SWAN Districts and Claremont recorded big victories in the Steel Blue Oval double-header with third and fourth-placed East Fremantle and East Perth also recording wins in Round 22 of the WAFL.
The round began on Saturday morning at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval with minor premiers Claremont hammering West Perth 22.8 (140) to 11.6 (72). In the second half of the double-header second-placed Swan Districts took care of Perth 25.16 (166) to 16.8 (104).
East Perth moved into fourth place on the ladder with a 17.7 (109) to 13.18 (96) win over Subiaco at Leederville's Medibank Stadium while on Sunday East Fremantle thrashed Peel 25.15 (165) to 7.10 (52) at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Mandurah.
Claremont (17-1-1) will finish first, Swan Districts (14-4-1) second and now East Fremantle (12-8) has secured third and a home first semi-final against either East Perth (10-9) or West Perth (10-9).
East Perth plays Claremont this week and a win will secure fourth spot, but it will lose that spot in the finals if West Perth beats Perth.
THE BIG WINNERS
Last week East Fremantle beat Subiaco for the first time since 2002 and now the Sharks will also play finals for the first time since 2002.
It has been lean pickings for the Sharks since that 2002 team bowed out in the first semi-final with two wooden spoons, three seventh-placed finishes, a sixth and a fifth.
However, that finals drought is now over after Sunday's win over Peel where East Fremantle had 40 scoring shots to 17, 143 more disposals, 20 more entries inside-50 and completely dominated.
Jamie McNamara, Mark McGough, Kym Monteath, Rob Young, Kasey Green, Luke Weller and Ryley Dunn are all in tremendous form and are providing the backbone of the team for youngsters like Alex Fasolo (pictured), Jamie Cripps, Jacob Brennan and Jack Perham to shine.
Making the win even more impressive for East Fremantle was that it had no AFL-listed players in its team with Matt Spangher, Rhys Palmer, Tim Houlihan, Steven Dodd, Brad Sheppard and Koby Stevens all a chance to come back and play finals.
THE BIG LOSERS
Losing to Claremont is obviously no disgrace for West Perth given the fact that the Tigers are raging premiership favourites and have lost just once this season, but the Falcons will certainly be disappointed in the way they lost on Saturday.
Claremont kicked the first three goals of the game and did not allow West Perth to lead, or look likely to, at any stage in the match. West Perth started the match in fourth position, but struggled to a 68-point defeat with 66 less possessions, 19 fewer inside-50 entries and 13 less scoring shots.
West Perth now must beat Perth this Saturday and hope that Claremont keeps its form going against East Perth in order for the Falcons to play finals for the third straight year.
THE SHINING LIGHTS
East Perth did well for three quarters to build up a match-winning lead and held on to win by 13 points with Craig Wulff outstanding with 32 possessions and a goal. Aaron Sweet picked up 29 disposals, Brendan Hancock 22, Jordan Eastwell 21, Brendan Lee 20 and Adam Pickering 19.
Adam Prior kicked five goals, and Ben McKinley and Mat Seal three each.
Blake Broadhurst kicked five goals in his 100th game for Subiaco, but also booted eight behinds including several missed shots in the last quarter.
Marc Webb picked up 27 possessions, Des Headland 24, Shaun Hildebrandt 24 (and two goals), Kyal Horsley 24, Ben Randall 21 and Chad Cossom 20.
Claremont didn’t show any signs of missing injured Bernie Naylor Medallist Chad Jones still kicking 22 goals to thump West Perth. Andrew Foster kicked five goals, Jarrod Ninyette (pictured) four, Andrew Ruck three, and David Crawford, Ian Richardson and Tom Derickx two each.
Luke Blackwell backed up his 44 possessions last week with 38 again with Ryan Neates picking up 26, Ian Rowe 26, Kane Mitchell 25, Rory Walton 24, Lewis Stevenson 23, Nic Chidgzey 20 and Tom Swift 20.
West Perth's Brent LeCras had 27 possessions and two goals in his 100th match. Ray Bartholomew picked up 28 touches, Josh Pearce 26, Shaun Bewick 22, Jay Tindall 21, Dion Fleay 20 and Dustin Burns 19. Anton Saylor kicked four goals.
Tim Geappen kicked a career-best eight goals for Swan Districts in the win over Perth. Ashley Hansen also returned to kick three goals from 14 possessions and 10 marks.
Captain Josh Roberts was terrific with 34 touches and two goals, Andrew Krakouer picked up 27 and kicked a goal with Matt Riggio collecting 23 disposals, Justin Simpson 23, Simon Parry 21 and Brett Wolfenden 20.
Youngsters Luke Adams and Stephen Coniglio (pictured) were also outstanding on debut. Ruckman Adams 
had 15 possessions and 39 hit outs with 16-year-old Coniglio having 26 touches and two goals.
Ross Young was Perth's best with 38 possessions and three goals. Dene White was good as well with 32 touches and two goals, Tendai Mzungu had 26 disposals, Aaron Elari 24, Chris Mayne 24 (and two goals), Steve Armstrong 23 and Daniel Venditti 22. Simon Horner kicked three goals.
East Fremantle had stars all over the ground in Sunday's win over Peel. Up forward the stars were Jack Perham and Alex Fasolo who both kicked six goals.
Jamie McNamara picked up 31 possessions (and kicked a goal), Lewis Fasolo 30 (two), Jamie Cripps 27 (two), Leith Teakle 27, Conor Davidson 26 (two), Daniel Chidlow 25 (one), Mark McGough 25, Kym Monteath 25 (one) and Andrew Stephen 23.
Rob Young also did well in the ruck with 17 touches and 35 hit outs.
Rory O'Brien again led the way for Peel with 31 possessions and a goal. Brodie Filo came back into the league side to have 23 touches, with Hayden McLeod picking up 19, Brennan Gillam 18, Harley Bennell 17, Matt Brown 17 and Kieran Butcher 17. Matt Battye kicked two goals.
PUSHING FOR A SPOT
There is huge pressure on for finals spots at Claremont and in the reserves on Saturday at Arena Joondalup Tom Ayton had 26 possessions, Jake Murphy 25, Matt Orzel 24 (and two goals) and Brad Nisbett 23.
Tim Noakes returned in East Perth's reserves and kicked three goals in the win over Subiaco with Fred Clutterbuck picking up 22 possessions, Ben Noakes 22, Kane Goodwin 21, Brett Fotheringham 20 and Jacob Lalich 20.
Tyson Keene kicked four goals for Subiaco and Todd Richards two to go with 20 possessions. Chris Phelan picked up 25 touches, Ben Heffernan-Roper 23, Tim Viney 21 and Rob Forrest 18.
Perth's reserves were led by Scott Siekierka (29 possessions, one goal), Matthew Mather (27, one), Jason Brennan (18, one) and Blake Warner (18). Brad Fry, Jordan Eades, Alex McLeod and Brent Davis all added two goals.
Swan Districts' reserves came closer to a first win of the season before losing by 24 points with Wes Lammie and Steve Potente impressing with 21 possessions each. Josh Pullman and Adam McKinlay kicked two goals.
East Fremantle's reserves also had a big win over Peel led by five goals from James Murray, four from Luke Foster and three to ruckman Michael Griffiths. Liam McGuire picked up 26 possessions and kicked two goals in a best on ground display as well.
Brody Culpitt, Chayne George and Mitch Brown all kicked three goals each for Peel with Rob Beswick picking up 20 possessions.
