WAFL NAIDOC Round PreviewFriday, July 4, 2014 - 3:52 PM - by Chris Pike

IT IS NAIDOC Round in the WAFL this weekend as the league celebrates its rich Indigenous culture with four matches on Saturday afternoon highlighted by West Perth and Swan Districts continuing their budding rivalry.

West Perth hosts Swan Districts at Joondalup's HBF Arena on Saturday afternoon with the other three matches pitting Claremont against South Fremantle at the Claremont Showground, East Fremantle hosting Perth at East Fremantle Oval and East Perth tackling Peel Thunder at Leederville's Medibank Stadium.

All eight WAFL clubs will wear specially-designed Indigenous jumpers to celebrate NAIDOC Round.

WEST PERTH (6-6, 5th) v SWAN DISTRICTS (10-3, 2nd) – HBF ARENA, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

West Perth needs to keep winning to stay alive in the finals race while Swan Districts is out to bounce back with a win to further consolidate second position setting up a tremendous contest between the two at Joondalup's HBF Arena on Saturday.

The Falcons currently sit on a 6-6 win-loss record this season coming off last year's premiership to now be two games behind the fourth-placed East Fremantle and needing to keep winning to avoid falling further off the pace.

Swans, on the other hand, remain in second position on the ladder to be percentage off top spot and a game clear of the third-placed Subiaco despite a disappointing loss last weekend at home to Claremont by 26 points.

West Perth and Swan Districts have had a remarkable rivalry in recent years and that is only set to continue on Saturday as well.

The rivalry between Swan Districts and West Perth over the past decade has been a remarkable one as well including a classic in 2007 where Adam Lange and Adam Campbell kicked eight goals apiece, a 2008 night fixture decided when a West Perth trainer interfered with play and a preliminary final that same year where the Falcons coughed up a 35-point lead.

On that day, the game ended early when the siren went prematurely and had to be restarted, and since the fascinating matches have continued including a draw in 2009, first semi-final clash in 2009, and three tight and hard fought contests last year between the teams that finished second and third on the ladder at the end of the home and away season.

The two teams met earlier this season on Anzac Day at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval with Swan Districts prevailing in a low-scoring thriller by seven points.

To celebrate NAIDOC Round, West Perth will be providing a bouncing castle, face painting and inflatable football activities at HBF Arena along with the Welcome to Country featuring a didgeridoo player, smoking ceremony and traditional dancers.

The West Perth league's team jumper was designed by local young artist Hellena Stokes with them also worn by the Djinda Falcons youth team who will take to HBF Arena following the league match.

The day will be a tremendous celebration of Indigenous culture for NAIDOC Round and while West Perth won't have an Aboriginal player in its line-up, Swan Districts certainly will with Graham Jetta to play the 99th league game of his blossoming career.

West Perth might make just the one change from the team that beat South Fremantle last Sunday with premiership player Steve Potente out with a knee injury.

There are several players vying to take his spot in the team with Brayden Antonio, Trent Manzone, Kris Shannon and Jack Thrum all likely battling it out for just the one spot in the West Perth team to take on Swan Districts on Saturday.

Swan Districts loses young key backman Brent Latch from last week's team that lost to Claremont meaning Tallan Ames, Alex Howard and Justin Simpson will have to hold down the fort against West Perth's tall forward Nick Rodda, Marcus Adams and Seva Martin.

Aidan Anderson is likely to come straight back in for Swan Districts following playing in the WA State 18s team with Jacob Burnham, Rudy Riddoch and Josh Kirkup in the mix to return to the league line-up as well.

All three were impressive for Swan Districts in the reserves last Saturday with Burnham finishing with 33 possessions, 13 marks and two goals, Riddoch 27 touches and three goals, and Kirkup 20 disposals and five marks.

