FALCONS OVERRUN THUNDER FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN

WEST Perth delivered a dominant last quarter to overrun Peel Thunder and win by 17 points at HBF Arena on Saturday in difficult conditions with the Falcons entering the bye with a third straight victory.

With the stints of rain and strong breeze, it was a tough day for either side to play attractive football and little separated them for three quarters, but the Falcons pulled away with four goals to one in the last term to win 8.10 (58) to 5.11 (41).

The win is a third straight for West Perth to see the Falcons now enter the bye this week on a 4-4 record ahead of a grand final rematch against Subiaco at Medibank Stadium in Round 10.

The 17-point win also continues West Perth's dominance over Peel at HBF Arena. It is the 11th straight victory at home for the Falcons over the Thunder and the 20th in 22 encounters between the two teams at the Joondalup venue.

West Perth's back-line not only did well to keep Peel to five goals for the game, but also racked up plenty of the ball and set up play tremendously for the Falcons.

Tyler Keitel led the way not only limiting Tanner Smith to just six kicks, one mark and two goals, but racking up 32 possessions and 10 marks himself in a tremendous display from the 20-year-old.

He had plenty of help in the back-line with Luke Meadows continuing his career-best form with another 30 disposals and a goal while Drew Rohde finished with 25 touches, Steven Browne 21, Nick Rodda 18 and Blake Wilhelm 17.

Seva Mozhaev did a terrific job in the ruck for West Perth up against AFL pair Zac Clarke and Jack Hannath. He finished with nine possessions and 25 hit outs himself but more importantly nullified the impact of Clarke and Hannath.

Shane Nelson racked up another 29 possessions and six tackles in the midfield for West Perth while Aaron Black gathered 25 touches and took seven marks with Rohan Kerr working hard for 32 disposals and eight marks.

Trent Manzone also had 20 possessions for West Perth, Jay van Berlo 20 and Steve Potente 19.

Andrew Strijk and Kody Manning kicked two goals each for the Falcons with Manning finishing with 16 possessions and seven tackles as well.

Just as the ball was about to be bounced a huge downpour hit HBF Arena and that made for a challenging opening to the game. As a result it took more than 20 minutes for the opening goal that came to Peel's Tanner Smith with the Thunder kicking with the breeze.

But West Perth was able to quickly respond with a strong mark and goal to Michael Lourey into the breeze, and then a good running goal from outside 50 to Meadows and the Falcons went into quarter-time leading by two points.

There was more rain in the second quarter and with the strong breeze blowing, neither team was able to get into the flow of their game. 

Strijk was able to kick truly at the two-minute of the second term, though, to stretch West Perth's lead to eight points.

Peel did kick the only other goal of the second quarter, though, courtesy of Rory O'Brien but West Perth still led by a goal at half-time.

It took nine minutes for the Falcons to get the opening goal of the second half and it was a typical hard effort by Manning.

He and teammate Joel Leeson both collided when competing for a ball in the air, but Manning landed on his feet, swooped on the loose ball and drilled the goal on the outside of his right boot to stretch West Perth's lead to 12 points.

But again Peel finished the quarter strongly with Smith booting his second goal and defender Sam Collins drifting forward to kick truly to see the Thunder assume a two-point lead at three quarter-time.

West Perth had the advantage of the breeze in the last term, but it wasn’t that which would get them over the line. The quarter started in exciting fashion with Manning showing his class in the pocket keeping his feet and then swinging on to his right boot to kick truly.

Another class snap from Strijk from just inside 50 sailed through soon after and the Falcons had all the momentum and a 10-point advantage.

The win was sealed when Browne kicked truly from a set shot after sneaking forward for his first goal of the year. Peel got a goal back through youngster Calvin Thorne but Manzone kicked the last goal of the contest to give West Perth the 17-point victory. 

It was the reserves who began the day at HBF Arena with West Perth scoring a strong 10.16 (76) to 4.6 (30) victory over Peel Thunder in difficult conditions.

Tyson Moulton was West Perth's only multiple goal scorer booting two from 15 possessions, six tackles and five marks.

Corey Chalmers racked up 30 possessions for the Falcons, Keegan Knott 30 (seven inside 50s), Scott Nelson 24, Kaidyn Fullgrabe 24, Luke Tedesco 23, Mitch Antonio 22, Angus Innes 22 (nine tackles), Kris Shannon 21 and Mitch Peirce 20 (six tackles).

The colts then concluded the action at HBF Arena on Saturday evening with Peel Thunder defeating West Perth 10.12 (72) to 4.5 (29).

Kurt Monaghan kicked two of four West Perth goals with Kurt Hindmarsh and Alec Johnson to other goal kickers.

Hindmarsh also racked up 25 possessions, Joel Horgan 21 to go with 10 tackles, Brayden Thompson 18, Dion Stasev 16, Elliot Laurance 16, Bailey Chalmers 16 and Oscar Allen 15 to go with nine hit outs and seven marks.

WEST PERTH            2.1    3.7    4.8    8.10    (58)
PEEL THUNDER            1.5    2.7    4.10    5.11    (41)

WEST PERTH – Goals: Strijk, Manning 2; Manzone, Browne, Meadows, Lourey.
Best: Keitel, Manning, Meadows, Kerr, Mozhaev, Rohde, Nelson.
PEEL THUNDER – Goals: Smith 2; Thorne, Collins, O'Brien.
Best: Pearce, Walsh, Collins, Langdon, Nyhuis, Tucker, Morabito.