ANZAC ROUND PREVIEW V SWAN DISTRICTS

WEST Perth takes on Swan Districts in the now annual Anzac Round clash on Saturday with the Falcons determined to end a three-game losing streak and to begin to get its 2016 season back on track.

Swan Districts and West Perth will do battle for a fourth successive year in the Anzac Day round this Saturday with both clubs desperate to record their second wins of the 2016 season.

Swans and the Falcons have now made it an annual tradition to do battle either on Anzac Day, or the Anzac Round, and usually that has been with both teams battling for spots closer to the top of the ladder.

But this time around both clubs have been hit hard by injury early in the season and enter Saturday's clash at Steel Blue Oval with one win from five games. The loser will slip to 1-5 and it will be a long road back from there to return to being in finals contention.

The two clubs first did battle on Anzac Day in 2013 and it was a Dayle Garlett-led massive last quarter from Swan Districts that inspired a 28-point victory for the visitors at HBF Arena in front of a crowd of 2695 people.

Then in 2014 at Steel Blue Oval, Andrew Krakouer lined up for West Perth against the team he led to the 2010 premiership and it was again Swans winning a tight affair over the Falcons by seven points.

And last year, it was another classic encounter at HBF Arena in front of a crowd of 3340. Swans appeared home leading by 26 points entering time-on of the last quarter, but West Perth found a way to score the last five goals in quick succession to win by seven points.

Now both teams will be desperate to find a way to win with Swans coming off a 39-point loss at home last Sunday against Subiaco but before that they fought hard to beat Claremont by a goal also at Steel Blue Oval. Saturday will be Swans' fifth straight match at Steel Blue Oval.

West Perth has lost its last three matches against Subiaco, East Fremantle and East Perth following its only win of the season against the bottom placed Perth back in Round 2.

It's the case of the walking wounded for both teams at the moment as well.

Swan Districts loses key forward Ricky Cary (shoulder) and Jarrad Blight (ankle) from last week's loss to Subiaco with Nathan Blakely, Jake Nuich and Murray Newman already unavailable.

Meanwhile, West Perth will still be without Chris Keunen, Matt Guadagnin, Brayden Antonio, Matt Fowler, Laine Rasmussen and Joe Morrow.

The Falcons have pulled a surprise by naming dual fairest and best winning premiership on-baller Shane Nelson for the first time this season following a fractured wrist.

It is earlier than he was expected to return so he will still need to prove he is ready for before running out with the team on Steel Blue Oval on Saturday.

Max Duffy looks set to return from a hip strain, though, which kept him out of what would have been his first experience in his derby last Saturday against East Perth.

Luke Tedesco also missed last Saturday's derby due to his sister's wedding and he will return to take on Swan Districts in his 149th game this week.

Dean Munns is another potential debutant for West Perth following 25 possessions and 14 tackles in the reserves last week against East Perth.

Kris Shannon is the only player out of the West Perth side from last week at this stage.

The absence of Cary from the forward-line for Swan Districts leaves some work to do for coach Greg Harding to find some more options in attack.

But it might require some shuffling around of his current players because the players included into the squad to take on West Perth, Griffen Logue, Jack Watson, Lindsay Murray, Warrick Wilson and Ben Whitsed aren’t likely to provide too many goals.

Tony Notte, though, could play deeper forward and Justin Simpson has kicked five goals in a preliminary final before and booted two majors on return last week against Subiaco so he could be another option for Swan Districts in attack.

West Perth coach Bill Monaghan acknowledges both teams enter the clash undermanned and looking for confidence boost, and he's hoping it's the Falcons that get it.

"It should be a cracking game. Our games against Swan Districts over a reasonable stretch of time have always been pretty good encounters. We are both probably going to be in similar situations not only with our records, but our personnel," Monaghan said.

"Ricky Cary looked like he had a reasonably significant shoulder injury on Sunday, young Hackett had ice on his shoulder and hardly came back on after half-time and Blight hurt either an ankle or foot early in the game.

"They may be personnel wise pretty similar to us so I will be expecting a reasonable crowd like always when we play Swans, and it will be a hard fought game. We will need to be at our best to beat them no doubt."

ROUND 6
SWAN DISTRICTS (1-4, 8th) v WEST PERTH (1-4, 7th) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM 

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