WAFL Round 21 PreviewFriday, August 15, 2014 - 11:30 AM - by Chris Pike

THE third last round of the 2014 WAFL season takes place this Saturday afternoon with top playing bottom, two out of finals contention sides doing battle and then two finals bound teams taking on opponents out of the running.

All four clashes will take place on Saturday afternoon with Subiaco playing Claremont at Leederville's Medibank Stadium, Swan Districts hosting South Fremantle at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval, Peel Thunder taking on West Perth at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium and Perth facing East Perth at Lathlain Park.

The fourth-placed East Fremantle has the bye with a finals position almost secure unless Claremont can pull off something remarkable in the last three rounds.

SUBIACO (13-4, 2nd) v CLAREMONT (8-9, 5th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Subiaco and Claremont could very well be the two most in-form teams of the WAFL right now setting up what should be a terrific contest at Medibank Stadium on Saturday.

Subiaco does look set to finish at least in second position on the ladder and possibly still first meaning they are guaranteed of a second semi-final against East Perth at Medibank Stadium, and a double-chance to then host the preliminary final if required.

The Lions have now won six straight matches including beating the league-leading East Perth for a second time this season two weeks ago prior to the bye last week, but none of that means that Claremont will be easy to overcome this Saturday.

Claremont had a horror start to the season with six thumping losses in its opening eight matches, and that will still likely mean the Tigers can't make the finals, but they are still finishing 2014 in outstanding form.

The Tigers have now won three straight matches, and five of their last six but still to make the finals Claremont needs to win its last three matches against Subiaco, West Perth and East Perth by an average of almost 100 points.

Subiaco and Claremont first met this season in Round 3 at East Fremantle Oval with the Lions scoring a thumping 80-point victory but the Tigers began to turn their season around with an impressive nine-point win at the Claremont Showground on WA Day.

Both teams are two of the stronger finishing teams in the competition across the season to date with Subiaco the No. 1 final quarter team and Claremont ranked fourth in that department, but the Lions are the second best starting team across the season while the Tigers are the third worst.

Subiaco has one obvious change to make to its team from the one that beat East Perth a fortnight ago to the one who will face Claremont this Saturday with ruckman Frank Stockley to return and replace Jordan Bestry.

Stockley's return further strengthens Subiaco's big men department with Andrew McDougall now up and going with him with the pair to share the ruck work and provide another marking option in attack alongside Bernie Naylor Medal leader Matt Boland.

Subiaco still is not at full strength as well with gun recruit Lachlan Delahunty to return between now and the likely second semi-final with East Perth.

Abe Davey and Will Fetherstonhaugh both failed to have an impact against East Perth prior to the bye and as a result have lost their spots in the Subiaco side.

There are plenty of players looking to come in as well with Joel Latham and Reece Blechynden both battling over which one will replace Davey's place off half-back.

Justin Joyce, Dylan Clarke and Kyle Halligan are then three players of playing a role across half-forward but spots are scarce in that Subiaco forward-line and time running out for any of the three to guarantee a spot in the line-up ahead of the pending finals campaign.

Claremont was struggling at half-time last week, but put on a strong second half to come away with another strong win to beat Perth but the Tigers will need to take their game to another level this Saturday to beat Subiaco and keep their impressive recent form going.

Claremont does lose dual premiership star veteran Andrew Foster along with the experienced Matt Orzel and swingman Anton Hamp from that side that beat the Demons last week.

The Tigers do have plenty of in-form players in the reserves vying to return, though, with Sam Fong coming off 23 possessions and three goals in the reserves last Saturday while Keifer Yu racked up 24 possessions.

Matthew Goyder had another 25 disposals and seven tackles in the reserves last week to put himself in contention with Jack Richardson coming off kicking two goals while Jackson Starcevich booted four and John Williams also picked up 20 touches to go with six marks.

SWAN DISTRICTS (12-6, 3rd) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (6-11, 7th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Swan Districts is guaranteed of playing finals football in 2014 and is still most likely to finish third, but the black-and-whites haven’t been impressive for some time now and Saturday against South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval would be the ideal time to regain some strong form.

Swans went on a stunning eight-game winning streak between Rounds 3 and 10 this season, and then had their season set up for them by Round 15 when sitting on an 11-3 record, but the form of the black-and-whites has been slipping over the past two months.

After a solid 41-point win over Peel in Round 12, Swans won a game they had no right to against South Fremantle in Round 13, then lost to Claremont by 26 points, beat West Perth by 26, lost to Claremont by three, beat Perth by six, lost to West Perth by 56 and lost to East Perth by 35.

