WAFL Preliminary Final PreviewFriday, September 13, 2013 - 11:01 AM - by Chris Pike

CLAREMONT and East Perth have one last chance to enter the WAFL grand final for 2013 when the Tigers host the Royals in Sunday's preliminary final at Claremont Oval.

West Perth is already into the grand final awaiting the winner of the Claremont and East Perth clash at Claremont Oval on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the colts preliminary final will start the day at Tigerland with Claremont taking on Subiaco for the right to face South Fremantle in the grand final.

And in the reserves, South Fremantle is already in the grand final awaiting the winner of Sunday's clash between Perth and West Perth.

LEAGUE: CLAREMONT V EAST PERTH – CLAREMONT OVAL, SUNDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams

Claremont and East Perth have taken very different paths to Sunday's preliminary final, have very different recent grand final histories and have not faced one another in a final of any type since the 2003 first semi-final.

Claremont lost its first ever final at Claremont Oval last Sunday when West Perth advanced to the grand final at the Tigers' expense, with Claremont also losing their first second semi-final since 2004.

The Tigers had beaten Subiaco in 2007, Swan Districts in 2010, West Perth in 2011 and Swan Districts in 2012 in their previous four second semi-final appearances, all held at Claremont Oval.

However, East Perth comes into the preliminary final in winning form having beaten Swan Districts by 28 points in last Sunday's first semi-final.

East Perth has not played in a WAFL grand final since 2002, the last of a premiership hat-trick, so is trying to break that drought by winning Sunday's preliminary final against a Claremont team that is far from a stranger to grand final day over the last decade.

Claremont has played in grand finals in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 since East Perth's last appearance on the big day with the Tigers losing the first four of those, and winning the last two.

Only one Tigers player has taken part in each one of those, David Crawford, and the forward-turned-defender just happens to play his 200th WAFL game in Sunday's preliminary final after he began his career in 2002.

Meanwhile it has been slim pickings for East Perth since 2002. The Royals have only won three finals in that time, first semi-finals in 2003, 2010 and last week, and not advanced past a preliminary final which they have reached twice previously before this year.

Finals in history between Claremont and East Perth have been far from common occurrences as well.

The last was the 2003 first semi-final that was won by East Perth by 29 points and prior to that the 2001 second semi which was also won by the Royals by 72 points.

There has only ever been one previous preliminary final between the Tigers and Royals, and that was way back in 1939 when Claremont prevailed by six points.

The last time the two met in a grand final was 1996 in a classic when Claremont won in a controversial finish by just two points.

All in all, Claremont and East Perth have met in only 11 finals in history heading into this Sunday's preliminary final which will be the first between the two teams ever at Claremont Oval. It's actually the first final played between the Tigers and Royals not at Subiaco Oval.

This Sunday's teams have a vast difference in terms of grand final and premiership experience as well.

Claremont will have nine dual premiership players from the last two years and another four who played in one of triumphs in 2011 and 2012.

East Perth, on the other hand, does not have a single player in its line-up who has previously played in a WAFL grand final let alone having won a premiership.

However, the Royals do have an AFL premiership player with West Coast from 2006, Adam Selwood, and a triple-premiership winning forward from VFL club North Ballarat, Josh Smith, so they aren’t a team totally foreign to tasting success.

Claremont's midfield of Jake Murphy, Luke Blackwell, Andrew Foster, Ryan Neates and Trinity Handley will also have an enthralling duel with East Perth's Brendan Lee, Craig Wulff, Mat Seal, Jamie Cripps, Selwood and Freddie Clutterbuck.

Both teams have strong forward-lines as well with Claremont led by Chad Jones, Ian Richardson, Paul Medhurst, Anton Hamp and Jack Bradshaw, and East Perth by Smith, Scott Lycett, Michael Swan, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Dean Cadwallader and Arthur Bennell.

Big changes from last week's teams won't be the order of the day either with Claremont likely to make just the one change with captain Andrew Browne returning to replace Nick Winmar while East Perth is likely to go in with the same line-up which beat Swan Districts.

