WAFL Round 15 PreviewFriday, June 28, 2013 - 12:17 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 15 of the WAFL season sees a grand final rematch take place in Kununurra, West Perth, East Perth, Perth and Swan Districts continue to fight over three spots in the top-four and bottom sides South Fremantle and Peel trying to cause an upset.

All games are on Saturday afternoon as Claremont and East Fremantle meet in a rematch of last year's grand final in Kununurra with bounce down set for 1.45pm.

Then in the usual 2.05 time slot back in Perth, Swan Districts hosts West Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval, South Fremantle takes on Perth at Fremantle Oval and East Perth battles Peel Thunder at Leederville's Medibank Stadium.

The seventh-placed Subiaco has the bye following losses to Swan Districts and West Perth after a run of three straight victories.

SWAN DISTRICTS (6-5, 5th) v WEST PERTH (8-4, 2nd) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Swan Districts and West Perth are two of the form teams of the competition and both will be desperate to keep that winning form going at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval this Saturday.

Swans have now won three straight matches to have improved to a 6-5 record for the 2013 season to date to be knocking on the door of the top-four.

However, Saturday's clash at home now looms as a massive one for the black-and-whites because a loss would mean that West Perth moves three games and percentage clear of them in the second spot.

Both East Perth and Perth have opportunities against the WAFL's bottom two sides on Saturday to extend their gap over Swans as well.

That certainly raises the stakes even further for Swan Districts to continue its winning form on Saturday, but the second-placed West Perth is going to be far from easy to overcome.

The Falcons have now recorded hard fought wins over East Fremantle and Subiaco the last two weeks on the back of defeats against East Perth and Claremont to have now consolidated second spot on the ladder with a one game and percentage edge over the third-ranked Royals.

Both Swans and the Falcons head into Saturday's clash in winning form and needing to win to either try and push further up the ladder, or to maintain their position so that all adds up to what is sure to be a terrific contest at Steel Blue Oval.

Then there is the Round 7 clash between the two teams at Arena Joondalup where Swan Districts went from being behind early in the last quarter to catching fire with an amazing 15-minute stretch to end up winning by 28 points.

Swan Districts enters the clash in terrific form following wins over Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle the last three weeks and are still without No. 1 ruckman Wes Lammie but Rory Lobb and Tony Notte have been doing well carrying the load in his absence.

At this stage there are no outs for the clash against the Falcons at home where the black-and-whites try to make up for some poor form at Bassendean so far this year.

Swan Districts has won just one from five games at home in 2013 to date despite it generally being considered one of the toughest venues for opposition teams to try and win at.

Fremantle's Lachie Neale is back into the Swan Districts team with Nathan Broad and Graham Jetta also in the mix.

West Perth loses midfielder Mark Hutchings after he played for West Coast on Thursday night against Essendon with forward Matt Fowler going out of the line-up as well.

Veteran forward Anthony Tsalikis comes back in as a straight swap for Fowler in the Falcons team with James Batterham, Joe Morrow, Steve Potente and Frank Stockley all pushing for selection as well.

CLAREMONT (11-1, 1st) v EAST FREMANTLE (5-7, 6th) – KUNUNNURA, SATURDAY 1.45PM
Selected teams

Claremont and East Fremantle travel to Kununurra this Saturday in a grand final rematch from 2012 with the Tigers simply looking to maintain their run to a fourth straight minor premiership while the Sharks desperately need to win to stay in touch with the top-four.

Claremont had the bye last weekend following a Foxtel Cup victory over Queensland's Southport at Patersons Stadium and prior to that the Tigers bounced back from their first loss of the season to Subiaco to beat both West Perth and Peel in an impressive two performances.

That means that Claremont sits on an 11-1 record just past the halfway mark of the 2013 to be well on track for a fourth straight minor premiership with the Tigers having won two premierships and making a grand final in that time.

East Fremantle made last year's grand final and put in a spirited showing before eventually losing to Claremont.

However, things haven't gone to plan for the Sharks so far this season and in particular in recent times.

The Sharks were travelling reasonably well early on in the season winning four of their first six matches but since then things haven’t gone as smoothly.

East Fremantle lost a shoot out against West Perth by 23 points and then were outplayed by Claremont at Claremont Oval in Round 9 to lose by 42 points.

Following the State game break, East Fremantle then were smashed by South Fremantle in the Foundation Derby but rebounded with a solid 35-point victory over Peel.

However, losses since to West Perth and East Perth have left the Sharks on shaky ground in sixth position on the ladder and with just a 5-7 record.

Claremont loses Patrick McGinnity, Andrew Foster and Anton Hamp from the team that beat Peel Thunder two weeks ago before its Foxtel Cup victory over Southport four days later.

There are some handy inclusions, though, led by the returning Simpson Medallist Paul Medhurst as well as Fremantle's Alex Silvagni. Richard Cronin, Jack Richardson, Blake Anderson, Harrison Court and Hugo Breakey are also pressing for inclusions into the Tigers' line-up.

East Fremantle loses Fremantle's Max Duffy and West Coast's Brad Sheppard from the side that lost to East Perth last Saturday in a spirited contest.

Veteran pair Richard Hadley and Steven Dodd are important inclusions for the Sharks to take on the Tigers with Cameron Symonds, Jack Perham, Aidan Tropiano and Tom Hooker pressing for selection.

