WEST Perth had its backs to the wall on a number of occasions at Claremont Oval on Saturday but showed real character to come away with a four-point victory. Both sides had a lot to play for as a finals spot was at stake and the contest reflected this all day. 

On a number of occasions the Tigers looked to have the game under control but the Falcons found a way to win in a match that culminated in a pulsating fourth quarter. The victory now has West Perth facing Swan Districts in an elimination final Sunday at Steel Blue Oval.

Claremont had the advantage of a pretty stiff breeze to start the match and the first major went to Ian Richardson who scored from outside 50. West Perth kicked a goal at the eight-minute mark when Dean Munns scored from the square after receiving a 50m penalty. The margin was one at this point in time but the Tigers took full advantage of the breeze for the next 20 minutes and opened up a 23-point advantage. 

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WEST Perth remains a chance to part in the WAFL Finals Series for 2017 if the Falcons can rise to the occasion in Aaron Black's 150th game this Saturday against Claremont at Claremont Oval.

While nothing is guaranteed for whoever it is that ends up winning Saturday's contest to close the home and away season at Claremont Oval, it at least gives them some hope of still playing a final the next week while the season is over for the loser.

While what happens at Steel Blue Oval between Swan Districts and East Fremantle, and at Leederville Oval between East Perth and Subiaco will have a big say on what Claremont's clash with West Perth ends up counting for, all the Tigers and Falcons can focus on is winning to get a sniff.

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HE is already one of West Perth's most decorated players as he reaches 150 games to earn life membership but all Aaron Black is looking for is a win come Saturday's to keep the Falcons' finals hopes alive.

Ever since he made his league debut for West Perth in Round 16, 2010 as a 17-year-old, Black has been a permanent member of the Falcons line-up.

Initially starting his career in tagging roles and then developing himself into one of the hardest working and running midfielders and wingmen in the competition, the accolades began to come his way as he continued to rack up plenty of games and achievements at a young age.

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WHILE individual achievements might get lost in the big picture when a season is on the line like is the case with West Perth entering Saturday's clash with Claremont, but coach Bill Monaghan has paid tribute to the milestones of two premiership players and for another debutant.

West Perth's season goes on the line this Saturday against Claremont at Claremont Oval with the Falcons needing to beat the Tigers to remain a chance of still playing finals in 2017.

But there have been some significant achievements along the way this season that shouldn’t go without being paid proper acknowledgement to.

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WEST Perth's longest serving and winningest coach ever Bill Monaghan spoke following last week's loss to Subiaco and looks ahead to this Saturday's must-win contest with Claremont with a potential finals spot at stake for the Falcons.

QUESTION: What do you take out of a game like that?
ANSWER: That's a really difficult one because again for chunks of the game, obviously not big enough ones, we did a lot of things right. I thought we matched Subi in a lot of areas in the first quarter and not for the first time and I know this sounds like a broken record, but we kicked 2.5 to 5.2 and that's the difference. There were some crucial misses and two or three of those were really gettable, and then at the other end Ben Sokol takes a shot from 50m out on the boundary and it doesn’t spin but floats through the middle of the goals into the breeze. There are things like that where you get to quarter-time and think you've done a reasonable job but are three goals down. Then in the second quarter for the first 10 or 15 minutes we were pretty ordinary but they only ended up kicking three goals for the quarter. We were able to limit the damage on the scoreboard to a certain extent in the second quarter even though the signs weren’t great. What would have been nice would have been to sneak one or two just before half-time to get back to within three or four goals instead of being six down. Then again our first 20 minutes of the third quarter I thought was pretty good and we fired our best shot, but weren’t able to take our opportunities after playing the majority of the football in our half. Then in the last quarter the floodgates opened and the last 15 minutes were just horrible. They were running around doing as they wanted to. I would like to say the players knew Perth beat East Perth and were saving themselves for next week but I'm not going to seriously give them that as an out.

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