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ROUND 11 PREVIEW V PEEL THUNDER

Friday, June 5, 2015 - 4:20 PM by Chris Pike

WEST Perth has a short turnaround to rebound from the WA Day Derby loss to East Perth to now return to the winner's list on Saturday against Peel Thunder in Mandurah to maintain second spot heading into the bye with young key position player Tyler Keitel to debut.

Peel Thunder and West Perth have both had similar rollercoaster seasons so far in 2015, sit on the same record and have played out some thrillers in recent years with it all point to a hard fought and tight affair at Bendigo Bank Stadium on Saturday.

Peel hosts West Perth in Mandurah on Saturday with the Thunder and Falcons both entering the contest inside the top-five on 5-4 records with the winner likely to finish the round in second position while the loser could end up out of the top-five altogether.

Both teams come in after disappointing losses last weekend as well with Peel going down to Claremont by 72 points at the Showground on Saturday while West Perth lost to East Perth by 48 points on Monday in the WA Day Derby.

Peel and West Perth have both shown some tremendous form at times this year recording some outstanding wins, but at other times they have played poor and that was highlighted with their showings last weekend.

The Thunder have looked good in wins against Claremont, East Fremantle, East Perth, Perth and South Fremantle, but in losses to the Tigers, Subiaco, Swan Districts and West Perth the signs have been far from good at times.

West Perth, meanwhile, has looked good in wins over East Fremantle, East Perth, Peel, Perth and Swan Districts but in losses to Claremont, the Royals, South Fremantle and Subiaco the signs haven’t been that good either.

Peel and West Perth have played off in some thrillers in recent times as well including a seven-point win for the Falcons at HBF Arena, and going back to last year West Perth stormed home with the now retired Anthony Tsalikis kicking the winning goal also at Joondalup.

West Perth has won its last three trips to Bendigo Bank Stadium winning by nine points last year, by 16 points in 2013 and 100 in 2012 but prior to that the Thunder beat the Falcons by 21 points in 2011 and 41 in 2010.

Peel Thunder and West Perth met back in Round 2 of the 2015 season and that was Peel's opening game of the year following the Round 1 bye.

West Perth was coming off a disappointing opening round loss to South Fremantle and was determined to bounce back, and did so holding on for a seven-point victory at HBF Arena.

West Perth had been in strong form prior to the State game break, but couldn’t keep that going on Monday with a disappointing loss to East Perth and now the Falcons head to Mandurah desperate to make amends for that and to consolidate their second position on the ladder heading into the bye.

With just the five-day break from Monday to taking on Peel on Saturday, premiership hard man Kody Manning won't be able to pull up in time and he goes out of the team for the Falcons to take on the Thunder.

There is one automatic inclusion for West Perth and that's the return of co-captain Jay van Berlo after he was a late withdrawal on Monday with a back complaint.

Tyler Keitel, Ray Bartholomew, Corey Chalmers and Trent Manzone are the other players in the mix to get called up for the West Perth league team on Saturday.

Keitel has now played five league games since being cleared to join West Perth from East Perth and his form and fitness to continue to build encouragingly with his league debut to come before too long, and potentially this Saturday.

Meanwhile, Bartholomew had 17 possessions in West Perth's reserves win on Monday with Chalmers finishing with 17 disposals and a goal and Manzone 25 touches as they continued to keep their chins up, and work hard despite not being in the league side at present.

Peel's hot and cold 2015 season took another downward trend last Saturday with the 72-point loss to Claremont but the Thunder will be looking to bounce back with the likely return of Tendai Mzungu potentially a big factor in them being to achieve that at home to West Perth.

Mzungu hasn’t played since a best on ground showing for the Thunder back in Round 9 against South Fremantle with the State game bye and then travelling with the Dockers as the emergency in Adelaide last week, but he now looks set to play again for Peel this Saturday.

And with the Dockers making no changes for their AFL clash on Friday night against Richmond at Domain Stadium, Mzungu's Fremantle teammates Jonathon Griffin, Jack Hannath and Hayden Crozier should again play with Peel.

However, defender Zac Dawson won't after suffering a broken thumb during last Saturday's loss to Claremont in what was his first game of the season at any level.

Following the disappointing showing against Claremont, though, Peel could look to make some changes to the team and there are some players in good form from the reserves that scored a three-point win over the Tigers at the Showground.

Laine Wilkins (15 possessions last week in the reserves), Ben Hancock (34), Dylan Winton (24, 10 marks), Nathan Fahey (three goals), Mitch Gill (24 disposals), Kieran May (14) and Josh Deluca (24) all played well and as a result come into calculations for a league call up against the Falcons.

RESERVES SQUAD
B Antonio, J Batterham, M Crisp, M Douglas, B Fotheringham, C Franklin, K Fullgrabe, M Geraghty, J Gray, A Innes, J Kirwen, B McGillivray, J Morrow, T Moulton, D Munns, C Papertalk, M Peirce, Z Saunders, T Sutherland, M Van Berlo, B Walton, C Yarran, H Yarran 

COLTS SQUAD
N Alexandre, A Allen, M Antonio, A Charlie, K Coleman, R Dolman, E Hills, C Hinchliffe, P Hiotis, J Horgan, J Hunter, E Larmett, C Lynch, T Manners, N Marinovich, B Mountford, S Nelson, T O'Brien, G Popzeleff, D Robertson, J Romanelli, J Turner, M Walley, D Yem