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ROUND 15 PREVIEW V SWAN DISTRICTS

Friday, June 28, 2013 - 2:46 PM

WEST Perth heads to Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval this Saturday with the aim of winning a third straight game, making up for the earlier season loss to Swan Districts and further consolidating second position on the WAFL ladder.

Both Swans and the Falcons head into Saturday's clash in winning form and needing to win to either try and push further up the ladder, or to maintain their position so that all adds up to what is sure to be a terrific contest at Steel Blue Oval.
Then there is the Round 7 clash between the two teams at Arena Joondalup where Swan Districts went from being behind early in the last quarter to catching fire with an amazing 15-minute stretch to end up winning by 28 points.
Swan Districts enters the clash in terrific form following wins over Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle the last three weeks and are still without No. 1 ruckman Wes Lammie but Rory Lobb and Tony Notte have been doing well carrying the load in his absence.
At this stage there are no outs for the clash against the Falcons at home where the black-and-whites try to make up for some poor form at Bassendean so far this year.
Swan Districts has won just one from five games at home in 2013 to date despite it generally being considered one of the toughest venues for opposition teams to try and win at.
Fremantle's Lachie Neale is back into the Swan Districts team with Nathan Broad and Graham Jetta also in the mix.
West Perth loses midfielder Mark Hutchings after he played for West Coast on Thursday night against Essendon with forward Matt Fowler going out of the line-up as well.
Veteran forward Anthony Tsalikis comes back in as a straight swap for Fowler in the Falcons team with James Batterham, Joe Morrow, Steve Potente and Frank Stockley all pushing for selection as well.
West Perth veteran Andrew Strijk is in the middle of an outstanding season in his first year back fully with the Falcons after his time on the Eagles list.
He has settled back in across half-back line and certainly hasn’t forgotten what happened last time the two teams met, but is confident of turning that around this Saturday even if it means he has to play a lockdown role on the likes of Dayle Garlett, Murray Newman or Kirk Ugle.
"Last time we played them they made us look a little bit silly to be honest and they got us on the outside. We let them run too much and get ahead of us so this will be a good challenge for us to slow them up, press up hard and stop their run," Strijk said.
"It's something that you learn from, but I don’t think you bring it up. You take the positives out of our win this week and we bring that forward going ahead. You don't want to dwell too much on the forward and we know that if we play our best footy we will beat Swans.
"I will do whatever Billy wants me to do, but I will try to avoid the little quick ones because I'm not that quick. I will try to give that to Ras and Browney but if I got stuck on one of them I will try to block their run because if they get goal side of you they are pretty hard to stop."
BY CHRIS PIKEWEST Perth heads to Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval this Saturday with the aim of winning a third straight game, making up for the earlier season loss to Swan Districts and further consolidating second position on the WAFL ladder.

Both Swans and the Falcons head into Saturday's clash in winning form and needing to win to either try and push further up the ladder, or to maintain their position so that all adds up to what is sure to be a terrific contest at Steel Blue Oval.

Then there is the Round 7 clash between the two teams at Arena Joondalup where Swan Districts went from being behind early in the last quarter to catching fire with an amazing 15-minute stretch to end up winning by 28 points.

Swan Districts enters the clash in terrific form following wins over Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle the last three weeks and are still without No. 1 ruckman Wes Lammie but Rory Lobb and Tony Notte have been doing well carrying the load in his absence.

At this stage there are no outs for the clash against the Falcons at home where the black-and-whites try to make up for some poor form at Bassendean so far this year.

Swan Districts has won just one from five games at home in 2013 to date despite it generally being considered one of the toughest venues for opposition teams to try and win at.

Fremantle's Lachie Neale is back into the Swan Districts team with Nathan Broad and Graham Jetta also in the mix.

West Perth loses midfielder Mark Hutchings after he played for West Coast on Thursday night against Essendon with forward Matt Fowler going out of the line-up as well.

Veteran forward Anthony Tsalikis comes back in as a straight swap for Fowler in the Falcons team with James Batterham, Joe Morrow, Steve Potente and Frank Stockley all pushing for selection as well.

West Perth veteran Andrew Strijk is in the middle of an outstanding season in his first year back fully with the Falcons after his time on the Eagles list.

He has settled back in across half-back line and certainly hasn’t forgotten what happened last time the two teams met, but is confident of turning that around this Saturday even if it means he has to play a lockdown role on the likes of Dayle Garlett, Murray Newman or Kirk Ugle.

"Last time we played them they made us look a little bit silly to be honest and they got us on the outside. We let them run too much and get ahead of us so this will be a good challenge for us to slow them up, press up hard and stop their run," Strijk said.

"It's something that you learn from, but I don’t think you bring it up. You take the positives out of our win this week and we bring that forward going ahead. You don't want to dwell too much on the forward and we know that if we play our best footy we will beat Swans.

"I will do whatever Billy wants me to do, but I will try to avoid the little quick ones because I'm not that quick. I will try to give that to Ras and Browney but if I got stuck on one of them I will try to block their run because if they get goal side of you they are pretty hard to stop."

BY CHRIS PIKE