RESERVES PRELIMINARY FINAL PREVIEW V PERTH

WEST Perth's reserves have now won eight straight matches entering Sunday's preliminary final against Perth at Claremont with the Falcons looking to get two teams into the 2013 grand final.

Perth finished the reserves season as the minor premiers but now is facing the prospect of being eliminated in straight-sets against a West Perth side that has been in hot form in the second half of the season.

Both teams have plenty of league-calibre players in their line-ups as well meaning that it is sure to be a high-quality reserves preliminary final.

Perth's reserves finished on top of the ladder with a 13-7 record, the same as South Fremantle and East Perth, but took top spot thanks to a superior percentage. West Perth was a game further back and finished fourth at 12-8.

Perth might have lost its first game of 2013 to Peel, but the Demons then went on a six-game winning run before West Perth beat them by 10 points in Round 10 at Arena Joondalup.

The Demons went on to win three more straight after that before coming up short against grand finalists South Fremantle in Round 15.

Another three-game winning run followed but Perth came into the finals having lost four of its last five games including another loss to West Perth in Round 21 and a thumping 91-point defeat at the hands of South Fremantle in the final round.

Perth then fought back hard in the last quarter of last Sunday's second semi-final, but ended up falling five points short of South Fremantle to now need to advance to the grand final the hard way.

Perth's form might have dropped off in the second half of the year, but West Perth's has done the opposite.

The Falcons lost their first three games and six of their first seven to be struggling on a 1-6 record after Round 8.

Things began to click with the win over Perth in Round 10 though. The Falcons then didn’t lose a game for the rest of the season after losing to Swan Districts in Round 15.

West Perth finished the season with wins over Peel, South Fremantle, East Perth, Peel, Perth, East Fremantle and Swan Districts heading into the first semi-final derby with East Perth last Sunday at Claremont Oval.

West Perth had to come from behind against East Perth, but the Falcons booted five goals to three in the final quarter to beat the Royals by nine points and advance to the preliminary final.

Joel Leeson, Brad Fry, Joel Houghton, Kieran Hug, Matthew Hunt, Jarrad Irons, David Johnston, Joel Kalajzic, Mitchell Lleyendekkers, Michael Mather, Kane Ransted and Reese Richardson have all shown good abilities for Perth at league level and will line-up on Sunday.

West Perth isn’t short on talent, though, with plenty of eyes on league vice-captain and 104-game defender Luke Tedesco who returns from a calf injury desperate to put in a strong showing to put his name up for selection in the Falcons' league grand final next week.

Brayden Antonio, James Batterham, Matt Johnson, Ben McNamara, Luke Meadows, Joe Morrow, Kris Shannon and Frank Stockley will also play for the Falcons on Sunday having played in the West Perth league side during 2013.

WEST PERTH TEAM:

Max Alexander, Brayden Antonio, James Batterham, Cameron Branch, Corey Chalmers, James Embley, Stephen Healy, Matt Johnson, Joel Latham, Aidan Lynch, Michael Mascoulis, Ben McNamara, Mitch McPhee, Luke Meadows, Jordan Mills, Samuel Money, Joel Morrow, Ben O'Regan, Drew Rohde, Tom Shadbolt, Kris Shannon, Frank Stockley, Tim Sutherland, Luke Tedesco, Jack Thrum, Mitch Van Berlo, Broderick Walton, Blake Wilhelm.

PERTH TEAM:

Daniel Arangio, Tyler Chrimes, Dylan Cox, Scott Doncon, Aaron Dow, Kristian Egan, Brad Fry, Ryan Gray, Sean Holland, Joel Houghton, Kieran Hug, Matthew Hunt, Jarrad Irons, David Johnston, Cameron Jones, Joel Kalajzic, Joel Leeson, Mitchell Lleyendekkers, Cameron Manuel, Michael Mather, Alexander Moreno, Kane Ransted, Reese Richardson, Blake Robinson, Chad Sandilands, Clem Smith, Josh Stark, Josh Stuart.

BY CHRIS PIKE