stadium.

Subiaco finished the stronger that day at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval to win by 13 points and begin a run of three straight wins that has seen them down Claremont and South Fremantle.

That has seen the Lions suddenly go from languishing near the bottom of the table after losses to Peel and Perth in Rounds 8 and 9 to suddenly sit on a 5-5 record to be only percentage out of third spot and just a game and percentage out of second.

Swans had also lost to East Perth at home the previous week to dropping the Round 10 clash against Subiaco, and then when trailing most of the day against Perth in Round 11 the black-and-whites' season was potentially in jeopardy.

However, with Dayle Garlett and Brett Robinson leading the way in particular, Swans put on a tremendous finish to win that game by four points and improve to a 4-5 record to be right in the hunt for a top-four spot as well before the bye last weekend.

Subiaco has now won three straight games to be in some terrific form and as a result coach Jarrod Schofield is finding no reason to change his side around.

At this stage, there are no outs from the line-up that beat South Fremantle by 53 points last Saturday with Rhett Kerr, Abe Davey and Ryan Herring in the mix for a recall.

Kerr racked up 33 possessions in Subiaco's reserves win over South Fremantle last Saturday with Herring booting four goals to put themselves in the reckoning while Davey is back from injury.

Antoni Grover will need at least one more game back in the reserves for Subiaco after an impressive 18 possessions, nine marks and three goals last week against the Bulldogs for the former 202-game Fremantle defender.

Swan Districts has had a fortnight to recover from a thrilling win over Perth in a terrific contest at Brownes Stadium, but have three important outs leading into the clash with Subiaco on Saturday at Leederville.

Ruckman Wes Lammie has virtually carried Swans' ruck division on his own the last two years but is out of the team as is premiership and state defender Graham Jetta. Impressive youngster Jesse Manton is the other out of the side at this stage.

However, there are some impressive ins led by captain Tallan Ames, West Coast pair Murray Newman and Jamie Bennell, and Fremantle's Lachie Neale who racked up 43 possessions last week in the reserves for Peel with Swans having the bye.

Rory Lobb and Nathan Blakely could both come into the side to share the ruck duties for the black-and-whites in the absence of Lammie.

CLAREMONT (10-1, 1st) v PEEL THUNDER (3-7, 8th) – CLAREMONT OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Claremont might have beaten Peel last time the two sides met back in Round 7 in Mandurah, but the fact that the Thunder were impressive that day and have continued to improve before a hiccup last week should mean that Saturday's game isn’t a clear cut Tigers victory.

Peel pushed Claremont all the way at Bendigo Bank Stadium back in Round 7 before the Tigers held on to win by 17 points in one of the more high-quality games of the 2013 WAFL season to date.

Claremont did drop a game to Subiaco in Round 11, but bounced back last Saturday beating West Perth by 21 points at Arena Joondalup to now sit on a 10-1 record four wins clear of second place to already have gone a long way to securing a fourth consecutive minor premiership.

However, Peel did win games over Subiaco and East Perth following that narrow loss to Claremont to be building some encouraging form before a last quarter fadeout last Saturday led to a 35-point loss to East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval.

Peel does have confidence of the memory from Round 11 last year when the Thunder recorded a terrific 14-point win over Claremont at Claremont Oval as well so heading to Tigerland shouldn’t hold any fears for the boys from Mandurah.

Claremont has lost Paul Medhurst with a rib injury for the next month with premiership defender Aaron Holt also out of the Tigers' side to face Peel on Saturday.

Small forward Liam Smith is the likely replacement to come into the team for Medhurst with Richard Cronin, Matthew Goyder, Jared Hardisty and Keegan Knott all in the mix to play after some strong reserves form.

Big man Jeremy McGovern is set to have another week in the reserves after returning last week against West Perth with 12 disposals, six marks and two goals.

Peel Thunder has named Fremantle pair Tom Sheridan and Matt Taberner as outs after both were terrific against East Fremantle last Saturday, but both have only been named as emergencies for the Dockers making them likely starters for Peel still against Claremont.

Liam McKenna racked up 40 possessions for Peel in the reserves last week and as a result could return to the Thunder line-up against the Tigers with Corey Morris, James Bristow, Jordan Wythes and Jesse Hocking all pressing their case to come into the league side as well.

EAST FREMANTLE (5-5, 4th) v WEST PERTH (6-4, 2nd) – EAST FREMANTLE OVAL, SUNDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Second spot on the ladder could potentially go on the line on Sunday when East Fremantle does battle with West Perth at East Fremantle Oval for the second time in six weeks.

West Perth remains in second position on the WAFL ladder with a 6-4 record but is only just clinging to that spot following defeats the last fortnight to East Perth and Claremont following a strong 36-point win over Perth in Round 10 that saw the Falcons move clear in second spot.

The Falcons now sit just a game clear of the chasing Perth, East Fremantle, Subiaco and East Perth so spots on the ladder from second right down to eighth are remarkably even making every game against one another incredibly important.