RESERVES: PERTH V WEST PERTH – CLAREMONT OVAL, SUNDAY 11.35AM
Selected teams

Perth finished the reserves season as the minor premiers but now is facing the prospect of being eliminated in straight-sets against a West Perth side that has been in hot form in the second half of the season.

Both teams have plenty of league-calibre players in their line-ups as well meaning that it is sure to be a high-quality reserves preliminary final.

Perth's reserves finished on top of the ladder with a 13-7 record, the same as South Fremantle and East Perth, but took top spot thanks to a superior percentage. West Perth was a game further back and finished fourth at 12-8.

Perth might have lost its first game of 2013 to Peel, but the Demons then went on a six-game winning run before West Perth beat them by 10 points in Round 10 at Arena Joondalup.

The Demons went on to win three more straight after that before coming up short against grand finalists South Fremantle in Round 15.

Another three-game winning run followed but Perth came into the finals having lost four of its last five games including another loss to West Perth in Round 21 and a thumping 91-point defeat at the hands of South Fremantle in the final round.

Perth then fought back hard in the last quarter of last Sunday's second semi-final, but ended up falling five points short of South Fremantle to now need to advance to the grand final the hard way.

Perth's form might have dropped off in the second half of the year, but West Perth's has done the opposite.

The Falcons lost their first three games and six of their first seven to be struggling on a 1-6 record after Round 8.

Things began to click with the win over Perth in Round 10 though. The Falcons then didn’t lose a game for the rest of the season after losing to Swan Districts in Round 15.

West Perth finished the season with wins over Peel, South Fremantle, East Perth, Peel, Perth, East Fremantle and Swan Districts heading into the first semi-final derby with East Perth last Sunday at Claremont Oval.

West Perth had to come from behind against East Perth, but the Falcons booted five goals to three in the final quarter to beat the Royals by nine points and advance to the preliminary final.

Joel Leeson, Brad Fry, Joel Houghton, Kieran Hug, Matthew Hunt, Jarrad Irons, David Johnston, Joel Kalajzic, Mitchell Lleyendekkers, Michael Mather, Kane Ransted and Reese Richardson have all shown good abilities for Perth at league level and will line-up on Sunday.

West Perth isn’t short on talent, though, with plenty of eyes on league vice-captain and 104-game defender Luke Tedesco who returns from a calf injury desperate to put in a strong showing to put his name up for selection in the Falcons' league grand final next week.

Brayden Antonio, James Batterham, Matt Johnson, Ben McNamara, Luke Meadows, Joe Morrow, Kris Shannon and Frank Stockley will also play for the Falcons on Sunday having played in the West Perth league side during 2013.

COLTS: CLAREMONT V SUBIACO – CLAREMONT OVAL, SUNDAY 9.05AM
Selected teams

Subiaco might have won six games fewer than Claremont during the home and away season of the 2013 colts campaign, but the Lions have good reason to head into Sunday's preliminary final confident of an upset at Claremont Oval.

Claremont finished the season as minor premiers with an imposing 18-2 record and massive percentage of over 180, but the Tigers came up short last Sunday at home against the two-time defending premiers South Fremantle.

The Bulldogs are now through to the 2013 grand final on the hunt for a third successive colts premiership awaiting the winner of this Sunday's preliminary final clash between the Tigers and Lions.

Subiaco just managed to secure fourth position in the final round of the season setting up a first semi-final last Sunday against Perth at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

The Lions then turned on an unbelievable first quarter against the Demons kicking nine goals to nil to set up the eventual 52-point victory.

If Subiaco is able to replicate anything close to that form on Sunday, then the Tigers could be in very real jeopardy of going out in straight sets after a dominant home and away season.

Claremont, though, lost just twice the whole of the season with the first defeat coming at the hands of Peel Thunder by 23 points in Round 13 and then against South Fremantle by 51 points in Round 16.

The Tigers then finished the home and away season with six straight wins before losing to South Fremantle by 23 points in last Sunday's second semi-final.

Subiaco and Claremont met three times during the season with the Tigers winning on all three occasions – by 59 points in Round 5, 46 in Round 11 and 28 in Round 19.