EAST Perth and West Perth fight over fourth spot and a finals appearance in the last round of the WAFL on Saturday while last year's grand finalists do battle at Fremantle Oval and Swan Districts look to tune up for the second semi-final against Peel.
East Perth currently holds fourth spot on the ladder and West Perth is fifth meaning that a Royals upset win over Claremont will guarantee them a finals appearance, however, a loss to the Tigers, who have lost just once this year, will open the door for the Falcons if they can beat Perth.
The Royals will host Claremont at Medibank Stadium and the Falcons take on Perth at Arena Joondalup while South Fremantle plays Subiaco at Fremantle Oval and Swan Districts takes on Peel at Steel Blue Oval.
EAST PERTH (10-9, 4th) v CLAREMONT (17-1-1, 1st) - MEDIBANK STADIUM
East Perth is storming home to finish 2010 strongly but now will most likely have to become just the second team to beat Claremont this season in order to play finals for the first time since 2007.
Finals looked well out of reach for the Royals when they fell to a 2-7 record after losing to South Fremantle in Round 10, but since they have only lost twice, to top-two sides Claremont and Swan Districts, to now be within one more victory of what would be a remarkable finals appearance.
However, victory won't be at all easy on Saturday even at home against a Claremont side that was simply brilliant last Saturday in the early game of the Steel Blue Oval double-header smashing West Perth by 68 points even without the services of Bernie Naylor Medallist Chad Jones.
Claremont dominated a side that is still in contention to play finals just a week after also smashing second-placed Swan Districts by 73 points, so East Perth will have to hope that the Tigers are slightly off their game and that they themselves play to their 100 per cent potential.
If any side can take it up to Claremont, though, it would be East Perth. The Royals are likely the most physical team in the competition and in the second half of the season have shown that along with that physicality, they are good defensively, have some good youngsters that can provide some run and Adam Prior is providing a good option in attack with 19 goals the last four matches.
There is no doubt the spirit at the Royals has lifted the longer the year has gone on and with coach Tony Micale weeding out some of the players who weren’t wholly committed to the cause. The East Perth side he fields this week could very well challenge for a premiership if it makes the finals.
Claremont has beaten East Perth both times this season so far with a 36-point win in Round 9 when East Perth's inaccuracy hurt and then by 103 points in Round 14 when the Dean Cadwallader situation began to surface.
The only change East Perth is expected to make is Fremantle ruckman Zac Clarke returning to help Zach Beeck out in the ruck and also spend some time forward.
Meanwhile, Claremont regains Claremont's Alex Silvagni and Byron Schammer, as well as Ryan Brabazon with Andrew Foster out after kicking five goals last week in the win over West Perth.
WEST PERTH (10-9, 5th) v PERTH (2-17, 9th) - ARENA JOONDALUP
West Perth will certainly have one eye on the scoreboard at Medibank Stadium, but before worrying about that needs to take care of business against Perth at Arena Joondalup.
West Perth cannot make up the percentage gap it is behind East Perth so needs to beat Perth and hope that Claremont beats the Royals in order for the Falcons to play finals for the third straight year.
Perth might be sitting on the bottom of the ladder, but still has enough talent at its disposal in the form of Tendai Mzungu, Matthew Ferguson, Ross Young, Matt Moody, Steve Armstrong and promising youngsters to be able to give West Perth a real fright if the Falcons aren’t on their game.
The Demons will also be playing under Andrew Jarman for the last time and that could create another interesting dynamic for the contest.
It will also be interesting to see how West Perth bounces back from last week's hammering at the hands of Claremont where the Falcons didn’t play overly badly, but the Tigers were simply far too hungry, hard at the contest and classy all over the field.
However, with finals riding on this result one would imagine that West Perth will have enough to win and guarantee Perth the wooden spoon, but then the focus will turn to the East Perth-Claremont clash to see if the Falcons book a first semi-final clash with East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval or not.
