WAFL Round 7 PreviewFriday, May 1, 2015 - 4:36 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 7 of the 2015 McDonald's WAFL Premiership season sees all four matches take place on Saturday afternoon with Peel Thunder and Subiaco looking to extend their leads on top of the ladder, and Swan Districts, South Fremantle and Claremont out to stop their losing slides.

All four matches take place on Saturday afternoon in the traditional 2.15pm time slot and it sees Swan Districts host Peel Thunder at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

East Perth also faces South Fremantle at Leederville's Medibank Stadium, Claremont takes on West Perth at the Claremont Showground and Perth battles Subiaco at Lathlain Park.

SWAN DISTRICTS (2-3, 7th) v PEEL THUNDER (4-1, 2nd) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM 

Peel Thunder looks to extend its record winning streak against a Swan Districts team on Saturday that is desperate to bounce back and end a two-match losing run.

Peel has now won four consecutive matches for the first time in the history of the club and only narrowly missed out on claiming top position during last Sunday's solid 27-point win over Claremont at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

The Thunder started their season with a narrow loss to West Perth, but they have since scored wins over East Fremantle, Perth, East Perth and then Claremont last Sunday. It's the first time Peel has ever won four straight matches and now it can extend that winning run to five this Saturday.

Swan Districts, meanwhile, has now lost two straight matches to East Fremantle and West Perth, and it was Monday's loss to the Falcons at HBF Arena that will be tough to get over considering the black-and-whites were 26 points in front entering time-on in the fourth quarter.

With the short break from Monday's loss to West Perth leading into playing Peel on Saturday, Swan Districts has made a host of changes both in terms of sore bodies and players being dropped back to the reserves to find some form.

Midfielder Adam Faulkner was battling in the second on Monday against West Perth and as a result goes out of the Swans' team to face Peel on Saturday.

Jarrad Blight also joins Faulkner out of the black-and-whites team and both midfielders have been prolific ball winners so far this season so represent significant losses. Between Blight and Faulkner, they have averaged 43 disposals a game so far in 2015.

Tom Smirk, Jacob Coniglio and Sean Fletcher are the three other players not able to hold their place in the Swan Districts team to face Peel.

There are a whole host of players pressing for a call up into the Swans team to play on Saturday including Laurence Grescos, Nelson Ansey, Dylan Nelson, Steven Wityk, Ben Whitsed, Levi Ridley, David McKay and Albert Dean.

Swans' reserves had a good win on Monday and that saw those players put in impressive performances in particular McKay with 28 possessions, Wityk with 20 disposals, 10 marks and two goals, Whitsed 27 touches and Dean 20 possessions.

Peel regains a key target in attack to take on Swan Districts as well with Michael Apeness returning after missing the past couple of games.

He is more of a goalkicking threat than the ruckmen Craig Moller and either Jack Hannath or Jonathon Griffin that have been playing as the main forward targets in the absence of both him and Matt Taberner, so he certainly adds another dimension to the Peel forward-line.

Laine Wilkins, Cruize Garlett, Ben Hancock, Dylan Winton, Mitch Gill and Kieran May all played well in last Sunday's reserves win over Claremont as well so have put themselves in the mix to earn a call up for the Thunder, but spots are hard to come by.

Tendai Mzungu is also a chance return for the Thunder after being the man to make room in the Fremantle line-up for Hayden Ballantyne for the clash with Melbourne on Sunday at the MCG.

Hayden Crozier and Jack Hannath have also been named as emergencies for the Dockers so are likely to line-up for Peel leaving Ed Langdon as the only out at this stage.

EAST PERTH (3-2, 4th) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (3-3, 6th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 720 ABC Perth

Little separates East Perth and South Fremantle on the WAFL ladder entering Round 7, but the Royals come into Saturday's clash at Medibank Stadium with significantly more confidence and form than the Bulldogs.

East Perth put in a dominant display last Saturday to end up hammering Perth by 103 points at Lathlain Park in the biggest win by any team of the WAFL season so far.

The Royals also threw up some surprises in the win with Kyle Anderson kicking the most unlikely seven goals imaginable having been thrown forward with Callum Sinclair, Tom Barrass, Dylan Main, Nathan Blee, Callum Hart and Paddy Brophy all doing well holding up in the back-line.

