ROUND 13 PREVIEW V CLAREMONT

WEST Perth returns to action following the state game taking on Claremont at the Claremont Showground on Saturday searching for a seventh straight victory.

The Falcons won their last six games heading into last week's record state game win over Tasmania and now are searching for a seventh in-a-row to potentially move to being just percentage off being on top of the WAFL ladder.

After losing four of the first five games of 2016, the Falcons won their last six matches before the break to now have improved to a 7-4 record.

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A seventh straight win on Saturday would see them be only percentage off top spot on the ladder, and they could end the round that way if both South Fremantle and Subiaco lose on Sunday to Peel Thunder and East Fremantle respectively.

Claremont has won just three from 10 games so far this season and while the Tigers have been in winning positions during the fourth quarters of six of those seven losses, the facts are that they have just the three victories.

The Tigers can't afford to keep losing games if they hope to take part in a second straight finals series. Prior to the bye and state game break, Claremont did score a dominant 80-point victory over Swan Districts.

But Claremont needs to start stringing wins together and that's exactly what West Perth was able to do leading into the state match.

The two teams played out a thriller in Kulin back in Round 7 in yet another game that Claremont was in a winning position of, but West Perth kicked a goal and behind late to break the deadlock and win by seven points.

Interestingly, Claremont is the best starting team in the competition outscoring its opponents by an average of two goals over the course of the season while West Perth's first quarters are the third worst only behind bottom two teams Perth and Swan Districts.

But the Tigers have been outscored 35 points over the last three quarters this season while the Falcons have outscored their opponents by 53 points after quarter-time.

Claremont had three players take part in last Saturday's state game win over Tasmania with Jye Bolton best on ground winning the Simpson Medal with 46 possessions and two goals. Ryan Neates also had 25 disposals and Darcy Cameron kicked three goals.

West Perth had six representatives with Shane Nelson racking up 32 disposals, Luke Meadows 25, Jay van Berlo 23, Andrew Strijk 19, Aaron Black 19 and Nick Rodda was strong in defence.

While West Perth's horror injury run from earlier in the season has largely subsided, the Falcons did lose a couple of players to injury two weeks ago against East Perth. As a result, both Mark Hamilton and Kody Manning go out of the line-up against Claremont on Saturday.

There are plenty of players pressing to break into the winning West Perth team though.

Captain Jay van Berlo is an automatic inclusion after missing the WA Day Derby due to work commitments, but he played for WA in last Saturday's state game and he is right to go on Saturday against the Tigers.

Ruckman Chris Keunen has now played the last three weeks back in the reserves after fracturing his leg back in Round 2 and 42 hit outs against East Perth showed he is closer to being ready for a call up.

Max Duffy also missed the game against the Royals with a hamstring injury and is fit to return as is Joel Leeson who has been out the last three games with a hand injury.

Luke Tedesco had another solid game in the reserves against East Perth as well to remain in contention to play on Saturday in what would be his long-awaited 150th WAFL appearance.

"Unfortunately for us, work took him to the other side of the country this week. There was a conference he had to attend and we fully understand and appreciate that. Guys have careers and they need to look after those as much as their football," coach Bill Monaghan said.

"He will be back after the bye, we think Leeson will be back after the bye and we've got Tedesco and Keunen who got through another reserves game. Whilst there are a couple of concerns through injury, we think we are well placed to replace those guys."

Claremont had the bye prior to the state game following a dominant win over Swan Districts and from that team captain Jake Murphy looks set to return from injury. He missed the win over Swans but before that had been having a strong season averaging 20.1 disposals a game.

He is the obvious inclusion to replace Ryan Lim who is the only out for Claremont at this stage from the side that defeated Swan Districts.

Haydn Busher delivered another dominant performance in the reserves against Swans with 45 possessions and nine marks as he continues to bang the door down to try and cement his place in the Claremont league side.

Jared Hardisty was also dropped to the reserves three weeks ago and responded with 33 possessions and eight tackles to put himself in the mix for a recall while Ben Higgs kicked five goals to be a chance to add another goal kicking option to the Tigers' forward-line.

ROUND 13
CLAREMONT (3-7, 7th) v WEST PERTH (7-4, 5th) – CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM

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