BIG WIN FOR FALCONS AT SHARK PARK TO STAY IN SECOND

WEST Perth kicked the first six goals and cruised to a 73-point victory over East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium on Saturday to retain second position on the WAFL ladder with three rounds of the season remaining.

With the third placed Peel Thunder and fourth placed East Perth also recording wins on Saturday, West Perth couldn’t afford a slip up against the struggling Sharks, and that was never going to happen once the game got underway.

West Perth had the advantage of the breeze in the first quarter but the game quickly turned into a contest featuring a team getting ready to contend for the premiership in 2015, and one who can't wait for a horror season to come to an end.

The Falcons booted the first six goals of the game in the first quarter and then weren’t troubled the rest of the afternoon in conditions that included a howling wind and torrential run, to end up winning 15.14 (104) to 4.7 (31).

The Falcons also came into the game without 2013 premiership stars Luke Tedesco, Shane Nelson, Nick Rodda, Rohan Kerr and Jordan Jones, but there were good news with Kerr returning in the reserves and Tedesco, Nelson and Rodda not far away from coming back.

West Perth has now improved to an 11-6 record on the season with games to finish at HBF Arena against the fifth placed Swan Districts and sixth placed Claremont, and then at Fremantle Oval against the out of contention South Fremantle.

Trent Manzone picked up the slack left by the absence of Shane Nelson in the midfield for West Perth and played the best game of his career for the Falcons with 34 possessions, five inside-50 entries and two goals.

Steve Potente also kicked three goals for West Perth to go with 18 possessions while Andrew Strijk had two goals to go with 23 disposals, 10 marks and eight inside-50 entries while Michael Lourey kicked two majors as well.

Aidan Lynch also likely played the best game of his short league career at West Perth with 30 possessions and 11 tackles with Corey Chalmers in the same boat with 29 disposals.

Ray Bartholomew continued his season-best run of form with another 24 disposals and five inside-50 entries as well with Aaron Black finishing with 25 touches, Tyler Keitel 21 (eight marks), Blake Wilhelm 20, Kris Shannon 19 and Drew Rohde 18.

East Fremantle's only hope of turning around its form was to get off to a good start at ATOM  Stadium against West Perth, but the Falcons kicked with the howling breeze in the first quarter and the game as a contest was all but over by time-on of the opening term.

It took less than a minute for West Perth to kick the game's first goal through Matt Johnson before Manzone snapped one through in traffic at the nine-minute mark.

When Wilhelm kicked on the run from outside 50, Marcus Adams nailed a set shot from the pocket and then Lourey kicked two in succession, the Falcons already had 37 points on the board with the Sharks yet to record a solitary behind.

Eventually East Fremantle got on the board with a goal to captain Rory O'Brien shortly before quarter-time, but even the advantage of the breeze in the second term didn’t help the Sharks with them managing just the one goal to usual defender Andrew Stephen.

West Perth still kicked two second quarter goals through Potente into the breeze to lead by 38 points at half-time and then East Fremantle went completely scoreless in the third term with the Falcons totally dominant.

The breeze certainly helped the ball carry further towards the Canning Highway end, but it didn’t help keep it on target and West Perth kicked seven behinds in the third quarter, but did manage goals through Luke Meadows, Strijk (two) and Laine Rasmussen.

All were from long range and Meadows' was from well outside 50, but it was Strijk's second that was most remarkable with him kicking from almost in the centre circle following a 50m penalty, and it cleared the pack in the goal square, bounced just before the goal line and went through for a goal.

The Falcons led by 69 points at three quarter-time and then another three goals to two in the final quarter saw them win by a commanding 73 points to remain in second position on the ladder and to stretch the Sharks' losing run to 10 in-a-row.

West Perth's reserves remained in fourth position on the ladder as well with a 12.15 (87) to 9.10 (64) win over East Fremantle at ATOM Stadium.

Hayden Yarran kicked three goals for the Falcons with Callum Papertalk and Max Alexander adding two apiece while Mitchell Peirce racked up 27 possessions, Brayden Antonio 26, Dean Munns 20 (11 tackles) and Kaidyn Fullgrabe 18.

Rohan Kerr also made a successful return from a back injury with the hard-running premiership winning wingman collecting 17 possessions for the Falcons in the reserves.

West Perth's colts started the day at ATOM Stadium by remaining just percentage outside of the top five with a 7.4 (46) to 2.4 (16) victory over East Fremantle.

Clint Hinchcliffe was again the star for the Falcons in the colts with 32 possessions, six tackles, six inside-50 entries and three goals.

Troy Manners gathered 23 disposals as well for the Falcons while Ethan Hills was terrific in the ruck with 18 disposals and 34 hit outs.

WEST PERTH            6.2    8.5    12.12    15.14    (104)
EAST FREMANTLE        1.0    2.3    2.3    4.7    (31)

WEST PERTH – Goals: Potente 3; Strijk, Lourey, Manzone 2; Meadows, Johnson, Fowler, Adams, Wilhelm, Rasmussen.
Best: Manzone, Lynch, Chalmers, Keitel, Strijk, Keunen, Wilhelm.
EAST FREMANTLE – Goals: McNamara, R O'Brien, Stephen, B O'Brien.
Best: R O'Brien, B O'Brien, Anthony, McNamara, Bannister.