SOUTH FREMANTLE (2-10, 9th) v PERTH (6-5, 4th) – FREMANTLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Perth returned to the winner's list last week to consolidate fourth position on the ladder and the Demons head to Fremantle Oval to take on a South Fremantle team with plenty to play for despite sitting on the bottom of the WAFL ladder.

Perth started the 2013 season so impressively winning five of its first seven games the two losses against East Fremantle and Claremont by just a combined seven points.

However, since then the Demons went on a run of losing three straight games prior to last week's strong 50-point victory over Peel Thunder at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

That improved Perth's record to 6-5 for the Demons to keep holding off the chasing pack to remain in fourth position on the WAFL ladder.

South Fremantle's finals hopes might be long gone but the Bulldogs will not want to remain on the bottom of the ladder and will also want to win on Saturday to celebrate dual premiership defender Craig White's 150th match with the club.

The Bulldogs looked to be finding some form with a dominant 67-point Foundation Derby win over East Fremantle but they haven’t been able to back it up and they have lost decisively to Subiaco and Swan Districts since.

The two teams met earlier this season at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium with Perth winning a tight affair by just 13 points back in Round 3.

South Fremantle welcomes back Fremantle's Haiden Schloithe from a calf injury for his first game since Round 10 when he put together his best game of the season with 32 possessions against Claremont at Claremont Oval.

Captain Ryan Cook is also back after missing last week's loss to Swan Districts due to a family bereavement so instantly the Bulldogs midfield is greatly strengthened with the return of both Schloithe and Cook.

Tyler Hall has found some good form in the reserves including 19 disposals last week in the win over Swans while Brendan Verrier had another 30 touches to make a claim for his first league game of 2013 and Shannon Burnett could also be back after 23 possessions and six tackles in the reserves.

Jarrad Winter goes out of the South Fremantle team after playing every game of the season to date.

Perth returned to the winner's list last week with a win over Peel to maintain fourth spot but loses West Coast's Simon Tunbridge for the clash against South Fremantle after he made his AFL debut for the Eagles on Thursday night against Essendon at Patersons Stadium.

Versatile key position player Mark Deaves played his first game of the season last week in the league side and hasn’t been able to hold his spot to take on the Bulldogs.

There are some big names back for the Demons, though, with star forwards Brennan Stack and Kyle Reimers both back from a week off – Stack who was dropped to the reserves for discipline reasons and Reimers with a minor hamstring injury.

Prolific midfielder Julian Jacobs also comes back in after being dropped back to the reserves as well last week. Joel Leeson and Joel Houghton are both in the mix to play their first league games of 2013 as well.

EAST PERTH (7-5, 3rd) v PEEL THUNDER (3-9, 8th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

East Perth has found its best form of the season over the past month to consolidate third spot on the ladder and now will be looking to hand Peel a fourth straight loss at Medibank Stadium on Saturday.

The Royals had a rough start to the season in Brian Dawson's first year in charge as coach winning just one of their first four, and two of their first six matches.

But now East Perth has found some strong form with three straight wins over West Perth, Perth and East Fremantle to now improve to a 7-5 record on the season to be sitting solid in third position with the chance to continue to put pressure on second-placed West Perth with a win over Peel.

Peel also appeared to be finding form between Rounds 6 and 10 with three wins and two tight losses to Claremont and South Fremantle, but the Thunder have fallen away in recent weeks with losses to East Fremantle, Claremont and Perth.

While much of the focus could be on the fact that it's the battle of the two aligned WAFL clubs, but there won't be a huge amount of AFL-listed players out on Medibank Stadium come Saturday.

East Perth will have just Blayne Wilson, Cale Morton and Scott Lycett from West Coast and Peel will have Peter Faulks, Jesse Crichton and Alex Forster from Fremantle at this stage.

The two teams have already met twice this season with East Perth beating Peel at Leederville in Round 2 by 12 points and then Peel hit back in Mandurah to win by 18 points in Round 10.

East Perth loses its co-captain Craig Wulff for the clash with Peel with the 215-game midfielder set to miss his first game since he didn’t play in Round 12, 2010. That will break a run of 60 consecutive matches from the 30-year-old veteran.

West Coast's Jamie Cripps has also been suspended following last week's win for the Royals over East Fremantle so he's out of the team as well as is Eagles defender Will Schofield after he was a late call up for West Coast on Thursday night against Essendon at Patersons Stadium.

The Royals do have some key inclusions, though, led by West Coast defender Blayne Wilson and veteran forward Mat Seal who put in a strong performance last week in the reserves against East Fremantle with 23 possessions and three goals.

Big man Brock Higgins could also come back in for the Royals after 22 disposals and nine marks last week in the reserves while Arthur Bennell, Mitch Howlett and Rowan Brookes are also in the mix for a call up into the East Perth line-up.

Peel will again be without midfielder Tom Sheridan who has been called up by Fremantle as a replacement for Michael Barlow.

Dockers pair Viv Michie and Tanner Smith have also been named as outs by the Thunder at this stage, but they are only emergencies for Fremantle's clash with Geelong on Saturday night so could still line-up for Peel.

Brad Holmes is in line to return for Peel after spending last week in the reserves against Perth. He didn’t kick a goal but did have 16 possessions while Jordan Wythes and Reise Wilkey are in the mix for selection.

Fremantle defender Peter Faulks will also be back for Peel for his first game since Round 9 and his reward could very well be a job on East Perth spearhead Josh Smith or his former Thunder teammate Scott Lycett.