Round 16 Preview v Perth

PERTH and South Fremantle have plenty in common heading into Saturday’s clash at Lathlain Park with the Cable-Michael Cup on the line named in honour of WA football legends Barry Cable and Stephen Michael.

The Demons and Bulldogs are now on a combined 13-match losing streak as well, both are on identical 3-10 records and desperate to avoid the wooden spoon and are also without a senior coach for 2015 right now with Trevor Williams in charge of Perth for the rest of 2014 and Paul Hasleby seeing out the season with the Bulldogs.

Perth and South Fremantle have both been the poorest performing teams in the WAFL over the past month and while finals are a faraway dream only, neither will want to stay in contention for the wooden spoon.

The winner from Saturday’s clash between the Demons and Bulldogs will go a long way to avoiding finishing last while the loser could even be on the bottom of the ladder come Saturday night if Peel is able to beat Claremont in Mandurah.

South Fremantle appeared to be building some momentum with wins over West Perth, East Fremantle and Claremont between Rounds 5-7, but the Bulldogs haven’t won since to now be on a six-match losing streak.

Perth started the season so impressively with wins over Claremont and South Fremantle, but has now only won one match since and is currently on a seven-match losing run since downing Peel back in Round 7.

Over the course of the season, Perth has started games poorly being outscored by 65 points in first quarter and then 70 points in second quarters before being much more competitive in second halves.

Meanwhile, South Fremantle has been good starters outscoring its opponents by 84 points in first quarters, but then being outscored by 96 points in second quarters, 96 points in third quarters and 108 in final terms throughout 2014 to date.

The top three in South Fremantle’s fairest and best count up to this point of the season could very well be occupied by Ryan Cook, Adam Guglielmana and Ashton Hams, and all three are out of this Saturday’s clash with Perth.

Guglielmana hurt his hamstring during the second quarter last week against Claremont and then Cook and Hams were both sidelined during the second half not only hurting South Fremantle’s chances of beating the Tigers, but now leaving them out of the team this week against Perth.

The absence of the team’s best midfielder, best creative player across half-back or in the middle and an outstanding small defender or forward will be hard to cover for the Bulldogs, but it does open up opportunities for others to show what they are capable of.

Shaun Bewick was dropped last week and responded with 25 disposals in the reserves against Claremont while Josh Pullman, Jason Maskos, Mitch Carter and Ben Sokol were also dropped following the previous week’s loss to West Perth and are now back in the mix to return.

Matthew Gundry again is a chance to make his league debut with South Fremantle as well.

Perth put in a vastly-improved performance last Saturday against East Fremantle and that was largely because of a stronger looking side on paper.

And now the Demons again look set to be strengthened with the return of 18-year-old Clem Smith from his time with the WA State 18s which has put him high into draft calculations for later this year in the AFL.

Michael Florio is also a chance to come back for Perth after responding to being dropped last week with 26 possessions and eight marks in the reserves against East Fremantle.

Matthew Hunt and Ben Power are also back in contention to play in Perth’s league side with Chapman Jones and Cameron Jones both in the mix to make his league debut.

RESERVES TEAM
T Bennell, M Bolger, S Borovac, J Branchi, M Carter, E Collard, A Collica, J D’Vauz, J Dragovich, B Fimmano, J Garlett, A Gillespie, M Gundry, J Hall, L Harvey, B Hill, J Maskos, K Matera, B Matera, S Mills, M Nicholson, S Panizza, J Pantano, J Pickett, M Pickett, J Pullman, M Russell, B Sokol, T Stewart, J Tartaglia

COLTS TEAM
M Ah Siu, B Byron, D Cabassi, J Culleton, J Depane, B Donaldson, J Florenca, J Foster, W Frampton, M Grubelich, O Ham, B Hansson, J Hickey, B Kersten, C Loersch, J McComb, J Mcguire, G McLeod, B McPhail, J Mirco, D Moore, A Nodari, L Pearson, B Rhodes, C Salmon, K Stewart, N Strom, B Truss, S Williamson