ROUND 8 PREVIEW V PEEL THUNDER

WEST Perth and Peel Thunder both made finals last year, are each on two-game winning streaks and looking to continue that form in what shapes as a tremendous contest at HBF Arena on Saturday.

Following a slow start to the season, West Perth has found some form the past two weeks with wins over Swan Districts and Claremont to have improved to a 3-4 record and being 4-4 heading into its bye next week would be a good result considering the Falcons were 1-4 at one stage.

Peel has also been impressive the past two weeks beating Claremont by 21 points and then dominating Perth last Saturday to win by 77 to improve to a 4-2 record. A win on Saturday will see the Thunder close in on a top two spot with a clash against the second placed South Fremantle next week.

The last time the two teams met was in last year's qualifying final but the two teams are both significantly different from that day when West Perth beat a greatly under strength Peel by 109 points.

HBF Arena isn’t a happy hunting ground for Peel, though, with West Perth winning its last 10 at home over the Thunder. Peel's last win at Joondalup came in Round 21, 2006 and they have only ever won twice in 21 attempts at the venue.

West Perth's improvement the past two weeks has seen them collect their two highest possession tallies of the season and kick their two highest scores, but Peel is in some imposing form itself.

Over the course of the season, West Perth has started slowly losing its first quarters by a total of 71 points over six games while Peel has started strongly outscoring their opponents by 57 points, so the start on Saturday could go a long way to deciding the final result.

West Perth has now found form the past two weeks with wins over Swan Districts and Claremont, and the Falcons have pulled up well from last Saturday's win over the Tigers in Kulin with no player out of the side at this stage.

While Chris Keunen, Luke Tedesco, Joe Morrow, Matt Guadagnin, Matt Fowler and Brayden Antonio are among the players still sidelined, West Perth has been buoyed in recent weeks with the returns of Shane Nelson and Kody Manning.

Now another player who was an important part in the Falcons set up in 2015, Matt Johnson, could play his first game of 2016.

After initially deciding not to play on this season, he has returned and strung together four games in the reserves and kicking six goals on his powerful left foot to put himself in the mix to add another option across half-forward for West Perth to the likes of Joel Leeson, Andrew Strijk, Steve Potente and Max Duffy.

Mitch Antonio had a strong colts career with the Falcons and has graduated to senior football in 2016, and after some good performances in the reserves he could make his debut on Saturday against Peel Thunder to provide West Perth with another option in attack.

Kris Shannon is also in the mix to return for the Falcons to provide potentially another option across half-forward, but he can also provide some pace and running ability further up the field if selected.

There are plenty of changes at Peel who is coming off two wins and much of that is down to moves at selection by Fremantle in the AFL.

Garrick Ibbotson played just the one game back in the WAFL last week against Perth for 22 possessions and he is straight back into the Dockers side to take on the GWS Giants at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.

Nick Suban also had a strong game last week for Peel with 22 disposals and three goals to earn a recall for the Dockers while defender Ethan Hughes has also been selected for his AFL debut following continued strong performances.

Matt De Boer, Ed Langdon and Jack Hannath have all been named as emergencies for Fremantle but two of the three should still line up for the Thunder on Saturday against the Falcons.

Peel's team will receive a significant boost in height with Zac Clarke dropped by Fremantle to try to regain some form in the reserves. His combination likely with Hannath presents a big challenge for the likes of Seva Mozhaev and Tyler Keitel from West Perth.

Brady Grey got a taste of AFL football and did some nice things for the Dockers, but he is back to Peel on Saturday while Darcy Tucker has also been dropped by Fremantle and will play his first WAFL match since Round 1.

Tendai Mzungu will also be back in Peel's midfield on Saturday with Ben Hancock, Josh Mathers, Kieran May, Andrew Haydon and Brad McGowan all in the selection mix as is potential 18-year-old debutant Alexander Bray.

Shane Yarran looks to be out for Peel after his one and only game of the season so far last week when he kicked three goals after being traded by Peel. That will be one less forward West Perth will need to match up on and it could allow hard man Kody Manning to remain forward.

ROUND 8
WEST PERTH (3-4, 6th) v PEEL THUNDER (4-2, 3rd) – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Broadcast – 107.3 HFM

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