West Perth v Western Storm Foxtel Cup PreviewTuesday, June 24, 2014 - 2:01 AM - by Chris Pike

THE first of two Tuesday night Foxtel Cup semi-finals at Patersons Stadium takes place this week with West Perth looking to set up the very real possibility of an all-WAFL grand final by taking on Tasmania's Western Storm.

The Falcons host the Storm on Tuesday night at Patersons Stadium with the winner to advance to the grand final and face the winner of next week's clash between East Perth and Williamstown.

The game will be shown live on Fox Footy but all supporters are encouraged to come down to Patersons Stadium.

The game begins at 6.30pm with entry free to the stadium from 6pm. The general public can gain access through Gate 26 with the two tier stand open for public seating – blocks 103 to 113, 207 to 213 and 303 to 313.

The game might not have four premiership WAFL points on the line for West Perth, but there is plenty riding on the result. A victory for the Falcons will see them qualify for the Tuesday July 22 grand final.

That means that West Perth would earn at least $40,000 in prizemoney just for qualifying for the grand final and potentially $100,000 if they are then able to go on and win it.

West Perth qualified for the Foxtel Cup semi-final by beating the VFL's Box Hill Hawks at Etihad Stadium in a thriller by a point back on May 6 while the Western Storm also won a nail-biter against the SANFL's West Adelaide by four points at Adelaide Oval on April 29 to advance.

It is the Storm's first season in existence in the Tasmanian State Football League after they replaced last year's premiers and the now defunct South Launceston.

West Perth currently sits in fifth position on the WAFL ladder with a 5-6 record to be three matches currently outside of the top-four while the Western Storm currently sit in second position in the TSFL with an 8-2 record.

This year is the second time that West Perth has participated in the Foxtel Cup with the last time being in 2012 when the Falcons beat Ainslie at Blacktown in Sydney before going down to Williamstown while making history as the first WAFL club to ever play on the MCG.

West Perth coach Bill Monaghan is looking forward to the chance to try and guide his team to another grand final.

"It's a strange concept in a way and it's not being parallel to the season that you are performing in, but the money side of it and the exposure on a national stage are the most important things about it," Monaghan said.

"Any time you play in a competition you want to win so if it's a grand final and there is something in that then that's good, but that grand final clearly won't be at a standard of what you would play in your regular competition. It gives exposure for our kids to a different form of pressure and circumstances though."

West Perth's team does include seven WAFL premiership players from last year's grand final victory over East Perth with another two in Aaron Black and Nick Rodda named as emergencies.

Aidan Lynch, Mitch McPhee, Ben King and Corey Chalmers come into the West Perth line-up and will make their senior debuts while Luke Tedesco and Marcus Adams are unavailable through injury, and Shane Nelson, Andrew Strijk, Jay van Berlo and Dan Hunt rested.

Monaghan is happy with the mix of young and experienced players who will represent West Perth.

"We are really strong in our belief that our depth in terms of guys who are capable of playing league footy is probably beyond 30 players depending on what positions they play," he said.

"We will play somewhere between seven and 10 who played against East Fremantle, and we will bring in another 10 or 12 who didn’t but that will include Matt Guadagnin and Chris Keunen so they are two players who will strengthen us.

"There will be then Brayden Antonio, Luke Meadows and those types of guys who will come in who have played league football and another handful of guys like Corey Chalmers who might get a chance to debut. I reckon out of our 22, I would be surprised if any more than two or three haven’t played a senior WAFL game."

From the Storm team that did defeat West Adelaide to open the Foxtel Cup competition for 2014 there are only three changes for the semi-final with Cody Thorp, Trent Page and Beau Tuthill coming in at the expense of Tim Jones, Jake Huett and Roy Thomas.

On that night the Storm put enormous pressure on their West Adelaide opponents applying an enormous 84 tackles in the shortened format while winning 110 contested possessions out of their 161 for the match, and that adds up to West Perth facing a physical contest on Tuesday night.

Monaghan certainly won't be taking the Storm lightly.

"I watched them play their Foxtel Cup game that they won. I have been reading reports about how they are going and Tasmania had a State game against the NEAFL with six players from the Western Storm in that so we'll wait and see if those players back up from Saturday to Tuesday," Monaghan said.

"What I can tell you from the Foxtel Cup game they won is that they went to Adelaide and had a real crack. They laid 84 tackles in an 80-minute game and that's a significant number, and they had 165 possessions and 120 of them were contested possessions so they are going to be a side who will put us under pressure, and give it everything.

"They are 8-2 in their regular season as well and I will be painting the picture that if we don’t pay them respect, it opens us up to be vulnerable like West Adelaide was. We think, though, that by playing here with relatively fine weather that we have players who want to be playing for spots in our regular side, and that we are really lucky to have some talented young players who I expect to perform at their best."

FOXTEL CUP SEMI-FINAL TEAMS
WEST PERTH
Backs: Mitch van Berlo, Shaun Marusic, Kris Shannon
Half Backs: Luke Meadows, Joe Morrow, Steven Browne
Centres: Brayden Antonio, Ray Bartholomew, Rohan Kerr
Half Forwards: Matt Guadagnin, Max Alexander, Mitch McPhee
Forwards: Marc Crisp, Seva Martin, Corey Chalmers
Followers: Chris Keunen, Jack Thrum, Trent Manzone
Interchange: Ben King, Aidan Lynch, Matthew Johnson, Cameron Branch    
Emergencies: Aaron Black, Nick Rodda, Drew Rohde

WESTERN STORM
Backs: Lewis Ritchie, Tom Reinmuth, Chris Taylor
Half Backs: Clinton Drake, Will Hanson, Jordan Bennett
Centres: Jade Child, Matt Hanson, Billy Jack
Half Forwards: Shaun Collis, Mitch Hills, Zane Brown
Forwards: Braden McGee, Bart McCulloch, Alex Russell
Followers: Cody Thorp, Jay Blackberry, Thane Bardenhagen
Interchange: Beau Thorp, Trent Page, Beau Tuthill, Logan Barker          
Emergencies: Jonathan James, Brodie Palfreyman, Darryn Thomas