FALCONS LOSE ALL THREE SEMIS BUT TURN FOCUS TO PRELIM

WAFL semi-final weekend didn’t go to plan for West Perth with all three grades losing with the Falcons' reserves and colts seeing their seasons ended, but the league side now turns their attention to a preliminary final against East Perth.

West Perth had a day to remember to open the finals for 2015 at HBF Arena the previous Sunday with the league side thrashing Peel Thunder by 109 points in a qualifying final, and the reserves and colts winning elimination finals over East Perth and East Fremantle respectively.

However, it was the complete opposite this Sunday with the colts losing at Bendigo Bank Stadium to Peel Thunder and the reserves going down to Swan Districts at Medibank Stadium on Sunday night with both Falcons teams being eliminated as a result.

West Perth's league side started well against Subiaco in the second semi-final at Medibank Stadium on Sunday leading by as much as 13 points in the first quarter and still by 11 early in the last quarter.

However, the Falcons suffered some injuries to key players and then were run off their legs by a fresh Subiaco outfit with the Lions coming off the bye and kicking 13 of the last 16 goals to win 17.13 (115) to 9.6 (60).

West Perth was playing its 10th straight match since its last bye back in Round 15 and with injuries to full-forward Michael Lourey (ankle) and Chris Keunen (knee) with Sandover Medallist Aaron Black also fighting through a leg complaint, the Falcons couldn’t keep up with the Lions.

Subiaco has had three weeks off in the time since West Perth's last bye and that became obvious the longer the game went on Sunday with the Lions winning by 55 points to advance straight to the grand final.

West Perth now will host the preliminary final this Sunday at HBF Arena against East Perth with a place in the grand final on the line. In order to win the 2015 premiership, will have to win the next two Sundays and need to do so having played their 11th and 12th straight matches without a break.

Prior to getting injured, Lourey, Keunen and Black were all having a significant impact on the game for West Perth.

Lourey was proving a dominant presence at full-forward kicking three goals up until the seven-minute mark of the second quarter and getting the better of his battle with Subiaco's five-time premiership winning full-back Darren Rumble.

However, he hurt his ankle late in the first quarter and despite coming back in the second term, he didn’t reappear after half-time.

Keunen was also working hard in the ruck up against Subiaco pair Clancy Wheeler and Lachlan Delahunty, and had 42 hit outs before hurting his knee in the opening stages of the last quarter.

Black finished the game with an equal team-high of 25 possessions to go with seven marks, six tackles, five inside-50 entries and a goal but his impact was limited for much of the second half after he had hobbled off with a leg injury.

Shane Nelson also worked hard in the midfield for West Perth ending up with 25 possessions while Andrew Strijk finished with 20 disposals, Rohan Kerr 19, Laine Rasmussen 18, Ray Bartholomew 18 and Trent Manzone 17 to go with two goals.

Despite Subiaco kicking the first goal of the game after just over a minute through Shane Yarran, it was West Perth who made the fast start and it was on the back of some dominance at full-forward from Lourey.

He kicked West Perth's first two goals of the game and then the Falcons had three in a burst of five minutes when Matt Johnson kicked truly to put them 13 points in front.

West Perth then responded to two goals from Subiaco with two more of their own from Manzone and Kerr to see the Falcons lead back out to 11 points, and still five at quarter-time following a goal for Subiaco after the siren by Kyle Halligan.

The Falcons continued their strong start to the game with the first goal of the second quarter as well with Lourey booting his third and their lead growing again to 11 points.

However, it would be 50 more minutes before West Perth kicked another goal and in that time either side of half-time Subiaco kicked seven goals to go from trailing by 11 points to leading by 39 before Nick Rodda belatedly kicked the Falcons seventh goal of the contest.

Subiaco was in control by 39 points at three quarter-time and with Keunen and Lourey off the ground injured, and Black continuing to play despite being hobbled, the Lions kicked another five goals to two in the last quarter to end up winning by 55 points.

West Perth's reserves premiership defence over after the Falcons suffered a similar fate on Sunday night to what happened to the league side.

West Perth made a tremendous start kicking three goals to one in the first quarter against Swan Districts, and then another seven goals to four in the second to be in control at half-time holding a 33-point advantage.

However, the Falcons managed just the one goal the entire second half while Swans booted 11 majors to end up winning 16.13 (109) to 11.11 (77).

Blake Wilhelm continued to put his name forward for a recall into the league side 26 possessions, nine inside-50 entries and two goals while Corey Chalmers also finished with 21 touches and two goals while Tyson Moulton booted two majors from four kicks.

Kris Shannon also picked up 24 disposals for the Falcons, Broderick Walton 21 and Jordan Jones 18 who made his return from a hamstring injury to put himself in the mix to play his first league game since Round 1 in this Sunday's preliminary final against East Perth at HBF Arena.

West Perth's colts did a tremendous job to make the finals for the first time in more than a decade and then to beat East Fremantle in the elimination final at HBF Arena, but the Falcons went down to Peel Thunder at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Sunday.

Peel ended up winning 19.8 (122) to 12.7 (79) in Mandurah but not without some strong individual performances from West Perth youngsters.

Clint Hinchliffe led the way with 21 possessions and four goals while Liam Baker also worked hard for 26 disposals, six tackles and three goals.

Mitch Peirce also finished with 20 touches and two goals with Troy Manners also gathering 20 possessions, Scott Nelson 20, Josh Rotham 16, Ben Mountford 15 and Nathan Alexandre 15.

Ethan Hills also battled hard in the ruck for the Falcons with 11 possessions and 25 hit outs.
 
WEST PERTH        5.1    6.3    7.3    9.6    (60)
SUBIACO        4.2    7.9    12.12    17.13    (115)

WEST PERTH – Goals: Lourey 3; Manzone 2; Johnson, Kerr, Rodda, Lynch.
Best: Black, Nelson, Lynch, Rasmussen, Kerr, Strijk.
SUBIACO – Goals: Yarran, Wheeler 3; Menegola, Halligan 2; Boland, Twomey, Robinson, Deluca, Mahoney, Kitchin, Wood.
Best: Wheeler, Delahunty, Menegola, Hoskins, Robinson, Twomey, Kitchin.