CLAREMONT (4-8, 6th) v SOUTH FREMANTLE (3-9, 8th) – CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

Claremont and South Fremantle initiated the WAFL's NAIDOC Round celebration beginning with their annual match dating back to 2007, and now the clubs with perhaps the strongest Indigenous heritage in Australia do battle at the Claremont Showground for just the second time in history.

Only one win might separate Claremont and South Fremantle on the WAFL ladder coming into the contest with the Tigers in sixth position with a 4-8 win-loss record and the Bulldogs on 3-9 in eighth, but the teams are currently in vastly different form.

Claremont had a horror start to the season despite beating Peel and West Perth with five disastrous losses against East Fremantle, East Perth, Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle by an average of over 12 goals, but the Tigers have found much better fighting spirit since.

That has seen Claremont put in competitive showings in narrow losses to Swan Districts, West Perth and East Perth while then scoring impressive wins against the third-placed Subiaco and second-placed Swan Districts.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, hasn’t won a game since beating Claremont by 64 points back in Round 7 at Fremantle Oval.

The Bulldogs have since lost to Peel Thunder, East Fremantle, East Perth, Swan Districts and West Perth to be on a five-match losing streak that has now seen the announcement made that coach Paul Hasleby won't be continuing at the helm beyond the 2014 season.

South Fremantle dominated Claremont back in that Round 7 meeting, but now two months later and the two sides are in completely different places in regards to their form and confidence levels.

The teams have only ever met once at the Showground as well with South Fremantle victorious by 41 points back in Round 13, 1926.

That was South Fremantle's last game at the Showground up until this Saturday as well with the Bulldogs having lost to East Perth, Perth, and West Perth in their three earlier appearances in 1926 at the venue before recording that win over Claremont.

The game on Saturday will also double as the continuation of Claremont and South Fremantle's celebration of Indigenous culture for NAIDOC Round.

While Claremont won't be represented by an Indigenous player on Saturday, South Fremantle will have several donning the specially designed jumpers to celebrate NAIDOC Round including Tim Kelly and Jacob Martinez.

South Fremantle and Claremont have met in NAIDOC clashes now every year since 2007 with the Tigers having won six of the seven previous clashes.

South Fremantle perhaps has the strongest Indigenous heritage of all clubs in the WAFL, and possibly Australia, with the Bulldogs' Indigenous Team of the Century reading like a who's who of football royalty.

That team includes Stephen Michael, Maurice Rioli, Nicky Winmar, Peter, Phil and Wally Matera, Basil Campbell, Brad Collard and Benny Vigona as well as recent AFL stars Ash McGrath, Shannon Cox, Roger Hayden, Dean Rioli, Jeff Farmer and Mark Williams.

The most recent South Fremantle player in that team is Toby McGrath who retired at the end of 2012.

Claremont certainly has its own rich heritage of Aboriginal players including Jim and Phil Krakouer, and Chris Lewis as well as recent premiership players Gerrick Weedon and Alroy Gilligan.

Claremont has found its best run of form for the season and ironically that started back from the big loss to South Fremantle at Fremantle Oval.

Coming off the win last week over Swans, Claremont hasn’t named any outs at this stage but Darcy Cameron, Tom Ledger and Tom Willett are looking to break into the line-up.

Cameron responded to being dropped to the reserves last week by having 18 possessions, nine marks, 33 hit outs and a goal.

Ledger also had another 28 disposals and eight marks last week in his fourth straight reserves match after playing the first eight games of 2014 in the league side for the Tigers.

Willett had another 20 touches last Saturday in the reserves as he now attempts to add to his seven league games already so far this year.

South Fremantle has made the call on not reappointing its coach going forward and will also go into Saturday's clash with Claremont with at least four changes.

Mitch Banks goes out following his nasty knee injury suffered last Sunday against West Perth while Mitch Carter, Shaun Bewick and Jason Maskos have all lost their place in the side.

There are then seven players vying to come into line-up for the Bulldogs – Alistair Gillespie, Matthew Gundry, Paul Mugambwa, Ben Saunders, Lewis Harvey, Adam McIntosh and Jacob Martinez.

