ROUND 18 PREVIEW V SOUTH FREMANTLE

WEST Perth and South Fremantle will meet for the first of what will become an annual Garlic Munchers Cup at Arena Joondalup this Saturday while the Falcons try to maintain second spot on the ladder and the Bulldogs look to fight their way off the bottom.

The Falcons and Bulldogs will honour their players of southern European heritage with the introduction of the Garlic Munchers Cup and in recognition of that, both teams have named their Garlic Munchers' all-time best teams.

West Perth's line-up includes Don Marinko junior and senior, Ray Marinko, George Michalczyk, Geoff Hendricks, Paul Mifka, Bill Valli, Ray Boyanich, John Gastev, Dennis Cometti, Joe Fanchi and current captain Jason Salecic. Peter Menaglio is the captain.

South Fremantle's Garlic Munchers team includes Stan Magro, Tom Grljusich, Jon Dorotich, Glen Jakovich, Darren Gaspar, Peter Matera, John Gerovich, Scott Watters, Wally Matera, Peter Sumich, Phil Matera, Paul Vasoli, Allen Jakovich and Brian Ciccotosto is the captain with Tony Micale the coach.

Both West Perth and South Fremantle had the bye last weekend so have had similar preparations for Saturday's clash at Arena Joondalup.

West Perth remains in second position on the WAFL ladder with a 10-4 record to be two games clear of the chasing Swan Districts, Perth and East Perth.

Prior to the bye last weekend, the Falcons had won four straight matches and will need to keep winning to make sure second spot on the ladder remains theirs and that crucial double chance come finals time.

Even though South Fremantle has won just the two games this season, the Bulldogs have been in winning positions in most of their losses including the last two before the bye and the first meeting with West Perth this season.

The Bulldogs only lost to the Falcons by three points under lights at Fremantle Oval back in Round 4 and then prior to the bye were in winning positions during the last quarter against top-four teams Perth and Claremont, but narrowly went down on both occasions by 10 and four points respectively.

South Fremantle also has an outstanding record at Arena Joondalup both in history and recently.

The Bulldogs have won their last two trips to Joondalup winning last year by nine points and by 25 back in 2011. While West Perth did win three straight games at home before that, even prior to that South Fremantle won on five straight trips to Joondalup between 2005 and 2008.

Overall since West Perth made the move north, South Fremantle has won 13 of 21 matches played against the Falcons at Arena Joondalup.

West Perth welcomes back Jordan Jones, Nick Rodda and Jason Salecic from the team that beat Peel Thunder a fortnight ago in Mandurah with Frank Stockley also a chance to come in to provide a back-up ruck option to Chris Keunen and also offer another tall forward target.

Joe Morrow slips out of the Falcons' line-up largely due to Jones returning and the similar role and position that they play.

While Ray Bartholomew, Laine Rasmussen and Matt Johnson won't immediately come back into the Falcons' league side this week, the trio should line up in the reserves on the comeback trail from injuries.

Adam Carter goes out of the South Fremantle team that narrowly went down to Claremont a fortnight ago after making his AFL debut last week for West Coast in the western derby against Fremantle. Alex Grima is also out of the South Fremantle line-up.

However, the Bulldogs have some key players returning led by last year's Bernie Naylor Medal winner as the WAFL's leading goalkicker Ben Saunders.

He has played just two games this season due to two fractures to his collarbone, but kicked five goals in those and will be a big addition this week for South Fremantle to provide that spearhead target in the forward-line.

Star ruckman Sean Tighe also returns after being a late withdrawal a fortnight ago against Claremont with Jarrad Winter, Reece Adams and Warrick Andreoli also coming  back into the South Fremantle squad after good form in the reserves two weeks ago prior to last week's bye.

West Perth coach Bill Monaghan knows that South Fremantle can't be taken lightly despite its position on the ladder.

"South are unlucky I think from where I sit to be at the bottom of the ladder. They have played some really good footy but have been on the wrong end of a lot of close games. They have started games well, they have been in winning positions and haven’t quite been able to nail them," Monaghan said.

"We see them as a really dangerous side. When they are up and running, moving the ball and getting ahead of the play they are probably as dangerous as any other side in the competition. We need to respect that and know that we need to be very good defensively against them.

"The same thing happened early in the year and once or twice against them last year where we were able to get a bit of a break on them, but then with the more risks they take the harder they become to stop.

"They do run hard so we are really looking forward to the game and we know that like every game if we are a little bit off you are susceptible to a loss. We know that anything less than our best performance will probably come back to bite us on the backside."

BY CHRIS PIKE