McDonald's WAFL First Semi Finals PreviewFriday, September 11, 2015 - 4:14 PM - by Chris Pike

PEEL Thunder hosts its first ever WAFL final at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Sunday in the first semi-final up against an East Perth team who has made the last two grand finals and is in its best form of the 2015 season.

Peel and East Perth do battle in the cut-throat first semi-final in Mandurah with the winner to advance to the preliminary final next Sunday against the loser of Sunday's other semi-final between Subiaco and West Perth.

Meanwhile, the loser's season will be over despite both having a strong last two months of the year to qualify for the finals and to both have appeared capable of challenging for a premiership at different times.

Meanwhile, the reserves first semi-final will take place at 5pm at Medibank Stadium with Swan Districts taking on West Perth for the right to advance to the preliminary final.

And the colts first semi-final contest will take place at 11.40am at Bendigo Bank Stadium between Peel Thunder and West Perth with a preliminary final berth on the line.

LEAGUE FIRST SEMI-FINAL
PEEL THUNDER (13-7, 3rd) v EAST PERTH (11-9, 4th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.10PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 7mate, 91.3 SportFM

Peel Thunder and East Perth have both displayed form at times in 2015 that could seriously contend for the WAFL premiership but only one of them will remain alive after Sunday's first semi-final at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Royals in season-best form in hunt for third successive grand final

Thunder keep making history with first ever home final against Royals 

Peel has earned its way into the club's first ever finals appearance on the back of winning eight of its last 10 games of the season while East Perth also finished its home and away campaign strongly winning five of its last six matches.

Both teams are in good form, both have a good influx of AFL-listed players from Fremantle and West Coast respectively, and all signs point towards a fascinating contest in Mandurah on Sunday afternoon with the winner to go into the preliminary final and the loser's season to be over.

Peel has had far and away its best ever season having won 13 games to now earn the home final on Sunday despite the loss to West Perth last Sunday.

The Thunder have gone on two different four-game winning runs during the season for the first time ever and they ended the home and away season in encouraging form having won eight of their last 10 matches to end up with the 13-7 record to be in third position.

Peel's only losses in the last 10 games came courtesy of minor premier Subiaco and this Sunday's opponent East Perth while the Thunder beat the Royals, Perth, East Fremantle, Claremont, Swan Districts, South Fremantle, the Demons again, and the Bulldogs in the last round in that time.

East Perth won just three of its first eight games of the season and then had just a 6-8 record following a Round 16 loss to Subiaco, but since then the Royals have found their best form of the season.

The Royals went on a five-game winning run with victories over Perth, South Fremantle, West Perth, Claremont and Peel before a narrow final round loss to Subiaco.

That saw East Perth end the season on an 11-9 record to be in fourth position to earn a home elimination final where the Royals ended up kicking the last four goals of the game against Claremont to win by 32 points and to advance to this Sunday's first semi-final.

The two teams met three times through the home and away season with Peel winning the opening two contests by 23 points at Medibank Stadium in Round 5, and then by 22 points in Round 12 at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

Those meeting were all so long ago, though, that neither side will take much from them but East Perth would have taken plenty of heart out of its win only a month ago in Mandurah to the tune of 32 points.

It was a dominant display by East Perth and the margin would have been greater had it not been for some late goals for Peel to bring some respectability to the scoreboard.

Peel might have ended up losing by 109 points last Sunday, but of the five debutants Jake Dowding, Kyle Shanahan, Harrison Tyler, Mitch Wallace and Jack Gomboc all showed good signs for the future. While they lose their place for Sunday's game, they could very well form a big part of Peel's team from 2016 onwards.

Brennan Gillam and Corey Morris were two other players who played their first games of 2015 and did well in the midfield to ensure they are in the mix to again play on Sunday while Eddy Dann, Mitch Gill, Brayden Lawler, Josh Mathers and Ben Hancock should be among those to remain in the side.

Lachie Weller, Tanner Smith, Max Duffy, Brady Grey, Jack Hannath, Ethan Hughes and Jacob Ballard all played for Peel in Round 23 against South Fremantle before being called up to play for Fremantle last Saturday, and each will be straight back into the Thunder line-up this week.

Paul Duffield, Clancee Pearce, Tendai Mzungu, Connor Blakely, Alex Pearce and Ed Langdon are others to have lost their place in the Fremantle side this week that will play Sydney at Domain Stadium, and most if not all will take their place for the Thunder against the Royals on Sunday.

East Perth, meanwhile, has a vastly more settled side coming into the must-win clash but the Royals do have a significant inclusion with West Coast big man Scott Lycett returning from injury.

The Royals have done well finding avenues to goal without having a tall, key target in attack but the return of Lycett gives them someone who can have the ball kicked long into.

If he can provide a strong contest and target in the forward-line for East Perth and take a couple of contested marks, and kick some goals, while also giving Paul Johnson a chop out in the ruck then he could very well just be the missing piece of the puzzle for the Royals with all other areas of their game going tremendously.

With Johnson leading the ruck with Brendan Lee, Kane Lucas, Mitch Howlett and Steven Payne at ground level along with Kyle Anderson, Nathan Blee, Tom Barrass, Mitch Fraser and Garry Moss in form down back, the missing piece is a key forward and that's where Lycett becomes crucial.

