McDonald's WAFL Round 19 PreviewSaturday, August 1, 2015 - 11:00 AM - by Chris Pike

WAFL Round 19 is again spread over Saturday and Sunday afternoon with plenty riding on the contests as time begins to run out for the finals contenders to book in a place inside the top five.

With five rounds of the WAFL season to go, Subiaco appears heading for the minor premiership with West Perth and Peel Thunder fighting over second position and then East Perth, Swan Districts, South Fremantle and Claremont locked in a battle over the last two finals positions.

The Round 19 action sees three games on Saturday afternoon starting with Claremont taking on Swan Districts at the Claremont Showground with the winner likely to end the weekend in the five, and the loser outside.

South Fremantle then faces a big task to try and break back into the top five taking on Subiaco at Medibank Stadium while Perth and East Fremantle look to end significant losing streaks when they clash at Lathlain Park.

The final match of the weekend takes place on Sunday afternoon with East Perth trying to stay in the five and West Perth in second spot in the final derby of 2015 at Medibank Stadium.

CLAREMONT (7-8, 7th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (8-8, 5th) – CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND, SATURDAY 2.10PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 7mate

Claremont and Swan Districts are no strangers to playing one another in big matches and now Saturday's clash at the Showground has plenty riding on it with a finals position at stake.

The Tigers and Swans played off in the second semi-final and grand final of 2010, and a second semi-final in 2012 so they are used to playing in matches with plenty on the line.

And now on Saturday at the Showground, the winner will sit inside the top five at the end of Round 19 of the 2015 WAFL season while the loser will be on the outside.

Swan Districts looked to have had the game won last Sunday against Peel leading by 19 points midway through the last quarter at Bendigo Bank Stadium, but the Thunder kicked the last five goals to win and leave the black-and-whites vulnerable in fifth position.

Claremont also missed an opportunity to move back into the top five with a loss to West Perth last Saturday despite the Tigers leading by 21 points at three quarter-time before the Falcons kicked the only five goals of the last term.

Both Claremont and Swan Districts gave up the last five goals against their opponent last week to lose crucial games, and now the Tigers and Swans will be desperate to rebound with a crucial win on Saturday.

Claremont will now meet twice over the next month in matches that could go a long way to determining which team ends up making the finals in 2015.

Their first meeting for 2015 was back in Round 8 at Albany's Sounness Park as well and on that occasion it was the Tigers who scored a hard fought 10.18 (78) to 10.7 (67) victory in front of almost 3000 people.

Claremont loses two key players at either end of their careers but are well equipped with strong depth to cover each of them.

AFL and WAFL premiership ruckman Mark Seaby hurt his knee early in last week's loss to West Perth and even though he was able to come back on at full-forward for brief periods, now that the knee's cooled down it will keep him out of the game against Swan Districts.

However, the ruck is one area Claremont has tremendous depth in and dual premiership ruckman Mitch Andrews will return in the absence of Seaby.

Andrews had 17 possessions, 24 hit outs and two goals back in the reserves last week against West Perth while Darcy Cameron also stepped up after Seaby got injured to rack up 61 hit outs against the Falcons.

Exciting young half-back Francis Watson hurt an ankle also last week against West Perth and now will miss Saturday's game with Swan Districts but Lachlan Davey, Jack Beeck, Bailey Rogers and John Williams are all in the mix to replace him in the Claremont back-line.

Swan Districts looks set to regain some significant experience led by the return of 145-game premiership player Justin Simpson who has been absent since Round 10 with a thumb injury.

Alex Howard missed last week's loss to Peel Thunder and he returns along with Simpson to further strengthen Swans' back-line against Tigers, and just in time to come up against the likes of Beau Maister, Kepler Bradley, Ian Richardson, Jack Bradshaw, Shane McAdam and the resting ruckman.

Jake Nuich has been in impressive goalkicking form in the reserves with the ruckman spending more time at full-forward and he's now kicked nine goals the last two weeks, including five last Sunday against Peel.

Todd Banfield had one game back in the reserves last Sunday where he had 19 touches to be back in the mix for the league side this Saturday with Jacob Coniglio and Josh Kirkup also playing well in the reserves to give themselves a chance to come back into the team.

Lindsay Murray, Warrick Wilson and Laurence Grescos are the three players to go out of the Swan Districts team at this stage to take on Claremont.

SUBIACO (13-2, 1st) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (8-8, 6th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM 

South Fremantle heads to Medibank Stadium needing to knock off the raging premiership favourites Subiaco to keep its finals hopes alive in 2015 and to celebrate Ashton Hams' 150th WAFL game.

Subiaco remained three games clear on top of the WAFL ladder with the biggest win of the season to the tune of 133 points last Saturday against Perth with the Lions gearing up nicely for a crack at back-to-back premierships.

