Lions dent Falcons finals bid

West Perth’s premiership defence is all but over after the Falcons suffered a 25-point defeat to Subiaco at HBF Arena today.

A big crowd of about 5362 fans was in attendance for West Perth’s annual International Football Festival fixture, but they were let down by the home side, which was comprehensively outplayed for large parts of the game.

Subiaco had 10 different goal kickers in their 13.19 (97) to 11.6 (72) triumph.

The result put the Lions four wins clear of fifth-placed West Perth, who are three wins out of the top four with

just six matches left to play.

Subiaco were wasteful in the first quarter, keeping their opponents in the contest with poor kicking at goal.

The margin was chopped back to six points when West Perth forward Nick Rodda kicked his first major on the quarter-time siren.

But the Falcons then went three-quarters of an hour without kicking a goal.

Subiaco controlled the second quarter and kicked four unanswered goals for the term to go into half-time with a comfortable 32-point advantage.

Goals to Shane Yarran and former Falcons tall Frank Stockley extended the Lions’ lead to 46 points before Matt Johnson ended West Perth’s goal drought at the 18-minute mark of the third quarter.

It sparked a mini-revival, with the Falcons piling on a flurry of four straight goals to trim the deficit to 22 point before Rhys Waters kicked a steadier for Subiaco moments before the three-quarter time siren.

West Perth kept their faint hopes alive with goals to Steven Browne, Chris Keunen and Rohan Kerr in the final quarter, but the Lions again repelled their attack with goals to Kyle Halligan and George Hampson in time-on.

Midfielders Chris Phelan (28 possessions), Kyal Horsley (28), Wayden Twomey (28) and Shaun Hildebrandt (25) were amongst the best players for Subiaco, who also got good service out of big men Andrew McDougall (two goals) and Stockley (14 possessions, 29 hit-outs).

Aaron Black (30 disposals) was busy for West Perth, as were ROhan Kerr (30) and Jay van Berlo (26).

The Falcons have the bye next week before taking on VFL club Williamstown in the Foxtel Cup grand final at Simonds Stadium.