That win improved East Perth to a 3-2 record on the season to sit in fourth position on the ladder.

Meanwhile, South Fremantle has now lost three straight matches after opening the season with impressive wins over West Perth, Perth and Claremont.

The Bulldogs have since suffered losses to Swan Districts, Subiaco and East Fremantle to now be searching for that winning form again.

That takes on extra significance this Saturday against a strong East Perth team, and with South Fremantle having the bye next week before then playing Peel Thunder and then having another bye for the State game against South Australia at Lathlain Park.

Adam Carter and Blayne Wilson will also play for South Fremantle for the first time against East Perth since playing with the Royals in last year's losing grand final against Subiaco while both were on West Coast's AFL list.

Also working in East Perth's favour for the clash is the fact that the Royals will have had a full seven-day break from its win over Perth last Saturday while South Fremantle has had a short week to prepare since losing to East Fremantle on Monday for the Anzac Derby.

East Perth will swap one West Coast big man for another from last week's win over Perth to this Saturday's clash with South Fremantle with Callum Sinclair earning an AFL recall with the Eagles while Scott Lycett comes back to join the Royals.

While West Coast had Sinclair play in East Perth's back-line the last two weeks, it's unlikely Lycett will do the same so he will likely play as a key forward target for the Royals while helping Paul Johnson in the ruck.

The combination of Lycett and Johnson certainly provides a big job to do for South Fremantle ruckman Brock Higgins up against his old side as he continues to battle manfully virtually without support in the ruck for the Bulldogs.

Mitch Howlett, Mitchell Lague, Tom Omodei, Scott Jones, Brandon Hughes and Clayton Giblett are all in the mix to earn a call up into the East Perth team as well.

Rowen Powell does go out of the Royals team after showing good signs on debut last week against Perth and while Mark Hutchings and Brant Colledge have been named as emergencies for West Perth, they are still expected to line up for the Royals against the Bulldogs.

South Fremantle hasn’t named any players out of its team at this stage from the one that lost to East Fremantle by 17 points in the Anzac Derby, but Tim Kelly, Alistair Gillespie and Paul Mugambwa are all in the mix to return.

Kelly had played the Bulldogs' first five matches of the season and had averaged almost 20 possessions a game as an important part of the midfield before being a late withdrawal against East Fremantle on Monday. But he looks set to be right to play East Perth on Saturday.

Mugambwa is yet to play a game this season, but exciting 138-game veteran forward has shown some good form and could come in for his first league appearance of the season to add another target in attack, but more importantly to supply his ferocious tackling pressure.

And Gillespie could also come in to add his versatility to the South Fremantle team with him capable of playing as another target in attack, helping out in the ruck or playing down back if needed on East Perth's talls.

Craig White, Dylan Ross, Anthony Collica, John Sgherza and Matthew Gundry were all dropped back to the reserves last week for South Fremantle and will remain there for at least another week along with Toby Bairstow, Mitch Carter, Ben Sokol and Nick Borovac.

CLAREMONT (0-5, 9th) v WEST PERTH (3-2, 5th) – CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – KIX Digital

West Perth will be looking to continue its momentum from a stunning comeback win over Swan Districts on Monday when the Falcons take on the winless Claremont at the Showground on Saturday.

West Perth looked dead and buried entering time-on in the last quarter on Monday against Swan Districts at HBF Arena, but were able to kick the last five goals of the game in the final 10 minutes to pull off the most remarkable of victories.

That improved the Falcons to a 3-2 record on the season and into fifth position on the ladder leading into Saturday's clash at the Showground against Claremont.

Claremont might not have won a game yet this season having lost games to Subiaco, South Fremantle, East Fremantle, Perth and Peel Thunder but the Tigers do have talent and experience, and regain some key players to take on West Perth with on Saturday.

The Tigers also enter the clash with an extra day's rest than the Falcons having played on Sunday against Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium, and losing by 27 points, while the Falcons played on Monday against Swan Districts and pulled off the stunning victory.

West Perth will also celebrate a significant milestone with 2013 premiership player Steven Browne playing his 100th game with the Falcons to book his name on to the No. 7 locker at the club.

