ROUND 19 PREVIEW V SWAN DISTRICTS

WEST Perth and Swan Districts meet for the third time this season on Saturday at Joondalup's HBF Arena with the Falcons desperate to get back to winning particular at home.

West Perth can no longer make the finals having now lost its last three matches and while Swan Districts does sit in third position on the ladder destined to take part in September action, the clash should still be a fascinating one between two teams with stark contrasts between their best and worst football.

Coming off winning last year's premiership, West Perth's 2014 campaign has never quite got off the ground despite threatening to a couple of different times.

Having now lost their last three games to Swan Districts, Subiaco and East Perth, West Perth has fallen to sixth position on the ladder with a 6-9 record to now be four games outside of fourth position with only five games of the year to go.

West Perth was still clinging to a hope of possibly winning the Foxtel Cup for 2014 and remaining in touch for the WAFL finals only two weeks ago, but since then they lost the Foxtel Cup grand final to Williamstown and went down last week to East Perth while kicking only three goals in total across the two matches.

West Perth and Swan Districts have already played twice this season with Swans winning both encounters firstly by seven points on Anzac Day at Steel Blue Oval, and then by 29 points back in Round 15 also at HBF Arena.

Surprisingly, West Perth's form at home this season has left a lot to be desired as well despite a strong average crowd still of 2734 people, including 6201 on WA Day against East Perth and 5362 in Round 16 against Subiaco.

West Perth, though, has won just two of those eight matches at home so far in 2014 and the victories came against the second last Perth in Round 3 and then thanks to a scintillating fight back against the bottom-placed Peel in Round 8.

The Falcons have lost to Claremont by 12 points, South Fremantle by 23 points, East Perth by 16 points, East Fremantle by nine points, Swan Districts by 29 points and Subiaco by 25 points at HBF Arena throughout 2014.

Swan Districts, meanwhile, currently sits in third position with a 12-4 record and with the potential to improve to second spot on the ladder by Saturday night with a win over West Perth and if Subiaco comes up short against Subiaco.

However, the black-and-whites form certainly hasn’t stacked up in recent weeks to what they were able to deliver earlier in the season.

Swans won eight straight matches between Rounds 3 and 10 to set up the finals tilt, but since then have won just four of seven matches including having to come from significant three quarter-time deficits to beat South Fremantle in Round 13 and Perth last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval.

West Perth is still without Nick Rodda, Andrew Strijk, Kody Manning, Steve Potente, Matt Fowler and Jack Thrum as the Falcons try to still get something out of a 2014 season that hasn’t turned out too well in recent times.

From last week's team who lost to East Perth in the mud at Medibank Stadium, Aidan Lynch, Luke Meadows and Jordan Mills come into the squad with no omissions at this stage.

Lynch has played two Foxtel Cup matches for West Perth but is yet to play a WAFL league game and that could change this Saturday.

The 19-year-old has now played 38 reserves matches and could be a handy addition to the Falcons team either in the midfield or across half-back.

Meadows is a chance to also add to West Perth's half-back line if he is picked to play the third league WAFL match of his career to also go with an appearance in the Foxtel Cup, and on the back now of 25 matches in the reserves for the 19-year-old.

Mills has been around a bit longer with the 23-year-old having now played 64 reserves matches, but he is yet to make his senior debut for the Falcons. He has done a long apprenticeship and now could earn his debut appearance this Saturday to add to West Perth's defensive unit.

Justin Simpson will return for Swan Districts after missing last week's win over Perth at home with the experienced defender to resume an outstanding 2014 season that sees him average almost 22 possessions a game and be one of, if not, the best defenders in the competition at chopping off entries inside-50 from the opposition and then setting up play himself coming out of the back-line.

Anthony Stephens, Rudy Riddoch and Jesse Manton are the other Swan Districts players vying for a position in the team as coach Greg Harding now looks to finalise what his final 22 come finals time will be.

Jacob Burnham is the only out of the team at this stage after the 21-year-old had just seven possessions in last Saturday's win over Perth.

RESERVES TEAM
D Acres, J Batterham, C Branch, C Chalmers, K Egan, J Embley, K Fullgrabe, M Geraghty, P Harvey, S Healy, M Johnson, B King, J Kirwen, S Marusic, B McNamara, M McPhee, S Money, J Morrow, B O'Regan, S Potente, D Sorgiovanni, T Sutherland, J Thrum, B Walton, B Wilhelm, T Young

COLTS TEAM
N Alexandre, A Allen, M Antonio, M Ashfield, A Barile, N Beutel, K Coleman, M Douglas, A Elton, J Gray, C Hinchcliffe, J Horgan, C Lynch, T Manners, W Michell, T Moulton, B Mountford, D Munns, J Nolan, M Peirce, D Robertson, S Rotham, J Sheehan-Nel, A Smith, J Turner, M Walley