ROUND 21 PREVIEW V PERTH

MOORA will host the match of the round on Saturday afternoon when Perth heads to its country zone to host West Perth with both sides desperate to come home with the four points.

Perth has been inside the top-four for all but two weeks of the 2013 season to date, but the 28-point loss to East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval last Saturday saw the Demons fall out of the top-four again.

That means the Demons desperately need to bounce back and beat West Perth this Saturday with tough games to come against East Perth, Claremont and South Fremantle to finish the season.

In order for the Demons to play finals for the first time since 1997, they will likely need to win three of those last four games so starting with a win this Saturday over West Perth is crucial to their September ambitions.

However, beating West Perth is going to be far from an easy task.

The Falcons currently sit three games clear of East Fremantle, Swan Districts, Perth and East Perth in second position on the ladder and can go a long way to securing that position, and the finals double chance, with a win over Perth in Moora on Saturday.

Despite a hiccup in Round 18 at home to South Fremantle, West Perth has been in terrific form since losing back-to-back games in Rounds 11 and 12.

The Falcons won four straight games after that before the loss to the Bulldogs and now have beaten East Perth and Peel the last fortnight to improve to 12-5 record on the season to be looking strong in second spot on the ladder.

Perth and West Perth have met just the once so far this season with the Falcons getting the better of the Demons by 36 points back in Round 10 at Arena Joondalup.

Perth last hosted a WAFL game in Moora back in 1999 when 1746 fans turned out to see the Demons record a 27-point victory over Swan Districts.

West Perth coach Bill Monaghan has been impressed with how Perth has turned itself around this season so far under coach Damien McMahon, and he is under no illusions of how big of a challenge the Demons will present to the Falcons.

"Perth has had an outstanding season and Damien and their whole club have really taken them forward. There has been a lot said about where Perth has been over a period of time, but they have seemed to turn that around this year and they have played really positive footy. They look as though they have turned the corner in terms of culture and leadership as well," Monaghan said.

"At their very best, they are dangerous. They move the ball as well as anybody else, their foot skills to hit up short targets is very good and their forward-line is a little bit different with Bevan, Stack, Reimers and Leeson. They have a lot of smallish type forwards but they have McInnes and Tunbridge down there, and Lleyendekkers and Eyres give them another tall option."

Perth's hopes of pulling off the victory won't be helped with the loss of two of its most important players coming into the contest.

Hawthorn premiership midfielder from 2008 Chance Bateman is out of the side after hurting his hamstring in last week's loss to East Fremantle while Matt Tedesco is also a massive loss from the half-back line against his former side.

Tedesco has emerged as one of the very best running defenders in the competition this season for the Demons averaging 21.8 possessions a game and he even sneaked forward for two long goals last Saturday against East Fremantle, but he's a big loss from the side to face West Perth.

On the positive side, though, for the Demons they have some handy inclusions with Brennan Stack to return after a week in the reserves. He has kicked 40 goals this season and will resume his dynamic duo act up forward with captain Paul Bevan who has booted 47 majors so far in 2013.

Cameron Manuel, Kane Ransted and Matthew Hunt are the other Perth players vying for selection and whoever gets picked will have a big job to try and replace the job that Tedesco has been doing so well all season so far.

West Perth hasn’t named anyone out at this stage from its team that beat Peel comfortably last week but veteran defender Dan Hunt will return so there will be at least one change to the line-up.

Peel wasn’t able to take advantage of a West Perth defence last week that was without Hunt and Michael Pettigrew, but Nick Rodda stepped up in the full-back role strongly and now Hunt is back to add some further height and experience to that defensive set up.

Ben McNamara and Jack Thrum have both been in good form in the reserves for the Falcons as well and continue to press for selection, and the coaching staff will be seriously considering playing them this Saturday in Moora against Perth.

BY CHRIS PIKE