The loss to Claremont was a game Swan Districts was in a position to win before struggling against Perth, being poor against West Perth and then lacking key personnel to never really be in the contest last week against the league-leading Royals.

However, Swans still look on track to host the first semi-final against East Fremantle despite the form slump but they desperately will want to return to some decent form heading into the finals.

There's no reason to suggest that Swan Districts will have an easy time returning to good form against South Fremantle, though, with the Bulldogs now having won their last two games against East Fremantle and Peel.

The win against the Sharks was a dominant performance by South Fremantle in a 43-point victory before the Bulldogs escaped with a remarkable one-point win last week thanks to a goal to 17-year-old Jarrod Pickett right on the siren against the Thunder.

That means that South Fremantle is in some good form heading to Steel Blue Oval and the Bulldogs will always have fresh in their memories the Round 13 loss to Swans at Fremantle Oval when they led by as much as 35 points, and still 32 at three quarter-time before losing by five points.

Over the course of the season, South Fremantle has been a strong starting team as opposed to Swans being poor in first halves having been outscored by a total of 100 points by their opposition.

However, South Fremantle is the second worst performing teams across second halves this season while that has been the great strength of Swan Districts with the black-and-whites having outscored their opponents by 201 points across final quarters in 2014.

Swan Districts put in a horror showing two weeks ago losing to West Perth on the back of a goalless first half and then last week in Bunbury against East Perth, Tim Geappen was out suspended, Tallan Ames out with the affects of a concussion and Matt Riggio, Adam Faulkner, Blaine Boekhorst and Matthew Jukes played reserves.

In the end Swans were outplayed by the league-leading Royals, but it made no difference to the black-and-whites remaining in third position on the ladder.

And now this week captain Ames is back and so is star veteran forward Geappen along with Riggio, Jukes, Boekhorst and Faulkner with the former three all dominating in the reserves last week.

Riggio had 32 possessions and two goals, Boekhorst 29 disposals and two goals and Jukes three goals and

Travis Casserly also made his return in the reserves last week and had 21 possessions and six marks to put himself right back in the mix for a league game this Saturday against South Fremantle along with Ethan Hughes after he had 29 disposals.

Jacob Burnham, Josh Kirkup, Connor Blakely, Dylan Harvey and Jesse Manton are at least five of the players who will make room for the returning Swan Districts stars.

There are no outs to the South Fremantle team at this stage from the one that beat Peel Thunder on the siren last Saturday at Fremantle Oval, but Jarrod Garlett, Adam Guglielmana and Mitch Carter are vying to return to the league side.

Garlett had another 23 possessions, seven tackles and two goals last week in the reserves for South Fremantle as the 18-year-old continues to try to break in for his league debut with the Bulldogs.

Guglielmana returned from a hamstring injury last week in the reserves and picked up 24 possessions and laid seven tackles to show that he is up and about to come back into the league side to continue what is likely the best season of his league career.

Carter had a terrific reserves game last week as well with 31 possessions, seven marks, six inside-50 entries and a goal to put himself in the mix for a 10th league match of his season.

PEEL THUNDER (4-13, 8th) v WEST PERTH (7-10, 6th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Peel Thunder and West Perth meet on Saturday at Bendigo Bank Stadium with neither team in contention for finals anymore, but that doesn’t mean another thrilling contest between the two teams couldn’t eventuate.

Peel hasn’t been in contention for finals at all this season having lost its first seven games, but the Thunder have been a realistic chance of winning all but two of their matches at some point during last quarters.

The fact that has resulted in just four victories is a constant source of frustration for recently re-signed coach Cam Shepherd, but the Thunder being so often in winning positions suggests things could very well click sooner or later.

West Perth, on the other hand, just has never quite been able to build any momentum this season coming off winning last year's premiership.

Despite that, a 56-point win at home over Swan Districts two weeks ago suddenly meant that the Falcons were still at least some shot of playing finals if they could win their final four matches with East Fremantle losing all of theirs.

However, those hopes were quickly ended last Saturday when East Fremantle beat West Perth by 17 points at HBF Arena.

So West Perth and Peel cannot play finals in 2014 but neither side has forgotten what happened the last time the two teams played back in Round 8 at HBF Arena.

On that occasion, Peel opened up a 42-point advantage by half-time but in a remarkable finish Anthony Tsalikis kicked the winning goal for West Perth in the dying stages to snatch a one-point victory.

