ROUND 21 PREVIEW V PEEL THUNDER

WEST Perth might no longer be able to make finals for 2014 but can still finish off the WAFL season strongly with three road wins starting this Saturday against Peel Thunder at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

West Perth has never quite been able to build any momentum this season coming off winning last year's premiership.

Despite that, a 56-point win at home over Swan Districts two weeks ago suddenly meant that the Falcons were still at least some shot of playing finals if they could win their final four matches with East Fremantle losing all of theirs.

However, those hopes were quickly ended last Saturday when East Fremantle beat West Perth by 17 points at HBF Arena.

West Perth now finishes its 2014 season three games on the road starting Saturday against Peel, then against Claremont at the Showground and finally against Perth at Lathlain Park.

Peel hasn’t been in contention for finals at all this season having lost its first seven games, but the Thunder have been a realistic chance of winning all but two of their matches at some point during last quarters.

The fact that has resulted in just four victories is a constant source of frustration for recently re-signed coach Cam Shepherd, but the Thunder being so often in winning positions suggests things could very well click sooner or later.

So West Perth and Peel cannot play finals in 2014 but neither side has forgotten what happened the last time the two teams played back in Round 8 at HBF Arena.

On that occasion, Peel opened up a 42-point advantage by half-time but in a remarkable finish Anthony Tsalikis kicked the winning goal for West Perth in the dying stages to snatch a one-point victory.

Peel will be sure to have that memory firmly at the front of their minds this Saturday on top of the fact that a very similar thing happened last Saturday to them at Fremantle Oval against South Fremantle.

West Perth can no longer play finals in 2014 but that doesn’t mean spots aren’t hard to come by in the league side.

Premiership defender Jordan Jones goes out of the side from the team that lost to East Fremantle at HBF Arena last Saturday.

A host of players who have played continually well in the reserves are then in the mix for selection with Corey Chalmers, Ben King, Aidan Lynch and Drew Rohde desperate for another chance.

Chalmers kicked another two goals in the reserves last week for the Falcons to give him 28 for the season as he tries to make his official WAFL debut despite having played tw6 Foxtel Cup matches.

King had another 12 possessions and six marks last week against East Fremantle in the reserves and he is now vying for his first official WAFL match as well having already played a Foxtel Cup match in the semi-final win over the Western Storm.

Lynch has continually been a strong ball-winner in the reserves for West Perth and had another 22 possessions last week to go with six tackles as he now aims to make his WAFL debut having already played two Foxtel Cup matches.

Rohde has previously played three league matches for West Perth and he put himself in contention for another chance after 21 possessions and four goals in the reserves last week.

Peel probably should have beaten South Fremantle last Saturday at Fremantle Oval much like it should have beaten West Perth at HBF Arena back in Round 8, but again the Thunder couldn’t finish out a game and lost in heartbreaking fashion.

From that Thunder team that lost to the Bulldogs by a solitary point, Fremantle has recalled Michael Walters after his one game back in the WAFL on return from an ankle injury.

Kyle Westwood virtually had to play out of necessity last week for Peel with a host of Fremantle talls not lining up while Kelvin Lawrence has been dropped after having just seven possessions while Tanner Smith goes out as well with a shoulder injury.

Peel does have some handy players ready to return, though, including captain James Flaherty as well as Fremantle big men Kepler Bradley and Michael Apeness.

Another two experienced Fremantle players Garrick Ibbotson and Clancee Pearce also return for Peel and just in time to make a push to trying to get back into the Dockers side ahead of another AFL finals campaign.

Toby Gianatti, Kieran May and Sam Barndon are also vying for selection in the Thunder line-up.

RESERVES TEAM
D Acres, J Batterham, N Beutel, C Branch, K Egan, J Embley, M Fowler, K Fullgrabe, M Geraghty, P Harvey, S Healy, M Johnson, J Kirwen, T Manzone, S Marusic, B McNamara, M McPhee, J Mills, S Money, J Morrow, D Sorgiovanni, J Thrum, B Walton, B Wilhelm, T Young

COLTS TEAM
N Alexandre, A Allen, M Antonio, M Ashfield, A Baker, A Barile, J Gray, C Hinchcliffe, J Horgan, C Lynch, T Manners, W Michell, T Moulton, D Munns, S Nelson, J Nolan, M Peirce, G Popzeleff, D Robertson, S Rotham, J Rotham, J Sheehan-Nel, A Smith, J Turner, M Walley