FALCONS FALL NARROWLY AT HOME TO TIGERS

THE WAFL's top two teams met at Arena Joondalup on Saturday with Claremont ending up stretching its lead atop the ladder with a 21-point victory over West Perth.

While the Falcons and Tigers occupy the top two spots on the table, both were coming off losses last weekend after West Perth lost its Foundation (WA) Day derby against East Perth and Claremont surprisingly went down at home to Claremont on Sunday.

That added some extra spice to what was already an enthralling match-up and it was Claremont who came out of the blocks flying with two quick goals before the Falcons steadied into the contest well with the next three goals.

Claremont kicked away before quarter-time, though, to lead at the first change by 18 points and then with five goals in the second term the Falcons had a lot of work to do.

West Perth refused to lie down, though, and managed to kick three straight goals but Claremont still led by 41 points at half-time.

The Falcons came out desperate to make a game of it in the second half with the first three goals of the third quarter to close to within 22 points, but Claremont again steadied to hold a commanding 40-point lead still at three quarter-time.

West Perth still wasn’t going to concede the four points, though, and booted the opening five goals to suddenly be within 15 points with plenty of time remaining, but Ian Richardson kicked the sealer for Claremont to secure the 18.11 (119) to 15.8 (98) win.

Despite being a solid performer for West Coast in his first tastes of action at AFL level, Mark Hutchings was surprisingly dropped back to play with West Perth and certainly didn’t disappoint with 32 possessions, seven marks, seven tackles and three goals.

Fresh off his 150th game last week against East Perth, Matt Guadagnin was a tireless worker also with 26 disposals, six marks, four inside-50 entries and two goals.

Jay van Berlo gathered 24 possessions as well for West Perth with Luke Tedesco picking up 23, Andrew Strijk 22, Aaron Black 21 and Josh Mellington 18 to go with six inside 50s and a goal.

Anthony Tsalikis made the most of his limited chances up forward kicking three goals from 14 possessions and six marks.

Unfortunately for West Perth fans, 2003 premiership ruckman Mark Seaby was a dominant presence for Claremont with a massive 55 hit outs as he took full advantage of the Falcons losing Chris Keunen before the bounce due to a migraine.

That meant that Frank Stockley had to be pulled out of the reserves at half-time to carry the load in the ruck for the league side. He tried hard with 29 hit outs but it was a huge ask.

Debutant Shaun Marusic offered him some support and had 10 hit outs while also kicking a goal in his first game for West Perth.

James Batterham played one league and one Foxtel Cup game in 2012, and got his first opportunity in 2013 and put in a solid effort with 14 possessions.

West Perth's reserves recorded a 21-point win over Claremont with Matt Fowler kicking five goals for the third straight week.

Cameron Branch also kicked two majors with Laine Rasmussen returning to pick up 30 possessions. Joel Latham gathered 22 disposals, Jack Thrum 20, Branch 18 and Brayden Antonio 17.

The Falcons' colts only narrowly lost to Claremont by seven points to start off the day at Arena Joondalup. Joel Brown collected 24 possessions for West Perth, Jesse Kirwen 22, Mitchell Peirce 22, Tom Shadbolt 21 and Tim Sutherland 18 to go with 24 hit outs.

WEST PERTH 3.3 6.6 10.8 15.8 (98)

CLAREMONT 6.3 13.5 17.6 18.11 (119)

WEST PERTH – Goals: Hutchings, Tsalikis 3; Guadagnin 2; Black, Strijk, Crisp, van Berlo, Marusic, Potente, Mellington.

Best: Hutchings, Guadagnin, Nelson, Tedesco, van Berlo, Strijk.

CLAREMONT – Goals: Richardson, Jones 4; Hamp 3; Medhurst, Bradshaw 2; Davies, Taylor, McGinnity.

Best: Seaby, Foster, McGinnity, Richardson, Murphy, Taylor, Daniher, Browne.

BY CHRIS PIKE