ROUND 5 PREVIEW V PERTH

WEST Perth heads to Lathlain Park on Saturday looking to back up a good win over Swan Districts with the Falcons looking to remain undefeated at the venue since 2004 and to win a 14th straight match over the Demons.

Perth remains home at Lathlain Park on Saturday to host West Perth but home turf hasn’t provided much comfort for the Demons in recent times with them only winning one of their past 10 games in front of their loyal, and patient, fans.

It's even worse news up against West Perth but Perth will be looking to put in an improved performance this Saturday against the Falcons.

While Perth did lose last Saturday to East Perth by 37 points at Lathlain Park, they did finish strongly at least to win the last quarter and they will be hoping to now take some of that momentum in this week's clash against West Perth.

The Falcons will head to Lathlain Park on a high, though, following last Saturday's impressive 31-point victory against Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval.

That saw West Perth bounce back from defeats the previous two weeks to East Perth and South Fremantle following an opening round defeat of Claremont.

So the Falcons have a real chance to build some momentum with a win over the Demons on Saturday.

But for Perth, if they hope to be dramatic improvers in 2018 they just can't afford to slip to 1-4 after five rounds to already make it a more than likely season again where they continue their run of no finals appearances since 1997.

West Perth has certainly enjoyed playing against Perth and especially doing so at Lathlain Park in recent times as well.

The Falcons have won the past 13 matches overall against the Demons by an average of 43.3 points.

Perth's last win against West Perth was by 29 points at HBF Arena back in Round 18, 2011.

Even before that, West Perth had won four straight over Perth so the Falcons have won a remarkable 17 of 18 games against the Demons since 2009.

The Falcons have also won on their previous eight visits to Lathlain Park by an average of 39.3 points.

And it stretches beyond that, with West Perth having not lost to Perth at Lathlain Park in the last 13 meetings given the one game interrupting that winning streak was a draw in Round 9, 2008.

Perth's last victory against West Perth on home turf was way back in Round 9, 2004 as they beat a Falcons team that were reigning premiers by 22 points.

So far this season, West Perth has been particularly impressive in first and third quarters but not so much in the second and last terms. 

The Falcons have outscored their opponents by 43 points in first terms and 56 points in third quarters while being outscored themselves by 59 points in the second quarters and 57 points in last quarters so far in 2018.

Perth, meanwhile, has been outscored by 70 points so far in first halves this season but only by 13 in second halves.

Perth is coming off a 37-point loss to East Perth where at least they did finish with some momentum, but the players going out won't make the job any easier for the Demons against the Falcons.

Christian Eyres has been a stalwart in the ruck so far this season after also doing a mountain of work in 2017, but he is out of the team. Then his absence is compounded with key forward Spencer White also out who not only was their best option in attack, but also backing up Eyres in the ruck at times.

Cody Ninyette and Anton Scotney are two more handy players going out of the side for the Demons.

Debutant Dakota Baldwin-Wright will be given the challenge of carrying the ruck duties for Perth with Daniel Horan, Mitch Browne, Mitch Henderson, Brad McPhail, Lachlan Dennis and Kurt Nicholas the other players to come into the squad.

West Perth loses two important players to tackle Perth with on Saturday at Lathlain Park. Kody Manning goes out with a knee injury while veteran ruckman Chris Keunen is also out of the line-up. 

But Keunen's absence is certainly lessened by the absence of Christian Eyres and Spencer White for Perth.

Scott Nelson, Dean Munns, Mitch Peirce and Tyson Moulton are the players added to the West Perth squad to be in the mix to take on Perth on Saturday.

ROUND 5
WEST PERTH v PERTH – LATHLAIN PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM, KIX Digital, Footy Radio

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