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WAFL Round 8 PreviewFriday, May 9, 2014 - 1:29 PM - by Chris Pike

ROUND 8 of the WAFL is split over Saturday and Sunday this weekend with Subiaco and Swan Districts still fighting over top spot at different venues while Peel looks for its first win and West Perth and Claremont try to keep in touch with the top-four.

The action begins on Saturday afternoon with three matches that sees Perth play Subiaco at Lathlain Park, East Perth host Claremont at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and Swan Districts take on East Fremantle at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

Then on Sunday the standalone Mother's Day contest features West Perth taking on Peel Thunder at Arena Joondalup.

South Fremantle has the bye after winning three straight matches following a 0-4 start to the season.

PERTH (3-3, 4th) v SUBIACO (5-1, 1st) – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Perth is looking to continue a tremendous recent against Subiaco when it takes on the league-leaders at Lathlain Park on Saturday.

Subiaco remains on top of the WAFL ladder despite suffering its first loss of the season last Saturday to Swan Districts.

The Lions trailed by just three points against Swans at three quarter-time, but coughed up the first seven goals of the final term before losing by 43 points.

However, before that Subiaco had been terrific with wins over South Fremantle, East Fremantle, Claremont, Peel Thunder and East Perth.

Subiaco could remain on top of the ladder with a victory over Perth or could slip to as low as third with a loss depending how Swan Districts and East Perth go in their respective matches.

Perth, meanwhile, won its first two games of the season before losing three straight heading into last week's clash with Peel in Mandurah.

The Demons led by just five points at three quarter-time, but performed totally the opposite to Subiaco in the final term to end up winning by 29 points to improve to a 3-3 record on the season and to sit in fourth position.

Despite Subiaco winning 15 straight matches over Perth between 2005 and 2010, the Demons have impressed against the Lions in recent years winning six of the last seven matches including the last four.

Perth returned to the winner's list last Saturday over Peel and from that team, Callum Collard, Ryan Gray, Michael Florio, Tim Hunt and Kieran Hug are all in line to come into the team.

Collard kicked 10 goals in the first four games but hasn’t played since Round 5 and now the small forward is set to add another goal kicking option to the Demons' line-up.

Florio looks set to return after missing last week while if Gray and Hunt are selected, they will be making their league debuts with Perth.

South Fremantle recruit Sean Lynch and Jarrad Irons are the outs from the Perth team so far.

Subiaco lost its first game of the season last Saturday and now has plenty of changes to its side coming into this Saturday's clash against Perth.

George Hampson has been one of the form players of the WAFL so far this season but missed the game against Swans and is one returnee to face the Demons.

Josh Deluca, Will Fetherstonhaugh, Daniel Leishman and Simon Moore are all in the mix to return to the Lions side as well with Joe Scafidi a chance to make his league debut.

Rhys Waters is out suspended with Rhett Kerr and Charles Le Fanu the other outs of the Subiaco team so far.

SWAN DISTRICTS (5-1, 2nd) v EAST FREMANTLE (3-3, 5th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Swan Districts is the form team of the WAFL and East Fremantle's first three quarters of its last two matches have been as poor as any side has played this season, but both look evenly matched and set to take part in a terrific contest on Saturday at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans now sit just percentage off top spot on the WAFL ladder following five straight victories after a tight first up loss to East Perth with the black-and-whites coming off being the first team to beat Subiaco this season.

Swan Districts led by just three points over Subiaco last Saturday, but then kicked the first seven goals of the last quarter before winning by 43 points.

Swans now can sit on top of the ladder come Saturday night with a win over the Sharks and if Subiaco loses to Perth.

East Fremantle could move back into the top-four as well with a win but it will have to put in a vastly-improved effort on the last two weeks.

The Sharks fell 46 points behind South Fremantle on Anzac Day and then 50 points back of East Perth last Saturday.

While they ended up getting within three goals on both occasions, they left themselves with far too much work to do and were never going to win on either occasion.

The positive for the Sharks is that they are finishing games strongly so if they can be in touch at three quarter-time, they will be a real chance. The problem is finding a way to play better over the first three quarters.

East Fremantle did beat Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval back in the 2012 preliminary final by 27 points, but the black-and-whites bounced back last year winning both matches over the Sharks by 11 and 23 points respectively.

Swan Districts has had the most stable group in the WAFL this season with only 23 players being used across the opening six matches.

Only the swap in Round 5 of Jarrad Blight for Nathan Broad has seen the Swan Districts team change so far this season, but unfortunately there are a couple of forced changes this week with brothers Graham and Brandon Jetta out of the team due to a death in the family.

Both, along with fellow Jetta family members Rodney and Aaron from the reserves, will be unavailable to play on Saturday due to the funeral.

That opens up two spots in the Swan Districts team with Laurence Grescos and Josh Kirkup both expected to grab those spots and to make their league debuts.

However, Jacob Burnham, Rudy Riddoch and Jesse Manton are also in good form and ready for the call up to the league side if it comes.

East Fremantle's opening three quarters the past two weeks have been disastrous and coach Steve Malaxos desperately needs to find a way for his side to capitalise on its defence still doing well, and midfield winning plenty of the ball.

Finding avenues to goal is a must, but perhaps even more important is finding players in the forward-line who will put pressure on the opposition. Right now, opposition defenders are running the ball out of East Fremantle's forward-line with far too much ease.

Both Brandon Ellis and Jack Perham kicked five goals apiece in the reserves last week for East Fremantle against East Perth so are looking to come back into the side with James Bristow finding form to put his hand up to return, and Tim Bristow could also make his debut.