West Perth beat Perth earlier in the season by 59 points in Round 9 and just 19 in Round 15 at EFTel Oval.
Ruckman Mitch Andrews, defender Matt Tedesco and utility Tom Crossland have paid the price for last week's loss to Claremont for West Perth.
Luke Tedesco, Jeff Gobbels, Frank Stockley and Alex Elisseou are all pushing for a return with West Coast's Quinten Lynch and Fremantle's Kepler Bradley also likely to play.
Jarman has made plenty of changes for his last game as coach of Perth with Michael Edwards, Rowan Garlett, Matthew Mather, Alex McLeod, Daniel O'Sullivan, Will Sullivan, Liam Smith and Gerald Ugle all in line to come into the side.
Shaun Clifford, Luke Della-Bosca, Chris Mayne, Andrew McDougall, Drew Robinson and Matthew Rogers go out of the team that lost to Swans last week.
SOUTH FREMANTLE (8-11, 7th) v SUBIACO (9-10, 6th) - FREMANTLE OVAL
South Fremantle and Subiaco have fallen drastically for different reasons in 2010 after playing off in last year's grand final but have plenty of reasons to finish a disappointing season with a victory at Fremantle Oval.
Remarkably neither side is a chance of playing finals now after not only playing off in last year's grand final, but also winning the last six WAFL premierships between them and being mainstays of the finals for a long time.
It will be Subiaco's first season without playing in the finals since 1997 with four premierships coming in that time, and South Fremantle will miss finals for the first time since 2003 and for the only time under coach John Dimmer.
South Fremantle might not have finals to play for, but inspirational captain Toby McGrath will play game No. 200 with the Bulldogs giving his teammates plenty of motivation to make his milestone celebration a winning occasion.
There is also every chance the game will be the last WAFL appearance for a host of premiership stars, including Marc Webb, Allistair Pickett, Chad Cossom, Ben Keevers and Phil Read. Webb has already announced that it will be his last game with the others to decide once their season is over.
Going out on a winning note would be their focus as well.
South Fremantle beat Subiaco in last year's grand final and both games this season have been entertaining affairs at Medibank Stadium.
Subiaco won the opening clash by 26 points in Round 9 in a shootout with 40 goals scored and South Fremantle hit back with an impressive 19-point victory in Round 18 with 33 goals kicked.
SWAN DISTRICTS (14-4-1, 2nd) v PEEL THUNDER (3-16, 8th) - STEEL BLUE OVAL
Swan Districts was disappointed to not finish off Perth last week and now will be looking to do that to Peel this Saturday as the black-and-whites tune up for a second semi-final with Claremont.
Swans' did beat Perth by 62 points last week, but that was after leading by 65 at half-time and they did come away disappointed in their second half effort.
Given it was the week after losing to Claremont by 73 points, it left Swan Districts feeling it still had plenty of improvement to make now this Saturday's clash with Peel provides its last chance to feel on top of its game again before a return clash with Claremont in the grand final playoff.
It will also be the final home and away season game for coach Brian Dawson, who announced on Tuesday that he was standing down as coach at season's end, and could be his final game at Steel Blue Oval if Swans' beat Claremont in the second semi-final to advance straight to the grand final.
Peel looks set to avoid the wooden spoon despite eight losses by over 100 points this season and unless Perth upsets West Perth, the Thunder will finish in eighth spot. However, they could guarantee not finishing last with a surprise win themselves over Swans.
The black-and-whites beat Peel by 106 points in Round 8 and by 59 down at Bendigo Bank Stadium in Round 17, and will be looking to win impressively again on Saturday.
Fremantle's Clancee Pearce, exciting youngster Steve Potente and full-back Tallan Ames come back into the Swans' side with Dean Ipaviz and Shane Fleay unable to hold their spot, and Tom Roach battling a sore knee.
Rob Beswick, Mitch Brown, Peter McGennisken, Chayne George, Brody Culpitt and Blake Piggot are a chance to come into Peel's team with captain Brendon Jones and Mitch Green out.
