ROUND 3 PREVIEW V PERTH

REIGNING WAFL premiers West Perth is back at Arena Joondalup this Saturday hosting the unbeaten Perth and looking to record its first win of the 2014 season.

The Falcons have opened the 2014 campaign with a narrow three-point loss to East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval and then a 12-point loss to Claremont at Arena Joondalup last Saturday on the day when the 2013 premiership flag was unfurled.

Perth, on the other hand, has opened the new season in tremendous fashion defeating Claremont at Lathlain Park in Round 1 by 65 points and then storming home from being 44 points behind last Friday night to end up beating South Fremantle by five points.

West Perth being winless as the minor premiers and Perth unbeaten as a team who hasn’t played finals football since 1997 is somewhat of a surprise, and it will be fascinating to see if the Falcons are 0-3 and the Demons 3-0 come Saturday night after this contest.

Already without suspended premiership pair Kody Manning and Marc Crisp, West Perth loses 164-game veteran Matt Guadagnin to injury to take on Perth while emerging young forward Matt Johnson has been omitted from the side that lost last Saturday to Claremont.

Former Swan Districts premiership defender and Geelong AFL player Matthew Spencer looks set to play his first WAFL league match since that 2010 grand final and to make his Falcons debut after spending the first two weeks of the season in the reserves.

West Perth's defence will be further strengthened with the return of 162-game veteran Dan Hunt as well after he missed the game against Claremont last Saturday.

Corey Chalmers is also a chance to come in for the Falcons after 27 possessions and two goals last week in the reserves.

Joe Morrow and Kris Shannon have also been in solid form for West Perth in the reserves to be in the mix for selection to make their first league appearances of 2014.

West Perth's inclusion of experienced key defenders Hunt and Spencer will come in handy as well with Perth calling up key forward Haydn Busher to play his first league game of the season.

Clem Smith has made a good start to his WAFL career over the first two weeks for the Demons but he has made way in the line-up for Busher to come in.

Meanwhile, Andrew Krakouer will again line-up in the reserves for West Perth after making his first appearance in Falcons colours last Saturday against Claremont.

He played two and-a-half quarters last Saturday and finished with 10 possessions playing permanently as a forward, and now he will play close to a full four quarters this Saturday against Perth as he continues to work towards making his league debut for West Perth.

RESERVES SQUAD

M Alexander, C Branch, J Embley, M Geraghty, S Healy, M Johnson, B King, J Kirwen, A Krakouer, A Lynch, S Martin, S Marusic, M McPhee, L Meadows, J Mills, S Money, B O'Regan, J Regan, D Sorgiovanni, T Sutherland, J Thrum, M Van Berlo, B Walton, B Wilhelm, T Young

COLTS SQUAD

N Alexander, N Beutel, A Charlie, M Douglas, K Egan, K Fullgrabe, J Gray, C Hinchcliffe, A Innes, C Lynch, T Manners, J Marinovich, W Michell, T Moulton, B Mountford, D Munns, S Nelson, J Nolan, L Pardini, M Peirce, S Rotham, Z Saunders, J Sheehan-Nel, A Smith, J Turner, M Walley

BY CHRIS PIKE