FALCONS WITH BIG DECISIONS TO MAKE WITH GRAND FINAL INCLUSIONS

WEST Perth delivered a memorable preliminary final win despite plenty seeming to be working against the Falcons with the only downside being two injuries that now leaves coach Bill Monaghan with interesting selection decisions to make ahead of Sunday's grand final against Subiaco.

Despite playing in its 11th consecutive match since a bye in Round 15 coming off a 55-point second semi-final loss to Subiaco and then falling three goals down at quarter-time in the preliminary final against East Perth at HBF Arena on Sunday, West Perth was able to deliver a tremendous last three quarters.

In front of a crowd of more than 8500 people and despite losing Matt Johnson (hamstring) and Laine Rasmussen (ankle) to injury by early in the third quarter, West Perth kicked 13 goals to six after quarter-time to beat the Royals by 29 points.

That booked the Falcons a spot in this Sunday's WAFL grand final against Subiaco at Domain Stadium and West Perth's longest ever serving coach has some selection dilemmas to weigh up beforehand.

What Monaghan does know for sure is that Johnson is no chance of playing with the left-footed half-forward badly tearing his hamstring and while he doesn’t expect vice-captain Rasmussen to overcome an ankle complaint, he's certainly not ruling him out completely yet.

"Laine's really doubtful to play. He is an incredibly strong person mentally and physically when he plays the game, and he gives it everything he's got so we will give him as long this week as he needs to try and prove his fitness," Monaghan said.

"But we think it's really doubtful he will play but as a vice-captain of the club with his performances over a number of years now I think every coach would give him the right to try and prove his fitness despite it being very unlikely that he will play."

The easy decision at selection this week appears to be replacing Johnson with 186-game premiership player Ray Bartholomew who ruled himself out of last week's preliminary final with a leg injury after having a strong last 10 weeks since regaining his place in the league team.

However, if Rasmussen isn’t right to play that's where it gets interesting, and difficult, for Monaghan with Corey Chalmers, Blake Wilhelm and Luke Meadows deserving of a chance after playing strong league football during the year, but 103-game premiership utility Jordan Jones is also lurking.

"Bartholomew missed last week and he had a slight issue with his leg, and ruled himself out on the Friday night. Experience-wise, run and ball use all mean that we think Ray could add significantly to our group so he's in line to play," he said.

"Then there's Chalmers, Meadows and Wilhelm who are all guys who have been around the squad in the second half of the year, and been emergencies throughout the finals series so they are obviously in line as well.

"We still have a fair bit of discussion around Jordan Jones and whether we think we can play him or not. It would be a risk but we know what Jordan brings quality-wise to our group. He's flexible and can play multiple roles on different types of players, and he can play midfield, back or even forward.

"That's probably our biggest selection dilemma because he played one game in Round 1 and one game of reserves football on first semi-final day. That's going to take a fair bit of convincing to get me to pick him but stranger things have happened."

Jones tore his hamstring in Round 1 against South Fremantle and then when he was ready to resume training, it was discovered he had a broken finger that required surgery.

Just when he was over that and was back in training again, he reinjured the hamstring he tore to open the season and it appeared his 2015 was over.

However late in the season he was able to begin training again and then put in a solid showing with 18 possessions in the midfield during West Perth's reserves first semi-final loss to Swan Districts, and another two weeks of solid training sees him knocking on the door for the grand final.

If Rasmussen doesn’t get up to play, Monaghan might very well be tempted to take the risk on Jones particularly with him capable of spending time on the midfield and being one of the few players in the competition with similar physical attributes to Subiaco stars Sam Menegola and Chris Phelan.

"I think if there is one opposition side that really matches the type of player Jordy is and his skill set, it's probably Subiaco. That's a bit where the dilemma is and if we played one or two of the other sides who were in the finals, he probably wouldn’t come into such consideration," Monaghan said.

"We have to get through that and make balanced decisions on the guys who are in the side, and if we back them in because he essentially hasn’t been there for the whole year. We haven’t got a lot of recent form or history to go on, but we are looking back to the last two years to judge him.

"To his credit, he's worked extremely hard to overcome the two or three injuries he's had this year and if he doesn’t make the final side, it's been a solid effort and a committed effort for him to turn up over the last seven or eight weeks with only a slight chance he could play. He's done everything he can to be selected so that makes it really tough."

The thing that Monaghan knows West Perth must do better than it did in the second semi-final loss to Subiaco is compete better at stoppages and the contested ball.

While the presence of Jones might help against the likes of Menegola and Phelan, all of Subiaco's midfield including Kyal Horsley, Leigh Kitchin and Brett Robinson are all strong and experienced players meaning Jay van Berlo, Shane Nelson, Aidan Lynch, Trent Manzone and Aaron Black have to stand up.

Monaghan is also confident that experienced premiership ruckman Chris Keunen will put in a strong performance against in-form but makeshift Subiaco ruck pair Clancy Wheeler and Lachlan Delahunty.

"That's going to be the hard thing, judging how good they were (Subiaco) and how poor we were (in the second semi-final). The answer lies somewhere in the middle of the two I would suggest, but history would be littered by sides who don’t perform well in a second semi-final and are able to turn it around, but we are under no illusions it's going to be a huge task for us," Monaghan said.

"But the players will be up for it, we'll plan accordingly and we'll give it a red hot crack. And if we are good enough to get the chocolates at the end then that's good, and as long as our players put in the required effort then I'll always be proud of.

"Not only did Wheeler and Delahunty win more hit outs, they were productive at ground level and we need Chris to right that, but we need VB, Nelly, Blacky, Kerry, Lynch and all those guys to play through the middle to be better at the clearances."