Round 4 Preview - East Perth v ClaremontFriday, April 7, 2017 - 1:28 PM - by Chris Pike

FRIDAY night WAFL football returns to Leederville Oval in Round 4 of the WAFL season and there's plenty on the line with East Perth hunting its first win and Claremont looking to remain undefeated.

Leederville Oval will play host to a double-header this weekend and it gets underway on Friday night with the Royals hosting the Tigers.

It's shaping as a big night for both clubs as well.

East Perth is desperate for a win after three straight losses to start the season at the hands of Peel Thunder, West Perth and Swan Districts. They have been competitive in all three games but come up without any points.

Luke Webster will be determined to get his first win as coach on Friday night or falling to 0-4 to open the season could make it tremendously hard to keep the Royals' run of finals appearances continuing in 2017.

But for Claremont, a win on Friday night to make it three from three to start the season under new coach Darren Harris will set up the Tigers' 2017 tremendously well.

Claremont has made slow starts in previous seasons and while finishing strongly, it has hurt the Tigers hopes of being genuine contenders. Suddenly if they can open 2017 with three wins it will make a real statement.

So far the Tigers have beaten East Fremantle by 62 points and Perth by 59 but with both those teams winless to date, Friday night does present its biggest challenge to date against a finals team from last year.

The game will also be the first time that East Perth and Claremont have done battle under lights at Leederville Oval.

Meanwhile looking back to 2016, Claremont beat East Perth at the ground emphatically in Round 1 by 76 points before the Royals beat the Tigers by eight points on an emotional afternoon at the Claremont Showground.

East Perth is desperate for its first in of the season and has plenty of changes to its line-up to take on Claremont on Friday night.

Experienced West Coast defender Eric Mackenzie comes back to play with East Perth and his likely task will be to line-up on former Claremont and West Coast teammate Beau Maister.

Dom Sheed also returns from Eagles duties for the Royals to add to their midfield that will still be without co-captain Patrick McGinnity.

Liam Duggan, Sam Butler and Will Schofield are the three emergencies for West Coast against Richmond on Saturday at the MCG. At least two of them could still play with East Perth on Friday night.

Scott Jones looks set to come in for East Perth to provide some support in the ruck for Fraser McInnes even though he didn’t play in the reserves last week against Swan Districts.

Julian Ameduri was terrific in the reserves last week with 29 possessions and two goals to push his case for a call up with East Perth while Paddy Brophy, Kurt Mutimer, Jack Hick, Mitch Lague and Nathan Eaton are all in contention to play as well.

Claremont has put together two dominant performances to start the season so there's little reason for change with the Tigers.

However, they do have one forced change with Ryan Neates going out of the line-up through injury.

Jack Bradshaw looks the most likely replacement for him following 33 possessions, 14 marks, eight tackles and two goals in the reserves against Perth last week.

There were plenty of other in-form players for the Tigers last week too who are pressing for selection in the league side.

Bailey Rogers had 22 possessions last week while Tom Shanahan gathered 23 disposals, John Williams 25 and Gerrick Weedon 23 for all four to put themselves in the frame to take on the Royals on Friday night at Leederville Oval.

EAST PERTH (0-3, 7th) v CLAREMONT (2-0, 2nd) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, FRIDAY NIGHT 7.10PM
Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – HFM (107.3FM)