INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL FESTIVAL PREVIEW V SUBIACO

WEST Perth hosts Subiaco in a battle between the two WAFL teams at HBF Arena on Saturday as the Falcons look to celebrate the annual International Football Festival by proving that the league-leading Lions aren’t as invincible as they appear to be.

A massive afternoon is planned at HBF Arena for the International Football Festival with another big crowd expected in recognition of the multiculturalism of the West Perth zone in the northern corridor, and to attract the migrants to the region to the game of Australian Rules football.

It has proved a tremendous success with big crowds attending the past two seasons and now plenty is planned again on Saturday including a citizenship ceremony, international food stalls, the Falcons wearing a specially designed jumper and then a Gaelic Football showcase match to close the day.

However, the game itself is set to be a beauty between first and second on the WAFL ladder heading into Round 14 of the 2015 season.

Subiaco has dominated the WAFL so far this season having now won eight straight matches to be three games clear on top of the ladder with a 10-1 record coming off winning the 2014 premiership.

Right now, the Lions are the raging premiership favourites and just to make it worse for the rest of the competition, they are yet to field their strongest 22 yet this season and in recent weeks have added Sam Menegola and Kyal Horsley to an already prolific midfield group.

However, West Perth has now won its last two games impressively against Peel Thunder and South Fremantle either side of the bye to enter the clash with Subiaco in good form with a 7-4 record and to be a game clear in second position.

Subiaco and West Perth met earlier this season back in Round 4 and that was a contest to savour with the added fire caused by an early morning nightclub incident featuring players from both teams leading into it.

It was a twilight fixture at Medibank Stadium on that Saturday and in wet conditions throughout the second half, Subiaco ending up prevailing 9.11 (65) to 6.12 (48) in what was the start of the Lions' current eight-game winning run with them coming off their only loss of the season to East Perth on Good Friday.

There are no outs of the West Perth team at this stage despite premiership stars Jordan Jones (hamstring) and Rohan Kerr (back) both appearing to now be out for the rest of the season with surgery-requiring injuries.

There is pressure on for spots at the Falcons, though, with hard-leading forward Matt Fowler a chance to return from injury while Brent Fotheringham has continued to build strong reserves form to push for a debut with West Perth having previously played at East Perth and Peel Thunder.

Mitch van Berlo is the other player in the mix to breaking into a Falcons team that is coming off a strong win over South Fremantle and looking to claim a third straight victory to head into next week's bye with plenty of momentum and further secured in second position.

Subiaco has no need to make changes to a dominant outfit that has now won eight straight to be three games clear on top of the ladder, but there are important premiership players ready to come back into the line-up.

Five-time premiership player Darren Rumble looks set to return after missing just the one game with a calf injury while full-forward Matt Boland appears like he will come in after one reserves game where he kicked two goals.

Boland was one of the players at the centre of that nightclub brawl and was subsequently delisted by Subiaco while injured, but he was put back on the list when healthy and now after one reserves game, could give the Lions yet another option in attack.

Ray Daniels and Dylan Elliott are also trying to break into the Subiaco line-up with nobody named out at this stage from the team that took care of Claremont at the Showground last Saturday.

RESERVES SQUAD
B Antonio, M Ashfield, R Bartholomew, J Batterham, M Douglas, C Franklin, K Fullgrabe, M Geraghty, J Kirwen, T Manners, T Manzone, B McGillivray, T Moulton, D Munns, C Papertalk, M Peirce, S Rotham, T Sutherland, B Walton, B Wilhelm, H Yarran

COLTS SQUAD
N Alexandre, A Allen, M Antonio, A Charlie, K Coleman, R Dolman, E Hills, P Hiotis, J Horgan, J Hunter, J Jennings, E Larmett, C Lynch, N Marinovich, B Mountford, S Nelson, T O'Brien, G Popzeleff, D Robertson, J Romanelli, J Turner, M Walley, D Yem