And then most recently in Round 19 also at Medibank Stadium, East Perth won a thriller over West Perth by four points thanks to young Eagles forward Tom Lamb kicking a goal with virtually the last kick of the game.

However, that was another contest that had plenty of twists and turns with East Perth leading by 25 points during the last quarter before four quick West Perth goals saw the Falcons hit the front before Lamb's match-winning goal.

West Perth remains confident that Michael Lourey (ankle), Chris Keunen (knee) and Aaron Black (corked thigh, sore neck) will be right to take their place in the side for the preliminary final on Sunday at HBF Arena.

If Lourey doesn’t get up, the Falcons will have to do some rejigging of the forward-line and could very well use both Nick Rodda and Tyler Keitel in the same forward-line after one has generally been forward, and the other back when they have been in the one team together.

The other option without Lourey could be to back in a small forward-line made up of Matt Fowler, Matt Johnson, Kody Manning, Steve Potente and possibly one of Luke Meadows, Kris Shannon or Corey Chalmers.

If Keunen isn’t able to play, then West Perth will likely go in with a makeshift ruck combination made up of Keitel and Rodda up against East Perth powerhouse Paul Johnson who will have the support of Scott Lycett. 

Tim Sutherland is unlikely to be a late inclusion despite some encouraging form in the last two rounds of the season in his first two league matches.

The X-factor at selection for West Perth is Jordan Jones with the 103-game premiership player returning in the reserves last week in the losing first semi-final for his first game since Round 1 with him tearing his hamstring twice, and suffering a broken finger in a horror 2015 so far.

Jones is a quality player but the question will be whether one run in the reserves will be enough for him. If either Lourey or Keunen are unable to play, it might help his case to be selected significantly.

East Perth, on the other hand, has pretty close to a full squad available with the strength of the squad highlighted by 103-game wingman Freddie Clutterbuck unable to break into the extended squad.

The Royals will have available to them Jackson Nelson, Jamie Bennell, Tom Barrass, Malcolm Karpany, Kane Lucas, Murray Newman, Tom Lamb, Rowen Powell, Scott Lycett, Brant Colledge, Corey Adamson, Paddy Brophy and Dylan Main from West Coast.

Two more players that the Eagles would have liked to have had a run with the Royals ahead of next Saturday's AFL preliminary final were Patrick McGinnity and Scott Selwood, but neither played the required five games to play on a weekend when West Coast wasn’t playing.

Colledge is also set to return to the East Perth team to play his first game since Round 20 and he will provide another option for coach Brian Dawson in the midfield.

Clayton Giblett, Tom Omodei and Shayne Hille are the other three players to come back into the extended squad for East Perth.

RESERVES PRELIMINARY FINAL
SUBIACO (14-1-5, 2nd) v SWAN DISTRICTS (14-6, 3rd) – HBF ARENA, SUNDAY 11.20AM
Selected teams 

Subiaco and Swan Districts played out a thrilling reserves qualifying final two weeks ago and the two teams clash again this Sunday at HBF Arena with a grand final berth on the line.

Just two points separated the Lions and Swans two weeks ago with Subiaco prevailing, but the stakes go up significantly this time around with a grand final place against South Fremantle at Domain Stadium the prize on offer.

Subiaco won the reserves minor premiership last year and then had a comfortable second semi-final win over West Perth before then losing the grand final by 14 points in at times torrential conditions.

The Lions have backed up this year by finishing the home and away season in second position behind South Fremantle while Swan Districts finished third and would welcome another crack at the Bulldogs in the grand final having beaten them once during the year.

Subiaco and Swan Districts' reserves met just two weeks ago in a qualifying final, and that turned out to be a thriller with the Lions ending up prevailing 9.10 (64) to 8.14 (62) in a match that could have gone either way.

Following on from that last week, Subiaco proved no match for the minor premier South Fremantle in the second semi-final losing by 47 points meaning the Bulldogs moved straight into the grand final, and the Lions had to await to find out who they would face in a preliminary final.

Swan Districts took on West Perth last Sunday night at Medibank Stadium with the Falcons racing out to a 33-point lead at half-time before the black-and-whites dominated the second half kicking 10 goals to one to end up winning by 32 points.

Both teams feature a host of players either with league experience, or who have league careers ahead of them as well.

Subiaco's team will also consist of several players still with a chance of taking part in next Sunday's league grand final against either West Perth or East Perth including Matt Bogensperger, Declan Jackson, Simon Moore, Reece Blechynden and Will Fetherstonhaugh.

Premiership players from last year Joel Latham and Rhys Waters also have one more opportunity to try and impress to return to the league side next week while Scott Worthington could pick up some further match fitness by playing on Sunday after being part of the league team last Sunday in the second semi-final win over West Perth.

Swan Districts' team will also include Jacob Burnham, Jacob Coniglio, Jason Daniels, Albert Dean, Laurence Grescos, Josh Kirkup, David McKay, Dylan Nelson, Jake Nuich, Rudy Riddoch and Warrick Wilson who have all played some impressive league football throughout 2015.

In last week's win over West Perth in the first semi-final, Nuich kicked four goals for Swan Districts while Whitsed, Wilson and Daniels were particularly effective.

COLTS PRELIMINARY FINAL
SWAN DISTRICTS (13-7, 2nd) v PEEL THUNDER (12-8, 3rd) – HBF ARENA, SUNDAY 8.50AM
Selected teams 

Swan Districts will be looking to earn another crack at Claremont and keep their hopes of back-to-back colts premierships alive heading into Sunday's preliminary final against Peel Thunder at HBF Arena.

However, Swans can't afford to look too far ahead with the Thunder's form in the second half of the season and last week in the first semi-final every bit as good as what Claremont and Swan Districts have put together.

Swan Districts won last year's colts premiership and battled with Claremont neck and neck over top spot right through the 2015 season after it was the Tigers who Swans defeated in last year's grand final.

Swans beat Claremont in Round 22 to take top spot, but then the Tigers regained it in Round 23 with a win over West Perth while Swan Districts had the bye.

That meant that Claremont had the first week of the finals off with Swan Districts taking on a Peel Thunder team in the qualifying final who had won their last five games of the season, and 12 of their last 13 with the loss in the last 13 matches coming against Swans in Round 18.

Swans and Peel then met in that qualifying final and it was a comfortable win for the black-and-whites 13.12 (90) to 4.9 (33).

Swan Districts then went on to lose the second semi-final to Claremont last Sunday by 23 points while Peel scored a commanding 43-point victory over West Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

While Swans comfortably beat the Thunder a fortnight ago by 57 points, there's every chance Sunday's clash in the preliminary final with a grand final spot on the line will be a much closer affair.

Two weeks ago, Peel had no answer for Swans' guns with Robert Mostert kicking five goals and Ben Gillard racking up 27 possessions, Josh Cipro 27, Brayden Hackett 26, Brad Lynch 23 and Vincent Adams, but the Thunder has plenty of stars themselves who were on show last Sunday.

Brett Milward kicking six goals, Luke Shepherd four, Jordan Adams three, Calvin Thorne two and Nicholas Merritt two while Josh Schoenfeld had 33 possessions, Dylan Winton 29, Keegan Power 23 and Michael Humble 20.

If all those Peel players fire again on Sunday, then Peel could very well take it right up to Swan Districts and give the black-and-whites a real fight to make it back to the grand final.