WAFL Round 18 PreviewFriday, July 19, 2013 - 1:53 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 18 of the 2013 WAFL season sees East Perth and Swan Districts battle over a top-four spot while West Perth and Perth try to consolidate their positions, and East Fremantle battles Subiaco to try and stay alive.

All four matches are on Saturday afternoon with bounce down set for 2.05pm with East Perth hosting Swan Districts at Leederville's Medibank Stadium, East Fremantle taking on Subiaco at East Fremantle Oval, West Perth and South Fremantle battling at Arena Joondalup and Peel Thunder takes on Perth at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

EAST PERTH (8-5, 5th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (8-6, 3rd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

East Perth and Swan Districts meet in a massive clash at Leederville's Medibank Stadium on Saturday with a top-four position up for grabs.

Providing Perth do as expected and beat Peel Thunder in Mandurah, then the winner out of the Royals-Swans clash will be in the top-four come Saturday night and the loser will be outside so there are massive repercussions riding on the result.

Due to percentage, East Perth would likely be just fourth if Perth beats Peel, but the Royals are an interesting case to see how they come out and play on Saturday after a double bye.

East Perth has now not played a game since beating Peel by 91 points back on June 29 so coach Brian Dawson will be hoping that break hasn’t halted his team's momentum.

East Perth was in outstanding form having won four straight matches to improve to an 8-5 record on the season and will be hoping that continues against an also in-form Swan Districts this Saturday.

Swans have now won two straight games and five of their last six to improve to an 8-6 record and it was a dominant performance last Saturday against ladder leaders Claremont where the black-and-whites ran out comfortable 39-point winners at Claremont Oval.

East Perth and Swan Districts have met just the once so far this season with the Royals prevailing by 20 points back in Round 9 at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

East Perth was in outstanding form prior to the two-week break it is now coming off and trying to continue that momentum to return to the top-four.

West Coast's Cale Morton goes out of the Royals team that beat Peel Thunder by 91 points way back in Round 15 after making his debut with the Eagles while his AFL teammate Blayne Wilson has been added to West Coast's extended squad for Sunday's clash with Sydney at Patersons Stadium.

There are some big inclusions for East Perth, though, led by returning co-captain Craig Wulff who missed the wins over East Fremantle and Peel prior to the two-week break.

Experienced defender Danny Chartres is also back into the East Perth line-up with Shaquille McKenzie and Rowan Brookes also returning to the squads with Callum Hart added as well and a chance to make his league debut.

Murray Newman goes out of the Swan Districts team after he walked out at quarter-time during last week's win over Claremont at Claremont Oval. He has since been granted compassionate leave by West Coast so won't be playing with Swan Districts at least in the short-term.

However, his absence creates the easy decision for coach Greg Harding to welcome back wingman Shaun Hildebrandt without the need to drop anyone from last week's team that did so well to beat the Tigers.

Blaine Boekhorst, Nathan Broad and Matthew Jukes all come into the squad for the black-and-whites as well after continued good form by the trio in the reserves.

EAST FREMANTLE (6-8, 6th) v SUBIACO (5-9, 7th) – EAST FREMANTLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

East Fremantle has dominated Subiaco this season despite a horror record against the Lions this century and will need to keep that going this Saturday to remain alive in the finals race.

The Sharks beat Subiaco just two weeks ago by 66 points at Leederville's Medibank Stadium to improve to a 6-8 record to stay in the race and now after a bye that included a Foxtel Cup semi-final win, they return to WAFL action to play the Lions again and need to keep winning.

East Fremantle virtually can't afford a slip up now in the run home with six wins in their last six matches taking them to just 12 wins which should get them into finals, but it's unlikely that 11 will.

Subiaco might be out of the finals race now having lost four straight matches coming off a run of three consecutive wins, but the Lions will desperately want to stop that slide and put a dent in East Fremantle's charge towards the finals.

Even though East Fremantle did record a 69-point win over Subiaco in Round 4 this season at East Fremantle Oval and again by 66 points at the Medibank Stadium a fortnight ago, the Lions have still dominated the Sharks this century.

The Lions might have won just 114 games from 340 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 25 of the last 28 meetings between the two sides since late 2002.

Prior to earlier this season, 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.

Highlighting the Lions' dominance over the Sharks the last decade, three of Subiaco's all-time highest scores kicked against East Fremantle have come in that time including the record score of 26.17 (173) in Round 22, 2006 at Medibank Stadium.

East Fremantle hasn’t played a WAFL game since beating Subiaco two weeks ago. The Sharks did beat Werribee to make the Foxtel Cup grand final in the process, but from the side that beat the Lions last time out both Max Duffy and Sean Henson go out of the line-up with hamstring injuries.

There are some big players back, though, for the Sharks highlighted by West Coast star midfielder Daniel Kerr. Kerr's Eagles teammate Brad Dick is also back for East Fremantle this week while Brad Cooper, Matthew Jupp and Cameron Symonds are also pressing to return.

Subiaco's quest to try and return to the winner's list with their outs won't be helped this week against the Sharks with key trio Callum Sinclair, Brad Stevenson and Jason Bristow out of the side. Kyle Halligan is the other player out of the side for the Lions.

While the Lions have some big outs, there are also some key players returning led by Andrew McDougall, Antoni Grover, Joey Daye and Brett Mahoney.

Will Fetherstonehaugh, Michael Genovese and Rhett Kerr have also been in good form in the reserves to put themselves in the mix to come in and take on the Sharks this week.

WEST PERTH (10-4, 2nd) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (2-12, 9th) – ARENA JOONDALUP, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

West Perth and South Fremantle will meet for the first of what will become an annual Garlic Munchers Cup at Arena Joondalup this Saturday while the Falcons try to maintain second spot on the ladder and the Bulldogs look to fight their way off the bottom.