That is certainly the case with Sunday's clash at Shark Park. East Fremantle bounced back well last Saturday beating Peel by 35 points at home following a horror Foundation Derby performance against South Fremantle.

That win improved last year's grand finalists to a 5-5 record to have the chance to move up into second spot with a win over West Perth on Sunday, or to potentially drop as low as sixth with a loss.

The last time the two teams met at East Fremantle Oval as well in Round 8 was an incredible battle of sharp kicking on goal with West Perth booting 24.8 to beat the Sharks who kicked 21.3 in what was East Fremantle's most accurate goal kicking performance in the club's history.

East Fremantle is swapping some youth for youth with its side to take on the Falcons on Sunday from the one that beat Peel Thunder last Saturday.

Young small forward Godfrey Curley and impressive defender Matthew Jupp go out of the team with running midfielder/half-forward James Depane a chance to return along with a couple of potential debutants to come in.

Jordan Dorotich, the son of former Carlton and South Fremantle great Jon, could play his first game with East Fremantle while Sam Read could also make his official WAFL debut after playing in the Sharks' Foxtel Cup win over Norwood in Adelaide earlier this season

West Perth has some massive outs with wingman Ray Bartholomew out with a calf strain he suffered early in last week's eventual loss to Claremont at Arena Joondalup.

Veteran forward Anthony Tsalikis has been in some of the best form of his career so far this season as a hard leading half-forward, but he is also out of the side to take on the Sharks this Sunday due to work commitments.

One of last week's inclusions James Batterham is also out of the team.

Rohan Kerr (thigh) and Kody Manning (knee) are both pressing to make their return from injury but will still face fitness tests leading into the clash on Sunday to determine their availability.

Ruckman Chris Keunen is an important inclusion after being a late withdrawal last week against Claremont when he went down with a migraine during the warm-up meaning Frank Stockley had to be pulled out of the reserves to help carry the ruck alongside debutant Shaun Marusic.

Matt Fowler could be the most likely inclusion to replace Tsalikis after kicking bags of five goals three straight weeks in the reserves. Brayden Antonio has been in impressive reserves form this season for West Perth and the 18-year-old could make his first league appearance of the season.

Kris Shannon is also pushing for inclusion as is small defender Laine Rasmussen after racking up 30 possessions and laying six tackles in the Falcons reserves last Saturday against Claremont.

PERTH (5-4, 3rd) v EAST PERTH (5-5, 6th) – BROWNES STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.10PM

Selected teams

Perth and East Perth are two more teams battling over a spot in the top-four as well making Sunday's clash at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium another massive one.

Perth has had a tremendous start to the 2013 season playing a disciplined and well-drilled game style, but after winning five of its first seven games, the Demons have now dropped three of their last four.

The Demons now sit on just a 5-4 record in third position on the ladder but it could potentially be so much better had it not been for a two-point loss to East Fremantle, five-point defeat at the hands of Claremont and then most recently a four-point loss to Swan Districts.

That loss to Swans a fortnight ago came after Perth controlled the majority of the contest. A win could have seen sit in second spot or only in third on percentage, but now the Demons need to beat East Perth on Saturday or face the prospect of slipping to as low as sixth position.

East Perth had a slow start to the season losing three of its first four games under new coach Brian Dawson, but has now won three of its last four, and four of its last six following an impressive final quarter to set up a Foundation (WA) Day derby win over West Perth.

The Royals had the bye last week following that performance and have improved to a 5-5 record and will likely move up into the top-four with a win over Perth on Saturday.

Perth loses Hawthorn premiership midfielder Chance Bateman to suspension after a clash with Kyle Hams in the very last second of the Demons' loss to Swan Districts a fortnight ago before the bye last weekend.

Important midfielders Michael Florio and Alistair Smith are both right to return, though, to face the Royals while key defender Nick Kane could be back to face his former side after a couple of matches back in the reserves following a hamstring injury.

Matthew Hunt and Michael Mather are also pushing for selection for Perth as is Kieran Hug who laid a massive 20 tackles to go with collecting 21 possessions in the reserves a fortnight ago against Swan Districts just a week after making his league debut against West Perth.

East Perth stormed home to beat West Perth back in the Foundation (WA) Day derby, but lost damaging left-footer Garry Moss for the season to a knee injury along the way with West Coast's Cale Morton also hurting a hamstring.

Defender Blayne Wilson has likely been East Perth's best defender this season and earned his AFL debut with West Coast as a result so is out of the Royals side to take on the Demons.

His loss is offset by the man he is battling with a spot for in the Eagles side Will Schofield while Rowan Brookes, Ryan Maldenis, Danny Chartres, Brock Higgins and Shaquille McKenzie are all in the mix for a recall at the Royals.

Mitch Howlett has been impressive in the reserves and strung some strong games together, and is a chance to receive his chance to debut for East Perth as well.