SECOND SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW V SUBIACO

WEST Perth's league, reserves and colts teams all recorded impressive finals wins last Sunday at HBF Arena and if the Falcons manage to do it again this Sunday, one grand final and two preliminary finals appearances will be the result.

West Perth's league side thrashed Peel Thunder by 109 points last Sunday to move into this Sunday's second semi-final against Subiaco at Medibank Stadium with a grand final berth at stake. A loss and the Falcons will host the preliminary final next Sunday against either Peel or East Perth.

The Falcons reserves beat East Perth last Sunday to move into this Sunday's first semi-final against Swan Districts at Medibank Stadium. The game will be played after the league fixture and a win will see West Perth set up a preliminary final against either South Fremantle or Subiaco.

The colts will be in action at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Mandurah up against Peel Thunder at 11.40am and a win for West Perth will see them move into the preliminary final against either Claremont or Swan Districts.

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LEAGUE SECOND SEMI-FINAL
SUBIACO (17-3, 1st) v WEST PERTH (13-7, 2nd) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams 
Broadcast – 720 ABC Perth, KIX Digital

Subiaco dominated the 2015 WAFL season finishing four games clear on top of the ladder and now are coming off a break in the first week of the finals, but they enter Sunday's second semi-final with West Perth on level footing with a grand final spot at stake.

Subiaco scored an upset grand final win in 2014 beating the hot favourite East Perth and now the Lions have gone to another level in 2015 winning 17 of 20 games to end up as minor premiers four games clear on top of the ladder.

The Lions have had the minor premiership wrapped for some time and had a comfortable run into the finals winning their last three games and seven of their last eight since a loss to West Perth in Round 14.

Subiaco has used the last two months to try to get their best team fully available, healthy and in-form as well and the Lions seem to have timed that well with just about everyone ready to go.

The Lions only played one finals team in the last six games and then had a break last weekend, so they are fresh and ready for West Perth on Sunday in the second semi-final with the winner to go straight into the grand final.

West Perth, meanwhile, has now played nine straight matches since its last bye but the Falcons have won six of them to firstly end up in second position to earn a home qualifying final where they went on to beat the undermanned Peel Thunder by 109 points last Sunday at HBF Arena.

Not only have Subiaco and West Perth combined to the win the last two premierships, they have a host of players who grew up going to school and playing junior football together, and was there an off-field incident featuring players from both teams earlier this year, but they have a recent history of playing close encounters as well.

Back in Round 4 not long after that off-field incident was the time they first met this year and the rain pelted down in the second half, and Subiaco rebounded from a slow start to kick nine of the last 11 goals to win by 17 points after West Perth booted the opening four goals of the match.

The second, and last, clash was then in Round 14 at HBF Arena and it was a low-scoring affair that saw West Perth beat an inaccurate Subiaco 8.7 (55) to 5.15 (45).

The two haven’t been strangers to playing finals this century either. The most recent clash was in 2011 when Subiaco won a preliminary final by 15 points at Joondalup and before that the Lions had a 44-point second semi-final win in 2008.

Prior to that West Perth beat Subiaco in the 2003 grand final after the Lions won the second semi-final that year. Twelve months earlier it was West Perth who won the preliminary final by 18 points.

Subiaco decided to play the last three games of the home and away season without a recognised ruckman relying on the undersized but more mobile pair of Clancy Wheeler and Lachlan Delahunty to do the job.

They battled hard but now the other three finalists still alive have big, quality and experienced ruckmen with West Perth possessing Chris Keunen, East Perth having Paul Johnson and Peel Thunder having at least two of Zac Clarke, Jack Hannath, Craig Moller and Jonathon Griffin.

As a result, the Lions have brought back in inexperienced ruckman Jordan Bestry for his seventh league game with David Madut now having not played in the league side since Round 15 and in the reserves since Round 21 despite being the No. 1 ruckman for the opening 13 matches of 2015.

However, Bestry now comes in to tackle West Perth's 169-game premiership ruckman Keunen but the positive for Subiaco is that it allows Delahunty to settle as a hard-leading centre half-forward and for Wheeler to either play forward or back depending on where coach Jarrad Schofield needs him.

Subiaco's reserves won a qualifying final against Swan Districts last Sunday while the league side had the bye, and that side featured league premiership players from 2014 Joel Latham, Rhys Waters, Charles Le Fanu and Scott Worthington.

Only Worthington and Le Fanu have now been added to Subiaco's squad for Sunday's second semi-final against West Perth along with defender Aaron Heal and experienced midfielder Brett Robinson who is in his first season with the Lions having been a premiership player at Swan Districts.

Will Fetherstonhaugh is the only out at this stage from the Subiaco team that beat East Perth in Round 23 before the break in the first week of the finals, but Schofield certainly has some tough selection decisions to make ahead of Sunday.

West Perth's league and reserves teams both recorded victories last Sunday at HBF Arena and with no injuries picked up, the Falcons have just about a full list to pick from once again this week minus the long-term injuries to Matt Guadagnin, Jordan Jones and Seva Martin.

Corey Chalmers, Blake Wilhelm, Kris Shannon, Tim Sutherland and Luke Meadows were the five unlucky players to lose their place in the league team last week to play Peel Thunder with the returns of Shane Nelson, Kody Manning, Joe Morrow, Tyler Keitel and Laine Rasmussen.