The Falcons and Bulldogs will honour their players of southern European heritage with the introduction of the Garlic Munchers Cup and in recognition of that, both teams have named their Garlic Munchers' all-time best teams.

West Perth's line-up includes Don Marinko junior and senior, Ray Marinko, George Michalczyk, Geoff Hendricks, Paul Mifka, Bill Valli, Ray Boyanich, John Gastev, Dennis Cometti, Joe Fanchi and current captain Jason Salecic. Peter Menaglio is the captain.

South Fremantle's Garlic Munchers team includes Stan Magro, Tom Grljusich, Jon Dorotich, Glen Jakovich, Darren Gaspar, Peter Matera, John Gerovich, Scott Watters, Wally Matera, Peter Sumich, Phil Matera, Paul Vasoli, Allen Jakovich and Brian Ciccotosto is the captain with Tony Micale the coach.

Both West Perth and South Fremantle had the bye last weekend so have had similar preparations for Saturday's clash at Arena Joondalup.

West Perth remains in second position on the WAFL ladder with a 10-4 record to be two games clear of the chasing Swan Districts, Perth and East Perth.

Prior to the bye last weekend, the Falcons had won four straight matches and will need to keep winning to make sure second spot on the ladder remains theirs and that crucial double chance come finals time.

Even though South Fremantle has won just the two games this season, the Bulldogs have been in winning positions in most of their losses including the last two before the bye and the first meeting with West Perth this season.

The Bulldogs only lost to the Falcons by three points under lights at Fremantle Oval back in Round 4 and then prior to the bye were in winning positions during the last quarter against top-four teams Perth and Claremont, but narrowly went down on both occasions by 10 and four points respectively.

South Fremantle also has an outstanding record at Arena Joondalup both in history and recently.

The Bulldogs have won their last two trips to Joondalup winning last year by nine points and by 25 back in 2011. While West Perth did win three straight games at home before that, even prior to that South Fremantle won on five straight trips to Joondalup between 2005 and 2008.

Overall since West Perth made the move north, South Fremantle has won 13 of 21 matches played against the Falcons at Arena Joondalup.

West Perth welcomes back Jordan Jones, Nick Rodda and Jason Salecic from the team that beat Peel Thunder a fortnight ago in Mandurah with Frank Stockley also a chance to come in to provide a back-up ruck option to Chris Keunen and also offer another tall forward target.

Joe Morrow slips out of the Falcons' line-up largely due to Jones returning and the similar role and position that they play.

While Ray Bartholomew, Laine Rasmussen and Matt Johnson won't immediately come back into the Falcons' league side this week, the trio should line up in the reserves on the comeback trail from injuries.

Adam Carter goes out of the South Fremantle team that narrowly went down to Claremont a fortnight ago after making his AFL debut last week for West Coast in the western derby against Fremantle. Alex Grima is also out of the South Fremantle line-up.

However, the Bulldogs have some key players returning led by last year's Bernie Naylor Medal winner as the WAFL's leading goalkicker Ben Saunders.

He has played just two games this season due to two fractures to his collarbone, but kicked five goals in those and will be a big addition this week for South Fremantle to provide that spearhead target in the forward-line.

Star ruckman Sean Tighe also returns after being a late withdrawal a fortnight ago against Claremont with Jarrad Winter, Reece Adams and Warrick Andreoli also coming back into the South Fremantle squad after good form in the reserves two weeks ago prior to last week's bye.

PEEL THUNDER (3-11, 8th) v PERTH (8-6, 4th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Peel Thunder has been a vastly more competitive team at home this season and hosts a Perth team this Saturday who needs to keep winning to remain inside the top-four.

Perth returned to the top-four last week with a 26-point win over Subiaco at Lathlain's Brownes Stadium and have been there all season to date bar one week, but the Demons do face quite the fight to stay there come the end of the season to play finals for the first time since 1997.

A loss for Perth on Saturday against Peel will see the Demons fall outside of the top-four again if East Perth is able to beat Swan Districts at Leederville's Medibank Stadium so it's a big game for the black-and-reds.

However, Peel has been a good team at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Mandurah this season including a narrow 16-point loss to West Perth a fortnight ago prior to last weekend's bye.

Peel's three wins in 2013 so far have come at home against Swan Districts in Round 6, Subiaco in Round 8 and East Perth in Round 10.

They have also been competitive in relatively narrow losses to East Fremantle, Claremont and West Perth. The only big loss in Mandurah came in Round 14 against Perth in Round 14 when the Demons prevailed by 50 points.

Jack Hannath, Jesse Crichton and Matt Taberner all played for Peel two weeks ago against West Perth and have been added to Fremantle's extended squad to take on Richmond at the MCG on Sunday.

However, it's unlikely that all three of them will line up for the Dockers so there is a chance that the Thunder will still run out with at least one of them come Saturday at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Another Docker Tanner Smith did play two weeks ago as well but injured a shoulder early in the contest against the Falcons and he goes out of the side.

Matt Brown injured a hamstring against West Perth as well so he is out for the Thunder as is Blair Bell who made his league debut a fortnight ago.

That opens the door for mass changes at Peel as well with Kristin Thornton heading the list of inclusions that includes Jesse Hockings, Aiden Field, Liam McKenna, Kyle Westwood, Corey Morris, Jordan Wythes and Josh Mathers all pressing to come in for the Thunder.

Perth has three key inclusions for the clash with Peel with ruckman Mitchell Lleyendekkers coming back into the side to face his former team while West Coast Eagles pair Sam Butler and Simon Tunbridge further strengthen the Demons' line-up.

Matthew Hunt, Callum Collard and former Peel defender David Johnston are the three players going out for Perth from the team that beat Subiaco last Saturday.