ROUND 4 PREVIEW V EAST FREMANTLE

WEST Perth heads to ATOM Stadium to battle East Fremantle this Saturday determined to bounce back from last week's loss to Subiaco to square its ledger for the WAFL season at 2-2.

Giving West Perth extra confidence heading to East Fremantle Oval is the fact the Falcons have won three of their last games at the venue including a 15.14 (104) to 4.7 (31) victory in Round 20 last year after kicking the opening six goals.

East Fremantle returns from a bye after a loss that was tough to swallow against Peel Thunder with the Sharks hosting West Perth also coming off a defeat with both teams aiming for their second wins of the 2016 season.

The Sharks started the season impressively with a 49-point win over Swan Districts at ATOM Stadium to begin coach Rob Wiley's rein in style. They then appeared on track to make it two straight wins until Peel kicked the last two goals in Round 2 to snatch the three-point victory.

West Perth, meanwhile, had a win in Round 2 over Perth by 41 points but either side of that have lost to the two remaining unbeaten teams – South Fremantle by 35 points and Subiaco by 44.

That means both East Fremantle and West Perth enter Saturday's clash at Shark Park determined to win to remain in touch of South Fremantle and Subiaco at the top of the ladder.

It was the old story of inaccuracy that proved costly for the Sharks against the Thunder so they will be looking to fix that up on their home ground on Saturday. Meanwhile the Falcons just haven’t won enough of the ball over the opening three rounds.

Without ball magnet Shane Nelson and now with ruckman Chris Keunen sidelined too, West Perth has lost the possession count in losses to the Bulldogs and Lions by a combined 197 disposals so they will need to get more of the ball against East Fremantle's midfield to win on Saturday.

Perhaps West Perth's best and most consistent defender so far this season Joe Morrow goes out of the team through injury following last Saturday's defeat to Subiaco after he was one of the Falcons' best players.

That opens up a position in the Falcons defence for somebody and Ben King looms as a likely replacement for Morrow after some solid form down back in the reserves in his return to West Perth in 2016 after a year off.

He had a strong season in 2014 as a key part of the reserves side while also breaking through for the first four league appearances of his career.

There are two potential debutants pushing for selection with the Falcons as well, Nathan Alexandre and Mitch Peirce. Alexandre had 19 possessions in the reserves last week against Subiaco while Peirce continued to rack up the disposals in the midfield with 34 touches.

Mark Hamilton is also in the mix to play his second game of the season in the league side to provide some support to Seva Mozhaev in the ruck, and to likely provide another marking option in attack for West Perth.

East Fremantle will lose captain Jamie McNamara from the side that lost narrowly to Peel prior to the bye last week with several players pushing for selection following good performances in the reserves.

Two weeks ago with the Sharks' reserves scoring an emphatic win over the Thunder, Miles Franklin finished with 27 possessions, eight marks and five tackles, Dylan Winton 19 disposals and five marks, Jesse Adamini 26 possessions and six marks, and Matthew Bannister 24 touches and three goals.

If Winton plays, it will be his first game with the Sharks since crossing from Peel while Adamini could make his league debut having graduated from the colts into senior football in 2016.

Showing the depth at East Fremantle early in the season, 43 possessions and 14 marks from Julian Locantro, 31 disposals by Jake Schleicher and 25 touches, seven marks and two goals to Jacob Green wasn’t enough to put any of that trio in the squad for Saturday's clash with West Perth.

West Perth coach Bill Monaghan knows that the Falcons will have to be at their best to come away with a win over the Sharks.

"They will be pretty confident down there and probably even more confident after watching us this week. I haven’t seen a lot of them and with Peake back, they've added Watson up forward they've got a little bit more scoring power than they probably had last year," Monaghan said.

"There's no O'Brien or McGough so it's a bit of a different midfield so I'll sit through their first game and watch them. They run the ball well through the middle of the ground, they rebound well off half-back and have some dangerous forwards. We will need to be good to beat them."

ROUND 5
EAST FREMANTLE (1-1, 5th) v WEST PERTH (1-2, 6th) – ATOM STADIUM, SATURDAY 1.45PM
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM 

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