WAFL Round 20 Preview

ALL four matches of Round 20 of the 2013 WAFL season are on Saturday afternoon highlighted by two massive clashes featuring teams in the top-four or trying to get back in there.

Top-of-the-table Claremont hosts an East Perth team at Claremont Oval looking to break back into the top-four while East Fremantle must beat Perth at East Fremantle Oval to keep its season alive as well.

The other two matches sees Subiaco take on South Fremantle at Leederville's Medibank Stadium and West Perth hosting Peel Thunder at Arena Joondalup. The third-placed Swan Districts has the bye but could finish the weekend out of the four.

CLAREMONT (14-2, 1st) v EAST PERTH (9-6, 5th) – CLAREMONT OVAL, SATURDAY 2.05PM

Selected teams

Claremont might be well and truly safe atop the WAFL ladder but the Tigers do want to reach their best form ahead of the finals but for East Perth the Royals simply need to win in order to return to the top-four.

Claremont sits on a 14-2 record to be three games on top of the ladder, but it has been some time since the Tigers have been able to field what they would consider anything near their best 22 or play at their best.

The minor premiership is still theirs for the fourth straight season as they hunt out a third successive premiership, but best form heading into the finals is now coach Marc Webb's focus and he will want to see a strong performance against East Perth on Saturday.

East Perth, though, simply just needs to win.

The Royals had won five straight matches heading into last Saturday's derby with West Perth which they went on to lose by 30 points having not scored a goal in the second half.

That saw East Perth slip outside of the top-four behind Swan Districts and Perth so the Royals must win this Saturday to return to the four and avoid potentially slipping a game and percentage behind Perth.

Claremont and East Perth have met just the once this season back in Round 4 at Medibank Stadium in Leederville with the Tigers prevailing that day by 54 points, but the Royals have been a vastly improved side since then.

Claremont might lose key forward Anton Hamp to an ankle injury from last week's win in the mud over Subiaco, but four star players are set to return for the Tigers as they look to gear up for their assault on a third straight WAFL premiership.

Fremantle's Alex Silvagni is set to return after being overlooked by the Dockers and he will likely play down back and will be especially welcome with veteran David Crawford to miss another game.

Captain Andrew Browne has likely been in career-best form this season averaging 23 possessions a game and after missing just the one game with a quad injury suffered in the Round 17 loss to Swan Districts, the skipper is set to return to take on the Royals on Saturday.

Premiership half-back Aaron Holt is also due to return to the side after one game in the reserves last week after missing a month with injury while West Coast midfielder Patrick McGinnity is also to return so that is four pretty handy inclusions for the Tigers.

East Perth lost its first match since Round 10 last week against West Perth at Arena Joondalup, but came through the derby with a clean bill of health.

This week to take on the Tigers, only Rowan Brookes is out of the Royals line-up at this stage with West Coast's Matt Rosa set to return with Callum Hart, Julian Locantro and Steven Wityk all pressing a case for selection as well.

Courtesy of www.wafl.com.au

CLICK HERE for a full Preview of Round 20 WAFL action.