Peel will be sure to have that memory firmly at the front of their minds this Saturday on top of the fact that a very similar thing happened last Saturday to them at Fremantle Oval against South Fremantle.

Peel probably should have beaten South Fremantle last Saturday at Fremantle Oval much like it should have beaten West Perth at HBF Arena back in Round 8, but again the Thunder couldn’t finish out a game and lost in heartbreaking fashion.

From that Thunder team that lost to the Bulldogs by a solitary point, Fremantle has recalled Michael Walters after his one game back in the WAFL on return from an ankle injury.

Kyle Westwood virtually had to play out of necessity last week for Peel with a host of Fremantle talls not lining up while Kelvin Lawrence has been dropped after having just seven possessions while Tanner Smith goes out as well with a shoulder injury.

Peel does have some handy players ready to return, though, including captain James Flaherty as well as Fremantle big men Kepler Bradley and Michael Apeness.

Another two experienced Fremantle players Garrick Ibbotson and Clancee Pearce also return for Peel and just in time to make a push to trying to get back into the Dockers side ahead of another AFL finals campaign.

Toby Gianatti, Kieran May and Sam Barndon are also vying for selection in the Thunder line-up.

West Perth can no longer play finals in 2014 but that doesn’t mean spots aren’t hard to come by in the league side.

Premiership defender Jordan Jones goes out of the side from the team that lost to East Fremantle at HBF Arena last Saturday.

A host of players who have played continually well in the reserves are then in the mix for selection with Corey Chalmers, Ben King, Aidan Lynch and Drew Rohde desperate for another chance.

Chalmers kicked another two goals in the reserves last week for the Falcons to give him 28 for the season as he tries to make his official WAFL debut despite having played tw6 Foxtel Cup matches.

King had another 12 possessions and six marks last week against East Fremantle in the reserves and he is now vying for his first official WAFL match as well having already played a Foxtel Cup match in the semi-final win over the Western Storm.

Lynch has continually been a strong ball-winner in the reserves for West Perth and had another 22 possessions last week to go with six tackles as he now aims to make his WAFL debut having already played two Foxtel Cup matches.

Rohde has previously played three league matches for West Perth and he put himself in contention for another chance after 21 possessions and four goals in the reserves last week.

PERTH (3-15, 9th) v EAST PERTH (14-3, 1st) – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams
 
It is top against bottom when Perth hosts East Perth at Lathlain Park on Saturday with the Royals needing to keep winning to sew up the minor premiership and the Demons out to cause an upset to keep alive any hopes of avoiding the wooden spoon.

The game does appear to be a great mismatch between an East Perth team who has now won 11 of its last 12 matches and a Perth side who has lost 12 matches on the trot.

The Royals remain on top of the WAFL ladder with three rounds remaining and on track for the minor premiership or at the very least a top two finish that will guarantee a second semi-final at Medibank Stadium against Subiaco anyway, and a double-chance if needed of then hosting the preliminary final.

The Demons, on the other hand, have never been able to get close to fielding what they would consider their best 22 all season long and that has taken its toll with them winning just once since Round 2 to appear destined for a wooden spoon finish.

Perth and East Perth first met this season in Round 6 with the Royals only coming away with a 22-point victory before East Perth had a much more emphatic result recording an 80-point win over the Demons in Round 11.

Perth put in a good showing before running out of legs again last week against Claremont in the second half, and from that team veteran Matthew Moody goes out of the side along with Ben Power and Ryan Gray.

However, finally the Demons do have some stronger inclusions than players going out after a horror run though injury right throughout 2014.

Captain Paul Bevan is back for Perth following a three-week suspension while key defenders Nick Kane and Chris Billings both return to strength the key defensive posts and they will be needed as well up against East Perth's Josh Smith, Fraser McInnes, Paul Johnson and Callum Sinclair.

Michael Florio now is an experienced player with 78 games under his belt and he is another to return for Perth to take on East Perth with Daniel Arangio and Sam Garstone both a chance to make their league debuts respectively.

From the team that beat Swan Districts comprehensively in Bunbury last Saturday, East Perth loses Simon Tunbridge after he was called up by West Coast to face Essendon on Saturday at Etihad Stadium.

Callum Sinclair and Jacob Brennan have been named as emergencies for the Eagles as well, but both are expected to still play for the Royals again on Saturday against the Demons.

Tom Shanahan, Callum Hart, Julian Ameduri, Jacob Payne, Jackson Slater and Lewis Wilson are all vying for positions in the East Perth team as well and desperate for an opportunity to show enough to cement a spot in the Royals' line-up ahead of the finals campaign.