DEMONS FADE TO FALCONS

By Mark Thornber

Round 21, Perth v West Perth

At Moora Sports Ground, Saturday 10 August 2013

Perth                           4.2       7.3       7.8       7.13      55

West Perth                  3.1        12.3      14.4      18.7      115

Perth was completely outplayed by a super quick and efficient West Perth side at Moora on Saturday.

Perth Captain Paul Bevan won the toss and kicked to the town end of the ground with the use of a cross breeze. It was the Falcons though that hit the scoreboard first with two quick goals in the opening minutes.

Simon Tunbridge took a diving mark to convert truly for Perth at the 10 minute mark and this was soon followed by another clever set shot from Kyle Reimers from the forward pocket to level the scores.

The match started at a quick tempo with both midfields picking up important touches on the small ground. When Matthew Moody slotted a great set shot from just outside 50 metres Perth was able to take a lead of 7 points into quarter time.

The second term did not start well for the Demons with West Perth Ruckman Chris Keunen goaling from a 50 metre penalty. It was not long until the Falcons took the lead with another goal through youngster Matthew Fowler. Perth Captain Paul Bevan kicked his second goal half way through the term, however it was the Falcons who were constantly kicking long from the centre as a dominant midfield was now well on top.

Perth was forced to use Fraser McInnes in the ruck with Mitch Leyendekkers leaving the ground injured. By half time West Perth had a comfortable lead of 5 goals after booting 9 goals to Perth’s 3.

Any chance of a Perth comeback disappeared at the start of the second half as the rain arrived with both team’s finding scoring goals difficult. When the rain did stop it was all the Falcons as their pacy fleet footed midfield of Matthew Guadagnin and Aaron Black were picking up touches at will.

Perth could only manage 5 points in the third term and trailed the Falcons by 38 points at three quarter time. Unfortunately for Perth fans it was much of the same for the Demons in the last term as they found entries into their forward 50 metres fairly rare.

West Perth continually showed Perth up for a lack of pace around the ground and with Keunen completely in control in the middle square they ran out easily winners by 60 points with Perth only managing 10 points in the second half.

Good players for the Demons were extremely hard to find with only really Brett Hodge, Joel Leeson and Ali Smith playing a consistent four quarters with McInnes battling hard while giving away height in the ruck.

The only thing left now was to make the long drive back to Perth or in my case an even longer ride back home on the bus!

Next week Perth definitely is on their last chance as they will need to defeat East Perth at Medibank Stadium and hope some other results go their way to have any chance of playing finals football.

Goals: Bevan, Reimers 2, Moody, Tunbridge, McInnes 1.

Best: Hodge, Smith, Leeson, Florio, Florio, McInnes.