McDonald's WAFL Second Semi Finals PreviewFriday, September 11, 2015 - 10:46 PM - by Chris Pike

ONE team will be into the 2015 WAFL grand final by Sunday after the last two premiers Subiaco and West Perth do battle at Medibank Stadium in the second semi-final.

Subiaco is coming off winning last year's premiership and has gone on to earn the minor premiership in 2015 ending up four games clear on top of the ladder to now earn the right to host Sunday's second semi-final against West Perth.

The winner will earn the break next week having moved straight into the grand final while the loser will host a preliminary final against either Peel Thunder or East Perth.

The reserves second semi-final will take place at Medibank Stadium at 11.30am with South Fremantle taking on Subiaco for a place in the grand final with the loser to go on to play either Swan Districts or West Perth next Sunday.

And the colts' second semi-final will take place at Bendigo Bank Stadium at 9am on Sunday morning with Claremont taking on Swan Districts in a rematch of last year's grand final.

The winner is straight into the 2015 grand final while the loser will take on either Peel Thunder or West Perth in the preliminary final next Sunday.

LEAGUE SECOND SEMI-FINAL
SUBIACO (17-3, 1st) v WEST PERTH (13-7, 2nd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 720 ABC Perth, KIX Digital

Subiaco dominated the 2015 WAFL season finishing four games clear on top of the ladder and now are coming off a break in the first week of the finals, but they enter Sunday's second semi-final with West Perth on level footing with a grand final spot at stake.

Bartholomew fights way back into West Perth's best team 

Dominant Lions focus on start to new season in finals 

Subiaco scored an upset grand final win in 2014 beating the hot favourite East Perth and now the Lions have gone to another level in 2015 winning 17 of 20 games to end up as minor premiers four games clear on top of the ladder.

The Lions have had the minor premiership wrapped for some time and had a comfortable run into the finals winning their last three games and seven of their last eight since a loss to West Perth in Round 14.

Subiaco has used the last two months to try to get their best team fully available, healthy and in-form as well and the Lions seem to have timed that well with just about everyone ready to go.

The Lions only played one finals team in the last six games and then had a break last weekend, so they are fresh and ready for West Perth on Sunday in the second semi-final with the winner to go straight into the grand final.

West Perth, meanwhile, has now played nine straight matches since its last bye but the Falcons have won six of them to firstly end up in second position to earn a home qualifying final where they went on to beat the undermanned Peel Thunder by 109 points last Sunday at HBF Arena.

Not only have Subiaco and West Perth combined to the win the last two premierships, they have a host of players who grew up going to school and playing junior football together, and was there an off-field incident featuring players from both teams earlier this year, but they have a recent history of playing close encounters as well.

Back in Round 4 not long after that off-field incident was the time they first met this year and the rain pelted down in the second half, and Subiaco rebounded from a slow start to kick nine of the last 11 goals to win by 17 points after West Perth booted the opening four goals of the match.

The second, and last, clash was then in Round 14 at HBF Arena and it was a low-scoring affair that saw West Perth beat an inaccurate Subiaco 8.7 (55) to 5.15 (45).

The two haven’t been strangers to playing finals this century either. The most recent clash was in 2011 when Subiaco won a preliminary final by 15 points at Joondalup and before that the Lions had a 44-point second semi-final win in 2008.

Prior to that West Perth beat Subiaco in the 2003 grand final after the Lions won the second semi-final that year. Twelve months earlier it was West Perth who won the preliminary final by 18 points.

Subiaco decided to play the last three games of the home and away season without a recognised ruckman relying on the undersized but more mobile pair of Clancy Wheeler and Lachlan Delahunty to do the job.

They battled hard but now the other three finalists still alive have big, quality and experienced ruckmen with West Perth possessing Chris Keunen, East Perth having Paul Johnson and Peel Thunder having at least two of Zac Clarke, Jack Hannath, Craig Moller and Jonathon Griffin.

As a result, the Lions have brought back in inexperienced ruckman Jordan Bestry for his seventh league game with David Madut now having not played in the league side since Round 15 and in the reserves since Round 21 despite being the No. 1 ruckman for the opening 13 matches of 2015.

However, Bestry now comes in to tackle West Perth's 169-game premiership ruckman Keunen but the positive for Subiaco is that it allows Delahunty to settle as a hard-leading centre half-forward and for Wheeler to either play forward or back depending on where coach Jarrad Schofield needs him.

Subiaco's reserves won a qualifying final against Swan Districts last Sunday while the league side had the bye, and that side featured league premiership players from 2014 Joel Latham, Rhys Waters, Charles Le Fanu and Scott Worthington.

Only Worthington and Le Fanu have now been added to Subiaco's squad for Sunday's second semi-final against West Perth along with defender Aaron Heal and experienced midfielder Brett Robinson who is in his first season with the Lions having been a premiership player at Swan Districts.

Will Fetherstonhaugh is the only out at this stage from the Subiaco team that beat East Perth in Round 23 before the break in the first week of the finals, but Schofield certainly has some tough selection decisions to make ahead of Sunday.

West Perth's league and reserves teams both recorded victories last Sunday at HBF Arena and with no injuries picked up, the Falcons have just about a full list to pick from once again this week minus the long-term injuries to Matt Guadagnin, Jordan Jones and Seva Martin.

Corey Chalmers, Blake Wilhelm, Kris Shannon, Tim Sutherland and Luke Meadows were the five unlucky players to lose their place in the league team last week to play Peel Thunder with the returns of Shane Nelson, Kody Manning, Joe Morrow, Tyler Keitel and Laine Rasmussen.