Saunders missed last week's loss to West Perth for South Fremantle but the full-forward should be back this Saturday to try and add to his 31 goals in 11 matches so far this season, and 131 goals so far in only 45 games of his career.

Gillespie played every game in his first season at South Fremantle last year, but so far in 2014 he has only managed one appearance in the league team but with centre half-forward Josh Pullman under pressure to his spot, Gillespie might get another opportunity and it just happens to come against his former side.

Mugambwa hasn’t played for South Fremantle since Round 6 but did return in the reserves last week with 11 possessions and a goal to give the 132-game 33-year-old a chance to come back into the side this week to add his much-needed talents to the forward-line.

McIntosh was surprisingly dropped to the reserves for the last two weeks, but he responded with 41 possessions the first week against Swan Districts and then had another 22 disposals last Sunday to give himself a chance to come back in to play the 46th match of his league career.

Martinez is one player at South Fremantle with a definite bright future, but his form had dropped off in recent weeks before being dropped to the reserves last week where he picked up 24 possessions against West Perth.

Harvey is a somewhat surprise inclusion to South Fremantle's quad but he has put himself in the mix to come back in for the Bulldogs after good form in the reserves. Harvey played 19 games for West Perth between 2009 and 2010, but didn’t add to that in 2011.

That saw him end up joining South Fremantle but he has only managed one league game in that time and that came back in 2012 before he was struck down with injury. He now could play his second game for South Fremantle and 21st in the WAFL this Saturday.

Gundry is a colts premiership player at South Fremantle and now some solid reserves form this year sees him within a chance of making his league debut this Saturday against the Tigers.

EAST PERTH (10-2, 1st) v PEEL THUNDER (2-10, 9th) – MEDIBANK STADIUM, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams

East Perth and Peel Thunder's clash at Medibank Stadium might feature the top team in the WAFL against the bottom, but it could very well be a much closer contest than that suggests.

East Perth has won seven matches in-a-row to now sit on a 10-2 win-loss record to be on top of the WAFL ladder and now have the chance to be a game and percentage clear in that position at the end of Round 15, but it won't be easy against Peel.

The Thunder have been competitive in each and every game they have played so far in 2014 but have only two wins to show for it to be sitting on the bottom of the ladder.

However, Peel has the potential to leap ahead of both South Fremantle and Perth with a win on Saturday.

Both teams will have players representing their heritage for NAIDOC Round as well with Jamie Bennell, Josh Hill, Jarrad  Oakley-Nicholls and Malcolm Karpany the Indigenous players for East Perth with Eddie Dann lining up for Peel Thunder.

East Perth has made plenty of changes both from the team that beat Claremont a fortnight ago and from the side that lost its Foxtel Cup semi-final on Tuesday night against Williamstown.

Jamie Bennell is one inclusion who didn’t play in either of those sides and in fact hasn’t played a WAFL game at all this season having spent it up to this point in the AFL with the Eagles. However, he has been dropped this weekend and as a result will make debut for East Perth.

Kyle Anderson and Garry Moss are two players who did play both in the win over Claremont and loss to Williamstown, but Anderson injured a back and Moss an ankle in the Foxtel Cup and haven’t recovered in time to take on the Thunder on Saturday.

From the side that beat Claremont, Patrick McGinnity, Callum Sinclair and Adam Carter have all been called up into West Coast's extended squad to play Sydney on Sunday, but whoever don't make the cut should still play for the Royals.

Will Maginness, however, won't play having also missed the Foxtel Cup but East Perth can expect to have one of Sinclair or Scott Lycett, Jacob Brennan and Jamie Cripps again on Saturday at least.

Mitch Howlett, Malcolm Karpany, Matt Gordon, Julian Locantro, Steven Wityk, Brett Dobson and Callum Hart all didn’t play against Claremont but did play in the Foxtel Cup on Tuesday night and now are also pressing their claims to take on Peel on Saturday.