South Fremantle's form was at the opposite end with a disappointing 106-point loss to East Perth at Fremantle Oval to fall outside of the top five.

That means that the Bulldogs will need to beat the Lions to be a chance of returning to the top five this weekend and to remain in the hunt altogether considering they still have a bye to come and their remaining matches are against top three teams Peel Thunder and West Perth.

South Fremantle heads into the game with an 8-8 record but is the only team in the finals race with a percentage of under 100 meaning the Bulldogs will likely need four wins to finish the season in order to play finals for the first time since 2011.

The Bulldogs will also be looking to celebrate the 150th milestone of Ashton Hams as he earns life membership at South Fremantle to go along with a career that has included two premierships, two Simpson Medals, two games for Western Australia and 39 appearances in the AFL for West Coast.

Subiaco handed South Fremantle an 89-point thumping back in Round 5 at Fremantle Oval in the first meeting between the two teams of the season, and while the Bulldogs were vastly more competitive the second time around at Medibank Stadium, the Lions still won by 22 points.

Subiaco might have lost defenders Dylan Elliott and Joel Latham to injury following last week's thumping win over Perth, but the Lions have some more than handy replacements with five-time premiership player Darren Rumble and dual premiership player Wayde Twomey to return.

Both played in the reserves last week against Perth following injuries with Twomey racking up 30 possessions and Rumble 17 to go with seven marks to prove their fitness and find some touch.

Subiaco's midfield could also be further strengthened with the return of Brett Robinson for him to again team up with the likes of Sam Menegola, Kyal Horsley and Chris Phelan.

Ray Daniels also continued to give himself a chance of a league call up for Subiaco with five goals from 17 possessions and nine marks last week while Chris Bryan is also again in the mix.

South Fremantle's chances of trying to keep hold of Subiaco's forward-line won't be helped with the loss of key defenders Dylan Ross and Blayne Wilson following last week's horror loss to East Perth.

Zac Strom and James Sellar both return to the Bulldogs line-up now to face the Lions and will be called upon to help out Chris Luff, Adam Guglielmana, Adam McIntosh, Marlion Pickett and Jason Maskos in the defence against Subiaco forwards Matt Boland, Shane Yarran, Kyle Halligan, Michael Wood and Chris Deluca.

South Fremantle has received another blow coming into the contest with captain Ryan Cook ruled out with a shoulder injury.

The Bulldogs could unveil another debutant with Matthew Ah Siu likely to play his first league game after some consistently strong reserves form now for several weeks.

Jarrod Parry and Anthony Collica could both come in to add some ball-winning depth to the midfield with James Laurino a chance to come in and provide some run by playing his first league game since the final round of the 2013 season after he required a knee reconstruction in 2014.

PERTH (1-15, 9th) v EAST FREMANTLE (5-10, 8th) – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – KIX Digital

Perth and East Fremantle have nothing but pride at stake at Lathlain Park on Saturday with both the Demons and Sharks desperate to put an end to disappointing and significant losing streaks.

Perth lost the last 14 games of 2014 and despite more encouraging signs for much of this year under new coach Earl Spalding, the Demons have just the one win to show for it and have now lost 11 matches on the trot again.

That means that coming into the game with East Fremantle that Perth has won just one of its last 30 matches and things weren’t pretty last Saturday against Subiaco with the Lions handing them a 133-point hiding.

East Fremantle, meanwhile, has also had a horror season despite it looking encouraging early on when they had won five of its first seven matches.

However, since then the Sharks have lost their last eight matches to fall out of the finals race and to remain winless under new coach Brad Dodd since he replaced Steve Malaxos.

Last time the two teams met was back in Round 8 on a Sunday at ATOM Stadium and that was a remarkable game where East Fremantle kicked a record 11 goals in the first quarter, but Perth was the better side over the last three quarters to only lose by 24 points.

The two teams will play twice in the final five rounds of the season as they look to find some positives to take out of disappointing 2015 campaigns.

Perth and East Fremantle both have no other option but to blood the youth and to begin planning to try to bounce back in 2016, and the Demons could get another look at some debutants against the Sharks on Saturday.

With Todd Stevenson, Marshall Jones, Kayle Phillips and Reid Polak already among those to debut for Perth in recent weeks, Kodie Fleay and Scott Moore are both a chance for their first league appearances.

Fleay has continued his good form in the reserves with another 23 possessions and 10 marks last week against Subiaco while Moore also collected 18 disposals and a goal.

Kurtis Chester, Brennan Stack, Sam McGillivray and Hayden Tanner are all in the mix to return to the Perth line-up as well against East Fremantle.

