WAFL Round 22 Preview

ALL four WAFL Round 22 matches across Saturday and Sunday have big implications for spots inside the top-four, with teams trying to stay in touch and indeed at the bottom of the ladder as well.

There is just the one match on Saturday afternoon with East Perth taking on Perth at Leederville's Medibank Stadium before three Sunday games with Peel hosting South Fremantle at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium, West Perth taking on East Fremantle at Arena Joondalup and Claremont battling Swan Districts at Claremont Oval.

CLAREMONT (15-2, 1st) v SWAN DISTRICTS (10-7, 3rd) – CLAREMONT OVAL, SUNDAY 2.05PM

Selected teams

 
Claremont might have dominated the WAFL competition over the last four years now but it hasn’t been the case against Swan Districts.

Swan Districts again travel to Claremont Oval to take on Claremont this Sunday after beating the Tigers on their home turf back in Round 17 by a commanding 39 points.

While Claremont has all but wrapped up its fourth straight WAFL minor premiership sitting on a 15-2 record with three games to go, Swan Districts has never been an easy obstacle for the Tigers to overcome.

Claremont won the minor premiership in 2010 and won straight through to the grand final with a commanding 50-point second semi-final victory but then Swans pulled off one of the most amazing one-point grand final wins in WAFL history.

Swan Districts had a down year in 2011 with Claremont comfortably winning all three meetings on the way to a premiership but in 2012, Swans pulled off two wins during the season against the Tigers before losing the second semi-final by 32 points.

The Tigers went on to win another premiership last year and then thumped Swans by 61 points in Round 3 at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval to start the 2013 battles, but the black-and-whites hit back tremendously with a 39-point win back in Round 17.

Now Swans sit in third position on the WAFL ladder following back-to-back wins over Peel Thunder and can further consolidate a finals position with a win over Claremont on Sunday.

However, a loss and an East Perth win over Perth will see Swans drop to fourth and possibly even out of the four altogether if East Fremantle is also able to beat West Perth.

The Tigers regained some encouraging form two weeks ago before the bye with a 28-point win over the fourth-placed East Perth and now the two-time reigning premiers get some star players back as well to take on Swan Districts with.

Dual premiership 175-game veteran Trinity Handley is set to return after breaking his leg in Round 6 against West Perth. The 29-year-old has played two reserves games back and now is right to go against the black-and-whites this week.

Key forward Anton Hamp is also back after missing a week with a sore ankle and he is another important addition to the forward-line having booted 27 goals this season.

Hugo Breakey, Richard Cronin, Liam Smith and Keifer Yu are also fighting for a spot in the Claremont team as they look to impress ahead of another finals campaign.

Claremont does have two important outs, though, with Patrick McGinnity to play for West Coast against Geelong on Saturday night and Alex Silvagni named for Fremantle against Melbourne on Sunday.

There are no outs at this stage in the Swan Districts team that won a thriller over Peel last Saturday in Mandurah with Aaron Elari, Connor Blakely, Aidan Anderson, Nathan Blakely and Ricky Cary all pressing for selection.

CLICK HERE for a full Preview of Round 22 WAFL action.

Courtesy of www.wafl.com.au