Former captain Mark McGough made his return in the reserves last week from a wrist injury and picked up 16 possessions, and it's unlikely he will need a second game in the reserves.

At this stage, Mitch Boyle and Aiden Tropiano are the only two players named out of the Sharks' side.

EAST PERTH (5-2, 3rd) v CLAREMONT (2-4, 8th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

East Perth and Claremont played off in last year's preliminary final, but both will have vastly different line-ups this time around when they meet at Medibank Stadium.

East Perth won that preliminary final by 63 points to qualify for the grand final making it the first time since 2009 that a WAFL premiership decider didn’t feature Claremont.

East Perth has gone on to now win five of its first seven games of the season to currently sit in third position on the ladder, but things haven’t gone as smoothly for Claremont with new coach Michael Broadbridge in charge.

The Tigers have beaten West Perth and Peel, but the four losses to Perth, Claremont, East Fremantle and South Fremantle have been by a massive average of 71 points.

From that team that played in the preliminary final loss to East Perth last year, only Luke Blackwell, Jake Murphy, Jack Bradshaw, Matthew Davies, Sam Fong, Andrew Foster, Aaron Holt, Trinity Handley, Ryan Neates, Anton Hams, Mark Seaby and Tom Taylor will play this week.

Aside from Brandon Franz, Matt Orzel and Tom Ledger, the players that have come in to replace those players are young, inexperienced and relatively unproven at WAFL level as well.

Sharrod Wellingham could have earned himself a recall by West Coast with his 25 possessions last week for East Perth against East Fremantle.

That would obviously rule him out of the Royals line-up to take on Claremont but West Coast premiership player Sam Butler will return for East Perth to continue a WAFL season that has so far seen him average 25.4 possessions a game.

Steven Wityk, Julian Ameduri and Julian Locantro are all in contention for the East Perth line-up.

However, reigning Bernie Naylor Medallist Josh Smith is again sidelined for East Perth for the fourth straight week leaving Fraser McInnes, Josh Hill and the resting Paul Johnson or Callum Sinclair to serve as the main forward targets.

Claremont is desperate to find some more competitive form and that should be helped with the return of Matthew Davies, Trinity Handley and Jake Murphy.

Murphy is in his first season as captain but hasn’t played since going off injured early in Round 3.

Handley is Claremont's most experienced player left with the dual premiership winning utility having 177 games under his belt and he will play his first league game since injuring his hamstring in Round 1, and returning through the reserves last week against South Fremantle.

Davies also responded well to being dropped with 38 possessions last week in the reserves so should return.

At this stage, youngsters Luke Cameron and Maximillian Bentley are the two Claremont players to go out of the team that was well beaten by South Fremantle.

WEST PERTH (2-4, 7th) v PEEL THUNDER (0-6, 9th) – ARENA JOONDALUP, SUNDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams
 
West Perth and Peel Thunder both desperately need the four points when they meet on Mother's Day at Arena Joondalup on Sunday.

West Perth hasn’t set the world on fire coming off last year's premiership winning just two of its first six WAFL games, but will be hoping to take some momentum out of Tuesday night's thrilling Foxtel Cup win over the Box Hill Hawks at Etihad Stadium.

Peel, meanwhile, is the only side yet to record a win this season and while the average losing margin has only been 24 points with a worst being a 35-point loss to Swan Districts in Round 3, the fact remains the Thunder have yet to win a game and every other club has at least two victories.

From the West Perth team that lost to Swan Districts on Anzac Day, Nick Rodda, Matt Spencer, Laine Rasmussen, Chris Keunen, Jay van Berlo, Matt Fowler, Dan Hunt, Trent Manzone, Andrew Krakouer, Brayden Antonio and Andrew Strijk didn’t play in Tuesday's Foxtel Cup victory.

However, all of those players are back in to face Peel Thunder this Sunday at Arena Joondalup.

Premiership players from last year Matt Guadagnin, Steve Potente and Shaun Marusic all returned in the Foxtel Cup and played at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, and are looking to now force their way into the WAFL team this Sunday to take on the Thunder.

Ruckman Seva Martin played his first senior game in West Perth colours on Tuesday and did well and now will be trying to earn his first official WAFL game with the Falcons as well.

From the Foxtel Cup winning team, Joe Morrow, Jack Thrum, Max Alexander, Matt Johnson, Kris Shannon, Drew Rohde and Mitch van Berlo will find themselves back in the reserves for West Perth on Sunday.

Even though Tom Vandeleur, Tom Sheridan and Garrick Ibbotson have been named as outs for Peel, only Vandeleur won't play on Sunday unless the Dockers make a late change for their clash against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Ibbotson and Sheridan are only named as emergencies for the Dockers as is ruckman Jack Hannath who should also play for Peel.

With Hannath added to the line-up, it will again be a Peel side with plenty of height with Jonathon Griffin, Craig Moller, Kepler Bradley, Michael Apeness and Matt Taberner in the line-u as well from Fremantle.

Peel will also welcome back Fremantle's Sam Menegola and Anthony Morabito while first-year draftee Alex Pearce is set to play his first game of the season.

Kelvin Lawrence, Aiden Field and Eddie Dann are also pressing for selection with Peel.

With 15 AFL-listed players expected to play for Peel including the likes of Bradley, Morabito, Taberner, Griffin, Ibbotson, Colin Sylvia and Hannath, and then Brendon Jones, Kristin Thornton, Cruize Garlett, James Flaherty, Matt Brown and youngsters Josh Mathers and Dylan Winton, it's likely the best team it has field all season