At this stage, last week's debutant Phillips, who had 16 possessions and four tackles, is the only player named out of the Perth side from the one that was thumped by Subiaco.

Boston Williamson was one of East Fremantle's best performers before the bye against South Fremantle but he goes out of the side now to take on Perth on Saturday.

James Bristow and Sean Henson didn’t have a big impact, though, and now as a result haven’t been able to hold their place in the Sharks side to take on the Demons on Saturday. 

East Fremantle also looks set to unveil yet another debutant as it looks to find a way to take some positives out of a 2015 season that has quickly gone off the rails.

Josef Hebiton has played 14 colts games this season and now the 18-year-old could come in to play against Perth on Saturday while Fraser Perry looks set to come straight back into the league side after a terrific debut with three goals back in Round 12 against Swan Districts.

He came back in the colts two weeks again and kicked two goals against South Fremantle and now could be straight into the league team again on Saturday to provide a much-needed goalkicking target for the Sharks.

Jack Perham could also return for East Fremantle despite a scoreless outing against South Fremantle with Dion Anthony a chance to be rewarded for his consistently strong form in the reserves along with Josh Cuneo and Jake Schleicher.

EAST PERTH (8-8, 4th) v WEST PERTH (10-5, 2nd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 

Not that derbies between East Perth and West Perth require anything extra to make them heated contests, but Sunday's clash at Medibank Stadium has plenty at stake for both teams.

Both West Perth and East Perth occupy places inside the WAFL's top five coming into Round 19 and now the result of Sunday's standalone clash at Medibank Stadium could have significant ramifications for a win and loss for both.

East Perth returned to the top five with a thumping 106-point win over South Fremantle last Saturday at Fremantle Oval to improve to an 8-8 record and to now have the best percentage of all teams except for the ladder-leading Subiaco.

Now a win on Sunday for the Royals would go a long way to securing their place in a fourth straight finals series while a loss would potentially see them out of the top five altogether by Sunday night depending on other results.

West Perth, meanwhile, stormed home with the only five goals of the last quarter to come back from 21 points down at three quarter-time to beat Claremont by 10 points at HBF Arena last Saturday.

That win improved the Falcons to a 10-5 record to keep them percentage ahead of Peel Thunder in second place on the WAFL ladder.

A win now on Sunday would go a long way to West Perth securing that second position for the end of the season that would mean home ground advantage in the first weekend of the finals but a loss would leave them vulnerable to drop below Peel depending on percentage.

There have already been two Perth derbies this season with vastly contrasting results.

The first was in Round 8 at HBF Arena where East Perth looked in control during the third quarter but West Perth ended up kicking the last 12 goals of the game to end up winning by 38 points.

East Perth then turned the tide on WA Day at Medibank Stadium in front of over 4000 people by ending up recording an 18.11 (119) to 10.11 (71) victory.

East Perth has suffered a big blow with West Coast big man Fraser McInnes ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury that he suffered late in last week's thumping win over South Fremantle after he had kicked a career-best four goals in that contest.

That means that the Royals will need Scott Lycett to stand up in his absence to provide a strong, marking option in attack and to support Paul Johnson in the ruck.

Jamie Bennell, Jackson Nelson and Sam Butler have all been named emergencies for West Coast to play the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night, but unless the Eagles make a late change and time permitting, all three could still play for the Royals against the Falcons on Sunday.

West Coast small forwards Murray Newman and Malcolm Karpany both look set to come back into the East Perth team to face West Perth as well after the pair missed the win over South Fremantle last Saturday.

Tom Hodgson, Beau Chatley, Julian Ameduri, Clayton Giblett, Rowen Powell and Zac Dent are all in the mix for a place in the East Perth team as well on Sunday.

West Perth will still be without premiership players Luke Tedesco and Kody Manning who are getting closer to a return, and Matt Guadagnin, Jordan Jones and Rohan Kerr who won't be back this year following respective surgeries on their knee, hamstring and back.

West Perth could potentially offer three more debutants a chance to prove themselves in the league side on Sunday as well with Callum Papertalk, Dean Munns and Tim Sutherland all in the mix.

Papertalk has been on West Coast's list previously, but is still yet to play league football but he's been close on several occasions throughout his first season at West Perth and now following seven goals last week against Claremont in the reserves he might get his opportunity.

Munns has put together some strong form in the reserves and had 28 possessions and 10 tackles last week against Claremont to continue to close in for a league debut, while Sutherland continues to work hard both in the ruck and in key position roles.

Brayden Antonio went back to the reserves last week against Claremont and played well with 27 possessions, eight inside 50s and a goal to give himself a good opportunity to come straight back into the league side on Sunday against East Perth at Medibank Stadium.