Suddenly a forward-line with Lycett as a centre piece with Tom Lamb, Malcolm Karpany, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Craig Wulff and Rowell Powell around him it looks capable of kicking a winning score.

East Perth does look set to lose West Coast midfielder Scott Selwood who had a good game in last Sunday's win over Claremont with 24 possessions and two goals on limited game time, but there is good pressure on for spots.

Tom Omodei, Shayne Hille, Beau Chatley, Tom Shanahan and Callum Hart are all in good reserves form to come into the mix to play on Sunday while the depth is going well at East Perth that 104-game wingman Freddie Clutterbuck can't even get into the extended squad.

RESERVES FIRST SEMI-FINAL
SWAN DISTRICTS (14-6, 3rd) v WEST PERTH (10-2-8, 4th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 5.00PM
Selected teams 

Swan Districts and West Perth's reserves will have to wait until Sunday evening to do battle in their first semi-final at Medibank Stadium with a spot in the preliminary final on the line.

By the time their game starts at Leederville, both teams will know whether or not they will face South Fremantle or Subiaco in the preliminary final next Sunday and where that game will be held, but neither can afford to get ahead of themselves and plan ahead.

Swan Districts might have finished third on the ladder at the end of the season, but had an outstanding second half of 2015 winning 10 of its last 11 games to book a place in last Sunday's qualifying final against Subiaco at Medibank Stadium.

Swans led by six points at half-time and 11 points still at three quarter-time but the Lions finished strongly with four goals to two in the last quarter to win by two points.

That means Swan Districts now heads back to Medibank Stadium this Sunday to take on West Perth with a place in the preliminary final the prize for the winner while the loser's season will be over.

Dylan Nelson continued his terrific season in the forward-line for Swans by kicking four goals in the loss to Subiaco while Jacob Burnham, Rudy Riddoch, Jacob Coniglio, Jake Nuich, Jason Daniels, David McKay, Jesse Turner, Ben Whitsed and Warrick Wilson all delivered good performances.

West Perth's reserves won the premiership last year and now Trent Manzone, Matt Fowler, Joe Morrow, Aidan Lynch and Drew Rohde have moved into being regular members of the Falcons' league side that will take on Subiaco in the second semi-final as well on Sunday.

Brayden Antonio, Luke Meadows, Kris Shannon, Corey Chalmers, Mitch van Berlo, Blake Wilhelm and Max Alexander are among the players who played in last year's reserves premiership for the Falcons and are likely to be in the team again on Sunday against Swan Districts.

West Perth finished the season in fourth position and then hosted East Perth in the elimination final last Sunday leading by 25 points at half-time and still by 21 at three quarter-time before the Royals stormed home in the last quarter. The Falcons just held on for the three-point win though.

The two teams have met three times throughout the season with Swan Districts winning by seven points at HBF Arena in Round 6 and again by 15 points at Steel Blue Oval in Round 17.

Then a month later in Round 21, it was West Perth who beat Swan Districts by 18 points at HBF Arena but all three games could have gone either way, and Sunday's first semi-final looks set to be no different.

COLTS FIRST SEMI-FINAL
PEEL THUNDER (12-8, 3rd) v WEST PERTH (11-9, 5th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 11.40AM
Selected teams 

Peel Thunder and West Perth's colts begin what each will hope will be big days for their club on Sunday in a first semi-final battle at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

For the Thunder, the colts will host the first semi-final ahead of the league team then taking part in their first ever home final that afternoon.

The Falcons, meanwhile, have all three grades in action on Sunday starting with the colts playing Peel in Mandurah, then their league side facing Subiaco at Medibank Stadium in a second semi-final and then the reserves being involved in a reserves first semi-final against Swan Districts on Sunday night at Leederville.

Peel and West Perth's colts teams are looking to book in a place in next Sunday's preliminary final against either Claremont or Swan Districts.

The two teams met just the two times during the season with West Perth scoring a 15.6 (96) to 9.3 (57) win over way back in Round 2 at HBF Arena and then Peel won a thriller 9.10 (64) to 9.5 (59) at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Round 11.

However, given both clashes were so long ago it's unlikely either side would take much out of them coming into Sunday's do or die clash in Mandurah.

Peel's colts had a good season to finish just behind the grand finalists from last year Swan Districts and Claremont to be in third spot, but the Thunder fell short of Swans in last Sunday's qualifying final with the black-and-whites winning by 57 points at Medibank Stadium.

However, Peel's colts have plenty of exciting talent including Mitchel Curnow, Michael Humble, Noah Hura, Brett Milward, Nicholas Merritt, Josh Schoenfeld and Keegan Power, and they won't want to bow out of the finals in straight sets.

West Perth's colts have been out of the finals for more than a decade, but did well to qualify this year in fifth position and to then beat an inaccurate East Fremantle by 15 points in the elimination final last Sunday at HBF Arena.

The Falcons side features Clint Hinchliffe, Mitch Antonio and Josh Rotham who all made the Colts Team of the Year while Conal Lynch, Ben Mountford, Ethan Hills, Mitch Peirce, Liam Baker and Angus Allen among the others in terrific form.