All five had a significant impact as well in the eventual 109-point win but those who went back to the reserves didn’t drop their heads either to keep themselves in contention for a league call up if a position opens up.

Sutherland showed enough that if West Perth needs a second ruckman he is ready to go while Chalmers racked up 41 possessions, Wilhelm 31 and Shannon and Meadows showed some good signs as well.

However, at this stage Chalmers, Meadows, Shannon and Wilhelm have just been added to the West Perth group of 22 players who took to HBF Arena to beat Peel last Sunday.

RESERVES FIRST SEMI-FINAL
SWAN DISTRICTS (14-6, 3rd) v WEST PERTH (10-2-8, 4th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 5.00PM
Selected teams 

Swan Districts and West Perth's reserves will have to wait until Sunday evening to do battle in their first semi-final at Medibank Stadium with a spot in the preliminary final on the line.

By the time their game starts at Leederville, both teams will know whether or not they will face South Fremantle or Subiaco in the preliminary final next Sunday and where that game will be held, but neither can afford to get ahead of themselves and plan ahead.

Swan Districts might have finished third on the ladder at the end of the season, but had an outstanding second half of 2015 winning 10 of its last 11 games to book a place in last Sunday's qualifying final against Subiaco at Medibank Stadium.

Swans led by six points at half-time and 11 points still at three quarter-time but the Lions finished strongly with four goals to two in the last quarter to win by two points.

That means Swan Districts now heads back to Medibank Stadium this Sunday to take on West Perth with a place in the preliminary final the prize for the winner while the loser's season will be over.

Dylan Nelson continued his terrific season in the forward-line for Swans by kicking four goals in the loss to Subiaco while Jacob Burnham, Rudy Riddoch, Jacob Coniglio, Jake Nuich, Jason Daniels, David McKay, Jesse Turner, Ben Whitsed and Warrick Wilson all delivered good performances.

West Perth's reserves won the premiership last year and now Trent Manzone, Matt Fowler, Joe Morrow, Aidan Lynch and Drew Rohde have moved into being regular members of the Falcons' league side that will take on Subiaco in the second semi-final as well on Sunday.

Brayden Antonio, Luke Meadows, Kris Shannon, Corey Chalmers, Mitch van Berlo, Blake Wilhelm and Max Alexander are among the players who played in last year's reserves premiership for the Falcons and are likely to be in the team again on Sunday against Swan Districts.

West Perth finished the season in fourth position and then hosted East Perth in the elimination final last Sunday leading by 25 points at half-time and still by 21 at three quarter-time before the Royals stormed home in the last quarter. The Falcons just held on for the three-point win though.

The two teams have met three times throughout the season with Swan Districts winning by seven points at HBF Arena in Round 6 and again by 15 points at Steel Blue Oval in Round 17.

Then a month later in Round 21, it was West Perth who beat Swan Districts by 18 points at HBF Arena but all three games could have gone either way, and Sunday's first semi-final looks set to be no different.

COLTS FIRST SEMI-FINAL
PEEL THUNDER (12-8, 3rd) v WEST PERTH (11-9, 5th) – BENDIGO BANK STADIUM, SUNDAY 11.40AM
Selected teams 

Peel Thunder and West Perth's colts begin what each will hope will be big days for their club on Sunday in a first semi-final battle at Bendigo Bank Stadium.

For the Thunder, the colts will host the first semi-final ahead of the league team then taking part in their first ever home final that afternoon.

The Falcons, meanwhile, have all three grades in action on Sunday starting with the colts playing Peel in Mandurah, then their league side facing Subiaco at Medibank Stadium in a second semi-final and then the reserves being involved in a reserves first semi-final against Swan Districts on Sunday night at Leederville.

Peel and West Perth's colts teams are looking to book in a place in next Sunday's preliminary final against either Claremont or Swan Districts.

The two teams met just the two times during the season with West Perth scoring a 15.6 (96) to 9.3 (57) win over way back in Round 2 at HBF Arena and then Peel won a thriller 9.10 (64) to 9.5 (59) at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Round 11.

However, given both clashes were so long ago it's unlikely either side would take much out of them coming into Sunday's do or die clash in Mandurah.

Peel's colts had a good season to finish just behind the grand finalists from last year Swan Districts and Claremont to be in third spot, but the Thunder fell short of Swans in last Sunday's qualifying final with the black-and-whites winning by 57 points at Medibank Stadium.

However, Peel's colts have plenty of exciting talent including Mitchel Curnow, Michael Humble, Noah Hura, Brett Milward, Nicholas Merritt, Josh Schoenfeld and Keegan Power, and they won't want to bow out of the finals in straight sets.

West Perth's colts have been out of the finals for more than a decade, but did well to qualify this year in fifth position and to then beat an inaccurate East Fremantle by 15 points in the elimination final last Sunday at HBF Arena.

The Falcons side features Clint Hinchliffe, Mitch Antonio and Josh Rotham who all made the Colts Team of the Year while Conal Lynch, Ben Mountford, Ethan Hills, Mitch Peirce, Liam Baker and Angus Allen among the others in terrific form.