All five had a significant impact as well in the eventual 109-point win but those who went back to the reserves didn’t drop their heads either to keep themselves in contention for a league call up if a position opens up.

Sutherland showed enough that if West Perth needs a second ruckman he is ready to go while Chalmers racked up 41 possessions, Wilhelm 31 and Shannon and Meadows showed some good signs as well.

However, at this stage Chalmers, Meadows, Shannon and Wilhelm have just been added to the West Perth group of 22 players who took to HBF Arena to beat Peel last Sunday.

RESERVES SECOND SEMI-FINAL
SOUTH FREMANTLE (18-2, 1st) v SUBIACO (14-1-5, 2nd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 11.30AM
Selected teams 

South Fremantle looks to continue its dominant season in the reserves by moving straight through to the grand final but standing in the way is a Subiaco team in the second semi-final strengthened by players still hoping for a league opportunity and with home ground advantage.

The game will begin proceedings on Sunday at Medibank Stadium with South Fremantle looking for an eighth straight win to try and win a second reserves premiership in three years, but Subiaco just missed out on a flag last year and will be looking to go one better this year.

Subiaco moved into the second semi-final by winning a thriller over Swan Districts last Sunday and now the winner between the Bulldogs and Lions will be straight into the grand final while the loser will take on either Swan Districts or West Perth in the preliminary final.

South Fremantle and Subiaco met three times during the season with the Bulldogs winning on all three occasions by 34 points at Fremantle Oval in Round 5, by 21 points at Medibank Stadium in Round 12 and then by eight points in Round 19 again at Leederville.

The biggest problem for South Fremantle reserves coach Tony Walters is how he is going to able to fit 30-plus capable and qualified players down to 23 for Sunday's game.

Matthew Ah Siu, Josh Branchi, Mitch Carter, Jacob Dragovich, James Laurino, Tim Stewart, Kade Stewart and Zac Strom all finished the season in the league side for the Bulldogs and are all certain to line-up for the reserves.

Paul Mugambwa is going to captain the Bulldogs into the reserves to finish his WAFL career so he is another certain selection as are experienced defenders Dylan Ross, Nick Borovac and Chris Luff.

The back-line might be where the biggest selection headaches could come with the likes of Mitch Banks, Adam and Mitch Carter, Matthew Gundry, Jason Maskos, Brad McPhail and Stephen Mills all best suited to roles in the back-line.

The ruck brigade will be led by the returning Branchi with plenty of prime ball winners to go through the middle including Anthony Collica, Brendan Verrier, Shaun Bewick, Laurino, Dragovich and Panizza.

Then up forward there is the likes of John Sgherza, Ben Sokol, the Strom brothers, Traye Bennell, Mugambwa and potentially Kaiden and Bailey Matera.

All of that could very well make up the bulk of South Fremantle's league side for Round 1 next season but for now the focus is on the reserves and trying to get past Subiaco on Sunday to move straight into the grand final.

Subiaco was the dominant reserves team all of last season before losing in an upset in the grand final in wet conditions to West Perth, and again the Lions have put pressure on their minor premier league by being primed for second position behind the Bulldogs most of the season.

The Lions then came from behind to beat Swan Districts in the qualifying final last Sunday to book in a meeting with South Fremantle with a grand final berth at stake and as luck would have it they get home ground advantage to go with it.

Among the Subiaco team looks set to include league premiership players from last year Rhys Waters and Joel Latham, along with potentially Scott Worthington and Charles Le Fanu again if they miss selection in the senior side.

Reece Blechynden was outstanding last week for Subiaco in the win over Swan Districts to come back into the mix as well while Matt Bogensperger, Ray Daniels, Will Fetherstonhaugh, Braden Fimmano, James Garcia and Luke Norriss could get back in the hunt with a strong showing.

COLTS SECOND SEMI-FINAL
CLAREMONT (14-6, 1st) v SWAN DISTRICTS (13-7, 2nd) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 9.05AM
Selected teams 

Claremont and Swan Districts have been the two outstanding teams in the colts all season and now they meet on Sunday morning at Bendigo Bank Stadium in the second semi-final with one of them to advance straight to the grand final.

The Tigers and Swans have split the last two colts premierships and met in the grand final last year with the black-and-whites prevailing in the decider by 20 points in the wet conditions at Domain Stadium.

The two teams then played three terrific contests throughout the season with Claremont beating a horribly inaccurate Swan Districts at the Claremont Showground in Round 8, winning 10.13 (73) to 6.23 (59).

Then in Round 19 again at the Showground, Claremont prevailed by 26 points before Swan Districts hit back in Round 22 with a commanding 38-point victory at Steel Blue Oval.

That win briefly put Swan Districts on top of the ladder but with Swans having the bye in the final round, Claremont scored a win over West Perth to regain that position and finish with the minor premiership.

That gave Claremont the bye in the first week of the finals while Swan Districts had to take on Peel Thunder for the right to play the Tigers in the second semi-final, and Swans comfortably beat the Thunder by 57 points at Medibank Stadium.

Swans had a host of outstanding contributors in that win over Peel including Robert Mostert who kicked five goals while Josh Cipro gathered 27 possessions, Ben Gillard 27, Brayden Hackett 26, Brad Lynch 23 and Vincent Adams 19 while Brad Fullgrabe had 34 hit outs in the ruck.

Claremont's team isn’t short on talented youngsters either including Declan Mountford, Matt Guelfi, Ryan Murphy, Jake Waterman, Sam Petrevski-Seton and Bailey Rogers.

It would take something special from either Peel or West Perth in the preliminary to stop this being a grand final preview and it should be a terrific contest between two teams with a host of players with outstanding AFL and WAFL careers ahead of them.