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ROUND 8 PREVIEW V EAST PERTH

Friday, May 8, 2015 - 4:14 PM by Chris Pike

WEST Perth hosts East Perth in the first Perth derby of 2015 on Saturday with plenty at stake on Hog's Breath Café Ladies Day at HBF Arena.

West Perth and East Perth meet in the first Perth derby of 2015 at HBF Arena on Saturday with both clubs coming off a loss and both sitting on 3-3 records.

That means that there is plenty riding on the result with the winner to improve to a 4-3 record and to likely move up into the top five while the loser will slide to 3-4 and be behind the eight ball after eight rounds.

Both the Falcons and Royals are coming off disappointing losses last weekend with West Perth becoming the first team to lose to Claremont this season while East Perth finished strongly with the last three goals, but still lost to South Fremantle by 13 points.

That means that both teams are now sitting on 3-3 records putting extra heat on a derby that already has plenty of intensity on it naturally.

The derby rivalry is without question the fiercest in the WAFL both on and off the field, and there is certainly no love lost between the two teams at present, and results in recent times in derbies have been fascinating.

East Perth won the last two meetings last year by 16 points and 21 points, but West Perth prior to that had scored a 100-point win in Round 4 last year and that was on the back of winning the 2013 grand final by 49 points.

Premiership star Rohan Kerr is also playing his 50th game for West Perth just a week after Steven Browne reached his 100-game milestone last Saturday against Claremont.

Corey Chalmers goes out of the West Perth team from the one that lost to Claremont last Saturday while Trent Manzone is also out of the Falcons' line-up.

Marc Crisp, Kaidyn Fullgrabe, Andrew Strijk, Blake Wilhelm and Mitch van Berlo are all in the mix to come into the West Perth team to face East Perth in the first derby of the season at HBF Arena.

Strijk was a late withdrawal last week against Claremont and should come straight back in for this week's clash with East Perth.

Fullgrabe has put himself in the mix for his league debut with some strong reserves form including 23 possessions and 10 marks last week against Claremont.

Wilhelm has strung together consistent form right throughout the season and had another 27 disposals last week to be in the mix to return while Mitch van Berlo is a chance to return to help strengthen the West Perth defensive unit.

Premiership player Crisp has been working hard in the reserves as well to continue to give himself a chance of his first league match since Round 1.

Brant Colledge and Mark Hutchings have again been named to West Coast's extended squad to take on Port Adelaide on Sunday, but are still more likely to again play for the Royals on Saturday in the derby to continue to lead the way in the midfield.

At this stage, East Perth co-captain Brendan Lee has been named to play but remains in doubt after coming off during the third quarter of last week's loss to South Fremantle with a tight hamstring.

Tom Shanahan, Rowen Powell, Malcolm Karpany, Brandon Hughes and Scott Jones all come into calculations to come into the East Perth side as well to take on West Perth.

Shanahan racked up another 42 possessions and 11 marks last week in the reserves to continue his strong form while Hughes had 12 disposals and Jones 12 to go with six marks, 25 hit outs and a goal.

Karpany is set to return after missing the last four weeks through injury and Powell is also set to return after missing last week's loss to South Fremantle following an encouraging debut with two goals against Perth the previous week.

RESERVES SQUAD
B Antonio, M Ashfield, J Batterham, C Chalmers, B Denysiuk, M Douglas, B Fotheringham, C Franklin, M Geraghty, A Innes, T Keitel, J Kirwen, T Manzone, B McGillivray, J Morrow, T Moulton, D Munns, C Papertalk, S Potente, Z Saunders, T Sutherland, B Walton, H Yarran

COLTS SQUAD
A Allen, D Carr, A Charlie, K Coleman, R Dolman, E Hills, K Hindmarsh, J Horgan, E Larmett, C Lynch, T Manners, N Marinovich, J Moore, B Mountford, S Nelson, T O'Brien, G Popzeleff, D Robertson, J Romanelli, T Smith, D Stasev, B Thompson, J Turner, M Walley, B Zanon