Peel Thunder loses Anthony Morabito to Fremantle from the team that lost last weekend to Subiaco while Hayden Crozier has also travelled with the Dockers to Darwin so won't play either.

Experienced half-forward Kristin Thornton also won't play while Tom Sheridan has been named as an emergency but didn’t travel with Fremantle to Darwin so should take his place in the Peel line-up.

There are some handy inclusions for the Thunder as well with Fremantle's Alex Pearce, Tanner Smith, Craig Moller and Max Duffy added to the squad along with Brennan Gillam, Toby Gianatti and Corey Morris.

Pearce is a young key defender and has managed just the three games so far this year but should return for his first game since Round 11 on Saturday to help the Thunder try to keep the East Perth tall forwards in check.

Smith will provide Peel with further key position depth as he plays just his second game of the year and first since Round 1 against East Perth when he got injured early on.

Duffy will also return from injury with the lively small forward to play just his second game of the year as well and first since Round 1.

EAST FREMANTLE (8-4, 4th) v PERTH (3-9, 7th) – EAST FREMANTLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM
Selected teams
 
East Fremantle and Perth might appear to be a great mismatch in form when they do battle at East Fremantle Oval on Saturday but the Demons have a new coach and some key players returning.

Since losing to Peel Thunder a fortnight ago, Perth has parted ways with its coach of three and-a-half years Damien McMahon with his assistant and former Peel Thunder senior coach Trevor Williams stepping up to be in charge for the rest of the 2014 season.

Then with some strong inclusions, Perth will be hoping for a much more competitive performance to try and stop a six-game losing streak.

However, East Fremantle is in outstanding form having now won five straight matches to now sit on an 8-4 record in fourth position on the ladder.

While East Fremantle won't be represented by an Indigenous player in its league side, Perth's team will feature Gerald Ugle, Joel Houghton, Chance Bateman, Callum Collard and Brennan Stack in NAIDOC Round and it's sure to mean a lot to each of them to all play together.

East Fremantle has two significant outs to take on Perth with former captain Mark McGough and Brock O'Brien not coming up for the match.

McGough missed the first seven rounds of 2014 with a hand injury, has been in scintillating form since returning in Round 8 averaging almost 27 possessions a game but he is now back out of the Sharks' team.

O'Brien has also been terrific this season running off half-back and utilising his raking left boot, but he got hurt during East Fremantle's last up win over Subiaco and now hasn’t recovered in time to face Perth on Saturday.

Steven Dodd makes his welcome return, though, playing his first match since the veteran defender helped the WAFL State side to a thumping win over the NEAFL in Sydney back on May 23.

He now returns to further strengthen an East Fremantle back-line already including Andrew Stephen, Tom Howlett, Matthew Jupp and Sam Read.

Mitch Boyle could also come in for the Sharks to play his first match since Round 9 with Boston Williamson and Michael Edwards a chance to return, and the diminutive Miles Franklin could make his league debut as well.

Perth does have some impressive inclusions to take on the Sharks with and none more so than Aidan Tropiano who will make his league debut with the Demons up against his former side.

Tropiano played 33 league matches and three in the Foxtel Cup for East Fremantle, including the opening six games of 2014, but he then found himself out of the team and then out of the club altogether.

He pulled on a red and black jumper for the first in the reserves two weeks ago gathering 18 possessions against Peel Thunder and now he looks set for his first league game with his new club.

Ironically it was when McGough returned to the league side in 2014 that Tropiano lost his place in the league side, and now for his debut with Perth, McGough is out of the Sharks side again.

Chance Bateman is also set to play his first league match after of the season after four games in the reserves in what has basically been his pre-season.

Key defender Chris Billings, classy forwards Mitch Morton and Brennan Stack, ruckman Mitch Leyendekkers and the versatile Michael Sinclair have all got themselves right to play and all are likely to take on the Sharks on Saturday as well.