McMahon confident Demons squad can deliverFriday, May 9, 2014 - 11:13 PM - by Chris Pike

PERTH coach Damien McMahon feels he has the best squad at his disposal in his time in charge and now hopes the Demons can back up last week's win over Peel with a victory over the league-leading Subiaco this Saturday.

Perth looked set to play finals for much of 2013 for the first time since 1997 until losing four of its last five matches to narrowly miss out.

However, unlike in recent seasons the Demons were able to maintain most of their required players including AFL premiership players Paul Bevan and Chance Bateman as well as experienced campaigners Jarryd Morton, Matt Moody and Brennan Stack.

Perth was then able to unite the three Morton brothers with Mitch and Cale joining Jarryd fresh off AFL lists with Gerald Ugle also returning from the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

With a good band of youngsters as well including Cameron Manuel, Matt Boyle, Joel Leeson, Callum Collard, Brad Keast, Michael Hunt and Kieran Hug, and McMahon likes the squad he has at his disposal at Perth.

Things started well in 2004 with a thumping win over Claremont and then a stunning win over South Fremantle after being 44 points behind during the second quarter.

However, losses then to West Perth, Swan Districts and East Perth left the Demons precariously poised before a bounce back 29-point win over Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium last Saturday leading into this week's clash with Subiaco at Lathlain Park.

Another bonus for Perth is that it has plenty of improvement left in the second half of the year with Bateman let to play in 2014 and neither has reigning fairest and best winner Brett Hodge while in their absence Dene White has emerged as one of the form midfielders of the competition.

Ruckman Mitchell Lleyendekkers is still to come back while key position players Chris Billings and Haydn Busher should only keep improving after interrupted starts to the year.

McMahon is happy with the shape of his squad.

"It is probably one of the best blends we've had in our squad for a while and over the pre-season we really looked heavily at trying to add some experience hence Cale Morton and Mitch Morton coming to the club to join their brother," McMahon said.

"Then with guys like Paul Bevan and Chance Bateman, although Chance is yet to play this season, they add a lot of knowledge and experience to our group and they are really knowledgeable people to have around our footy club."

Perth has had to fight back from slow starts on several occasions so far this season and while it was successful against South Fremantle, McMahon is working closely with his playing group on figuring out how to rectify it.

"The slow starts have been a bit of a concern. We know that we are ranked ninth in the competition for first quarters so that's an area for concern with our group and it's something we have discussed at length, and are working really hard to improve on that at the moment," he said.

"We are sitting 3-3 and lost a game by a point to Swan Districts so we are a little bit behind where we'd like to be, but overall we got back on the board last week and hopefully if we win this weekend it puts us in a good 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.

That gives Perth plenty of confidence heading into Saturday's match at Lathlain Park against the league-leaders.

"I think we are pretty similar side to Subiaco and it's interesting going through some key statistics of us against them, and we match them in most areas and are very similar in a lot of facets of the game," McMahon said.

"We probably play a similar style as well with a lot of running type of players and not so many talls. There are probably three teams in the competition quite similar with us, Subiaco and East Fremantle with the make up of our teams with smalls and talls.

"We have had some good games in recent times against Subiaco and I think it's been on the back of some poor history against them. I think back to when I first came to the club it was Subiaco belting Perth pretty much every time we played."

McMahon is confident that if his midfielders led by White, Manuel, the Morton brothers and others can get the ball forward to the likes of Stack, Busher, Bevan, Moody and then Collard and Leeson at ground level, that the Demons can again do well against Subiaco.

"We'll just try to play some pretty quick footy to give our forwards an opportunity. We know we've got a dangerous forward-line and if we get the ball in there 50-plus times it gives us an opportunity to win against any team in the competition," McMahon said.

"We are working really hard at developing a pretty steady back six at the moment as well to get some stability there and we think that will happen this week against a pretty impressive Subiaco forward-line at the moment.