ROUND 3 PREVIEW V PERTH

WEST Perth and Perth do battle at Joondalup's HBF Arena on Saturday afternoon with the Demons looking to snap a 16-game losing streak and trying to beat the Falcons for the first time since 2011.

West Perth has won its last six matches against Perth with the Demons last win coming back in Round 18, 2011 when they put in a terrific showing to beat the Falcons by 29 points at HBF Arena.

However, that Perth team consisted of the likes of Andrew McDougall, Ross Young, Brett Hodge, Scott Siekierka, Drew Robinson, Jarrod Kayler-Thomson, Matthew Moody, Aaron Zucconi, Matthew Rogers, Nick Kane, Matt Tedesco and Joel Leeson.

All those were quality players and the only remaining player from that side likely to play on Saturday is Chris Billings. Hodge and Michael Florio are the other two still at the club, but Hodge remains sidelined with his arm injury and Florio is in the reserves.

Perth has now lost 16 straight matches after losing its last 14 of 2014 and then its first two of 2015 under new coach Earl Spalding against Swan Districts and South Fremantle.

The opening round loss to Swan Districts was by an emphatic 96 points and last week against South Fremantle looked capable of being something similar with the Bulldogs leading by 42 points during the third quarter, but the Demons finished strongly to only lose by 10 points.

West Perth, meanwhile, started its season in disappointing fashion as well with a 35-point defeat at the hands of South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval, but the Falcons bounced back strongly last Saturday with a strong seven-point win over Peel Thunder at HBF Arena.

The Falcons will also be celebrating another milestone with Andrew Strijk playing his 150th match with the club.

Strijk made his league debut with the Falcons in 2006 and immediately made his mark as a dangerous, long-kicking wingman and half-forward. He then started to make his mark setting up play across half-back with his kicking always a highlight.

He was drafted by the West Coast Eagles playing 13 AFL games before returning to the Falcons full-time in 2013 and starring right throughout the premiership year, ending up with the Breckler Medal as joint fairest and best alongside Shane Nelson.

Along the way, he has represented Western Australia three times and now coming off a best on ground display against Peel, will earn his life membership this Saturday.

West Perth is coming off a strong showing to record its first win of the season last Saturday against Perth with the Falcons only forced into making the one change with emerging key position player Max Alexander out of the side with an ankle injury.

Key position players isn’t one thing that the Falcons have an abundance of and Alexander has been playing well in defence in the first two games of the season, so the coaching staff will have a decision to make if that means that both Marcus Adams and Nick Rodda need to hold down the key defensive posts for the time being.

The loss of Alexander could open the door for Tim Sutherland to make his league debut, though, and he has the ability to both play as a key defender and provide Chris Keunen with some support in the ruck.

However, after Michael Lourey kicked four goals last week as a key forward he might be able to provide the main target in attack for West Perth with the support of the likes of Matt Fowler, Kody Manning, Luke Meadows, Matt Johnson and Steve Potente around him.

Corey Chalmers, Aidan Lynch and Blake Wilhelm are three other West Perth who are in the mix to come into the league side to take on Perth on Saturday after strong form in the reserves.

Perth's side does look to have less strength in it from last week to this week on paper with former AFL players Chance Bateman and Jarryd Morton going out of the line-up.

However, both players went down injured during the first half last Saturday against South Fremantle and the Demons were able to storm back from 39 points down with five goals in 10 minutes during the last quarter without that pair.

So that should give Perth confidence of going into the clash with West Perth without that important duo and the Demons have every reason to have taken plenty of belief out of the way they finished the game with the Bulldogs.

Christian Eyres is a chance to come into the Perth line-up to offer some more height and to partner with Ben Power in the ruck after he did a solid job last week against South Fremantle.

Callum Collard kicked 33 goals in 16 games last year for Perth and now is in line to play his first game of 2015 and will provide another strong goalkicking option for the Demons alongside Mitch Morton and the emerging Cody Leggett.

Rowan Brookes, Kieran Hug and Kurtis Chester are also in the mix to play for the Demons against the Falcons on Saturday at HBF Arena in the league match.

RESERVES SQUAD
M Ashfield, R Bartholomew, M Crisp, B Denysiuk, M Douglas, B Fotheringham, C Franklin, K Fullgrabe, M Geraghty, J Gray, J Kirwen, T Manzone, B McGillivray, S Money, T Moulton, D Munns, B O'Regan, C Papertalk, S Rotham, Z Saunders, W Shea, B Walton, H Yarran, C Yarran

COLTS SQUAD
A Allen, M Antonio, L Baker, A Charlie, K Coleman, R Dolman, Z Guadagnin, E Hills, C Hinchcliffe, K Hindmarsh, J Horgan, E Larmett, C Lynch, T Manners, N Marinovich, J Moore, B Mountford, S Nelson, T O'Brien, M Peirce, G Popzeleff, D Robertson, J Rotham, T Smith, J Turner, M Walley, B Zanon