Browne made his league debut with West Perth in 2007 impressing in six league matches as an 18-year-old to get drafted by Carlton where he spent the next three years and played 23 AFL games.

He then returned to West Perth in 2011 and has been a strong performer ever since as a key player in the back-line in the 2013 premiership, and having shown the versatility to play other roles further up the field along the way.

Claremont will get back some key players in search of that elusive first victory of the season with captain Jake Murphy to play his first game since taking on South Fremantle in Round 2 with Mark Seaby also to come in for his first league game of the year.

Seaby has played the last two weeks in the reserves for the Tigers after missing the first three matches of 2015 and now the AFL and WAFL premiership ruckman will make his return to the league to play against the team he played in the 2003 flag with.

Shane McAdam was a lively forward to start the season with the Tigers and now back in the line-up after a spell in the reserves with midfield Maximilian Bentley also in the mix for a return to the league team along with Francis Watson being a chance to make his debut.

At this stage, Keegan Knott and Matthew Palfrey are the two players from the Claremont team that went down to Peel last Sunday that haven’t been able to hold their spots in the team this week to face West Perth.

West Perth will have a short break from playing in Monday's incredible come from behind victory over Swan Districts to play Claremont at the Showground on Saturday, but the Falcons will be hoping all the players have pulled up well enough physically to take their place in the team.

With Marcus Adams, Jordan Jones and Max Alexander among those still sidelined, the Falcons will be hoping to not lose any more players through injury as well as they try to build momentum in the season.

While there are no players named out of the West Perth team at this stage to play Claremont on Saturday, Ray Bartholomew, Steve Potente and Mitch van Berlo have put themselves in the mix to earn a recall.

Potente was terrific in the reserves on Monday with 29 possessions and a goal while Bartholomew had another 22 disposals and van Berlo was solid across half-back.

PERTH (1-5, 8th) v SUBIACO (4-1, 1st) – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
 
Perth will be hoping to field a healthier line-up and avoid injuries during the match on Saturday against Subiaco at Lathlain Park in a bid to be competitive coming off a heavy loss to East Perth.

Perth was without key players and then had six players getting hurt during last Saturday's 103-point loss to East Perth also at Lathlain Park as the Demons now prepare to take on a rested and in-form Subiaco this Saturday.

Subiaco had the bye last week following a commanding 89-point victory over South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval in what was a top-of-the-table clash at that stage.

The Lions now remain on top of the ladder entering the clash with the Demons and considering their average winning margin in their wins this season is 49.5 points, and Perth's losses have come at an average of 58.6 points, it does loom as a massive task for the home team to be competitive at Lathlain Park.

Perth was already without Mitch Morton, Jarryd Morton, Chris Billings, Jarrad Irons, Chance Bateman, Christian Eyres and Callum Collard coming into last Saturday's clash with East Perth.

And then during the eventual 103-point defeat, Daniel O'Sullivan, Brennan Stack, Joel Kalajzic and Michael Sinclair all had their days ended through injury, and Dene White and Brett Wolfenden had to continue playing despite also being hobbled.

As a result, Stack, O'Sullivan and Sinclair have been named out of the Demons team to face Subiaco on Saturday while Kalajzic, White and Wolfenden must remain under some sort of doubt.

On top of that, midfielder Liam McKenna is also out of the side following another 32 possession performance last Saturday while Callum Walley and Matthew Welburn have been dropped.

Billings comes straight back into the Perth team to help strengthen the defence while Jarryd Morton comes back in after kicking seven goals in the reserves last week on the return from injury.

Scott Doncon, Rowan Brookes, Brent Edmonds, Ashley Boyes, Kieran Hug, Ryan Gray and Mitch Browne are the other Perth players from the reserves looking to earn a call up into the league side.

Subiaco is coming off the bye following an emphatic 89-point win over South Fremantle and the reigning premiers look set to field the same 22 despite adding Greg Clark, Declan Jackson and Michael Wood to its squad.

That means that the Lions are still without captain Kyal Horsley, recruit Sam Menegola and key forwards Lachlan Delahunty and Matt Boland so despite being in tremendous form, they are still yet to come overly close to fielding what they would consider their best 22 so far this season.