SEVEN FALCONS PREMIERSHIP STARS TO PLAY FOR WA

SEVEN West Perth WAFL premiership players will be representing Western Australia this Saturday in the 2014 State match against the NEAFL at Blacktown in Sydney.

West Perth will be represented on Saturday strongly with Laine Rasmussen, Jordan Jones, Kody Manning, Shane Nelson, Nick Rodda, Chris Keunen and Jay van Berlo all to pull on the Black Swans jumper. All will be making their debuts for WA as well aside from van Berlo.

The WAFL's opponent this year is a combined side from the North Eastern Australian Football League which features teams competing from New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The NEAFL features some familiar faces including the likes of Ryan Brabazon, Eddie Sansbury, Jacob Derickx, Cleve Hughes and Will Sierakowski.

And as reigning WAFL premiers, West Perth will be the most represented team in the WA line-up with seven players from the premiership last year with the team also coached by Bill Monaghan while assisted by Craig Smoker with Ross Parker the chairman of selectors.

That gives the WA team a strong West Perth flavour and all seven players are strongly deserving of their place in the line-up.

Jones is now in his third season with West Perth after his first three years in the WAFL were spent with Peel Thunder while listed with the West Coast Eagles.

And over the past two seasons, the 23-year-old has been outstanding for the Falcons predominantly as a defender who can play on opponents of any size, and also providing plenty of run and drive out of the back-line.

However, he is also versatile enough to spend time in the midfield and do it well or even go forward and kick goals. He is also coming off a best on ground performance two weeks ago in West Perth's two-point Foxtel Cup win over the Box Hill Hawks at Etihad Stadium.

Keunen will be WA's No. 1 ruckman up against the NEAFL. While he will have some back up from Swan Districts' Tony Notte and fellow Falcon Rodda, Keunen will be called upon to ruck most of the day and that's exactly what he does so well in the WAFL with West Perth.

The 30-year-old originally arrived at West Perth from Victoria in 2006 and after managing 67 matches in his first five seasons while up against the likes of Rob Warnock, Mark Seaby and even Mitch Andrews.

However, once he was backed in as the No. 1 ruckman in 2011, his career has grown in leaps and bounds to the point now where he has played 138 matches for West Perth, starred in last year's premiership win and is now going to lead WA into battle as the sole ruckman in the team.

Manning might not get a lot of the ball or kick a lot of goals for someone who has played as a forward since the start of 2013, but anytime he is in the vicinity when an opposition has the ball he strikes fear into them.

The now 22-year-old played as a hardnosed defender early in his career with West Perth but at the start of 2013 he was used in the forward-line as someone to put on enormous physical and tackling pressure, and his presence in the grand final had as big a say as anyone in the Falcons winning the 2013 flag.

Manning likely is the most aggressive and best tackling and pressure player in the competition, and as a result was someone who Monaghan desperately wanted in his WA team to ensure that the NEAFL got nothing easy out of their back-line on Saturday.

Nelson has developed himself into one of the WAFL's very best midfielders in recent years and deserves his chance to represent WA for the first time this Saturday.

The now 21-year-old  burst on to the WAFL scene in the second half of the 2012 season averaging over 25 possessions in his 14 matches, and 27 over his last 12.

He backed that up with a remarkable season in 2013 where he shared the West Perth fairest and best with Andrew Strijk, and averaged over 27 possessions a game topped off by a stunning 36 possession, 13 clearance display in the grand final win over East Perth.

He has again backed up that form in 2014 so far averaging over 28 disposals a game and he was also outstanding in West Perth's Foxtel Cup win over Box Hill just over two weeks ago.

Rasmussen was charged with the job of trying to replace 172-game star Dustin Burns as a small defender in the West Perth line-up coming into 2013, and now the 21-year-old has been rewarded for his outstanding form by being part of a premiership last year, and now about to represent WA.

Rasmussen did play 12 league matches and two in the Foxtel Cup for West Perth in 2012, but it was only following the retirement of 2010 Breckler Medal winner Burns at the end of that year that it appeared that there was a real spot there for Rasmussen to make his own.

He had some injury troubles throughout 2013, but when he played he was terrific and came back in late in the year to be part of the premiership and now he has cemented himself as one of the best small backmen in the WAFL so far in 2014 which is why he will be playing for WA on Saturday.

Rodda is exactly the type of player that the WA selectors didn’t have a lot of to pick from.

When East Perth's Paul Johnson and Subiaco's Lachlan Delahunty pulled out of the state squad, the options for WA of a tall key position player who could pinch-hit in the ruck was hardly huge, and that's where 19-year-old Rodda quickly became the obvious option.

Rodda began his league career at West Perth with three games late in 2012 as a key defender, but it was last year when he showed his versatility by spending a lot of time forward including kicking two goals in the grand final win while also helping out Keunen in the ruck.

He started 2014 as a key defender, but has gone forward the past two weeks and kicked six goals in wins over Peel Thunder and Subiaco to rocket him into selection for WA where he and Tony Notte will form the tall forward targets and offer Keunen support in the ruck.

Van Berlo is in his first season as co-captain at West Perth following the retirement of Jason Salecic following last year's premiership, and he continues to be one of the most consistent and versatile performers in the competition.

Van Berlo is having another solid year for West Perth mostly on the ball averaging almost 21 possessions a game, but the 25-year-old is capable of filling a variety of roles and also brings with him tremendous leadership and AFL experience from his time with Fremantle.

WAFL SQUAD

Claremont – Luke Blackwell

East Fremantle – Steven Dodd, Tom Howlett, Jamie McNamara, Andrew Stephen

East Perth – Brendan Lee

Perth – Paul Bevan

South Fremantle – Ryan Cook, Ashton Hams, Ben Saunders, Haiden Schloithe

Subiaco – George Hampson

Swan Districts – Tallan Ames, Blaine Boekhorst, Ryan Davis, Tony Notte

West Perth – Jordan Jones, Chris Keunen, Kody Manning, Shane Nelson, Laine Rasmussen, Nick Rodda, Jay van Berlo

BY CHRIS PIKE