FOUR GAMES, FOUR WINS FOR FALCONS ON-BALLERS

WEST Perth has won four straight WAFL matches and it has coincided with midfielders Shane Nelson and Dean Munns being in the line-up both playing very different yet equally important roles for the Falcons.

Both Nelson and Munns have been part of the West Perth victories over Swan Districts, Claremont, Peel Thunder and Subiaco to improve to a 5-4 record and into fifth position on the WAFL ladder heading into Saturday's clash with Perth at Lathlain Park.

Nelson is averaging 32.3 disposals in those four games and Munns just 9.8 but that doesn’t begin to describe the impact that both have had in helping to turn the Falcons form around.

Nelson has not missed a beat following his finger injury that delayed his start to the season and has shown once more why he is likely the best inside midfielder in the competition with his ability to win countless clearances, win the ball in tight and set up his running, skilful teammates.

It is no coincidence that the form of Trent Manzone and Rohan Kerr, in particular, has improved markedly with the return of Nelson with the pressure lessened on the shoulders of Jay van Berlo, Aaron Black and Aidan Lynch as well.

However, West Perth was getting towelled up early in the season on the possession count with coach Bill Monaghan realising a player capable of stopping the opposition's most prolific midfielder might need to become a focus.

He eyed Munns as the man for the job and it has paid off handsomely with Munns doing tremendously to hold Swan Districts' Aaron Elari to 10 touches, Claremont's Jye Bolton to 10, Peel Thunder's Rory O'Brien to 20 and then Subiaco's Leigh Kitchin to 11.

There is more behind West Perth's resurgence than just the performances of Nelson and Munns, but there's no doubting the addition of a prolific ball winner and someone to stop the opposition's best ball winner has made a significant impact.

Monaghan continues to marvel at just how good Nelson is with the premiership player and two-time fairest and best winner showing no ill-effects from missing the opening five games.

"It's four games for him now and we haven’t lost since he has been in. He keeps telling us that. In wet and slippery conditions, everyone thinks the game will have atrocious skills but guys like Shane Nelson have a great ability to win the ball and be clean with it," Monaghan said.

"Some of his ball handling on the weekend was outstanding and so was Kyal Horsley for the opposition. I can cut some vision of stoppage work where you just wonder how Nelly gathered that in those conditions and fed it off in heavy traffic.

"He is an exceptionally talented player, we are thankful to have him back in the side and he gives the other mids a lot of confidence. He is playing some really good footy himself."

Munns had worked hard to earn his league opportunity after a full season in the reserves in 2015 where he was a good ball winner and prolific tackler for the Falcons.

He earned his league debut in Round 6 this year and hasn’t looked back with Monaghan more than happy with the role he is doing on the opposition's best midfielders.

"Dean has come in and has played the same four games as Nelly, so I'd like to think it's Munnsy's influence as much as that of Nelly. Dean has a great ability to concentrate for four quarters and we have given him a big job in all four games," he said.

"He is really disciplined and doesn’t scrag the opposition players, he just gets into really good positions and competes hard. We pick the players who can potentially have the most influence for the opposition and that's who Dean gets sent to. We respect what Leigh Kitchin can do and while Munnsy only ends up with nine touches, that's something that at present we are willing to go with.

"There will be conjecture over us playing a midfielder who is only touching it nine times, but if we don't tag someone like Kitchin he could get 30 and we might lose the game. By keeping him to 11, we are pretty comfortable with Munnsy only touching it nine times.

"We think one of our strengths is our outside mids and Kerr, Black and Manzone are all playing some good footy as well. We can probably afford to have one midfielder down on the possession count if it keeps one of their key players down."

Another player in outstanding form at present for the Falcons is premiership star Rohan Kerr.

After a tough second half of the season last year with a back injury, he had a slightly slow start to 2016 but has been in some outstanding form in recent weeks including averaging 29 possessions the past three and delivering 25 touches and two crucial final quarter goals against Subiaco last Saturday.

"I thought he was exceptional on the weekend with 25 possessions in those conditions as an outside mid, and two really good goals in the last quarter. Some of his ball use on a day where using the ball wasn’t easy to do was outstanding," Monaghan said.

"He is a quality player and he was really suffering early in the year from the fact that we couldn’t get enough ball on the inside to feed him. I'm sure he won't mind me saying that he is a genuine outside player.

"He has the ability to go inside if we trained him and asked him to do that, but he is an elite runner and a good ball user so that's why we want him on the outside. His form over the last month has really improved."