MEADOWS REFOCUSES ON CONTINUING FALCONS' WINNING FORM

COMING off the high of being among the best players in Western Australia's state game win over Tasmania, Luke Meadows has quickly turned his attention back to West Perth's clash with Claremont on Saturday where he hopes the Falcons continue sending messages to the rest of the WAFL.

Meadows made his state debut in Saturday's record 134-point victory over Tasmania at Steel Blue Oval and was tremendous with 25 possessions and seven marks, but quickly attention has turned back to the WAFL season.

West Perth had won its last six matches heading into the state game to improve to a 7-4 record on the season but nobody at the Falcons is content with that.

The Falcons now take on Claremont this Saturday at the Claremont Showground and while the Tigers might have won just three games for the year to be in seventh position, they easily could have won considerably more including last time against West Perth back in Round 7 in Kulin.

Meadows has enjoyed getting back to his regular routine this week following the state game but he and his teammates won't be taking Claremont lightly especially after Jye Bolton's Simpson Medal winning performance against Tasmania. 

EMERGING STAR MEADOWS SOAKS UP STATE DEBUT

"It's been good this week getting back to business as usual. The boys have chucked a bit of extra stick on me and that's been pretty funny, but it's good to be getting back to normal. We're all excited for the Claremont game now on Saturday," Meadows said.

"I wasn’t even thinking about that during the game but I know that Dean Munns is the best tagger in the game. He's called The Glove for a reason and I know he'll be able to shut him (Bolton) down. He hates it when an opponent gets one touch on him so he won't be letting him get 46 that's for sure.

"That's why the state game is a bit of a novelty sort of thing because you become close friends with those 22 on that one day, and then the next week you become enemies on opposite teams again.

"It's a bit of a different experience but once we get out there and we are all Claremont players and West Perth players again so you forget about that."

Meadows earned his place in the state game following outstanding form off half-back so far in 2016 for West Perth.

He has cemented himself as one of the best players in that position in the competition where he can use his elite kicking skills to great effect not to mention make the most of his toughness and competitiveness.

He has enjoyed settling into that role for the most part after being using in plenty of different positions before 2016.

"I'm still playing a couple of different roles but it's good to have half-back as my anchor position," he said.

"I sort of mixed in between forward and back a bit last year and just wasn’t playing consistent good footy, and couldn’t find that permanent spot. But it's good to have settled at half-back and I don’t mind it back there. It frees me up a bit and suits my style of footy."

Meadows had good reason to think he had cemented his place in the West Perth team last year playing 19 of the 20 home and away matches, but he lost his place for the finals and wasn’t able to break in for the grand final run.

That stung but Meadows used it as added motivation over the pre-season to make sure there would be no doubt over his position come 2016.

"It hurt that's for sure, but I don’t hold it against Bill or anything. It's just part of footy and there's only 22 that can ever play so someone always has to miss out," Meadows said.

"I just used it as inspiration to work even harder to make sure there was no doubt again when it came to selection about my spot coming into this year."

While Shane Nelson and Dean Munns playing in the midfield the past six weeks might have been a big part of West Perth's current six-game winning run, there's no doubt the back-line has been a major factor in that.

Meadows and Blake Wilhelm have helped play the roles previously done by veterans Andrew Strijk and Luke Tedesco while Steven Browne is providing the old head with Tyler Keitel and Nick Rodda taking the next steps in their careers along with Joe Morrow and Drew Rohde.

Meadows is enjoying being part of a defensive unit that is working so well together.