From wafootball.com.au
Reported by Chris Pike
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WA State coach John Dimmer has some unanswered questions with the side's big men ahead of the State game with Victoria next weekend, but will pick a side expected to get the most benefit out of playing at Leederville's Medibank Stadium.
Dimmer has had some thinking to do this week after injuries to players in the squad and Lewis Stevenson making his AFL debut, but no matter what he is confident of picking a team that will be ready to fire against the Big V.
Rohan Bewick (West Perth), Jaymie Graham (South Fremantle) and James Thomson (Claremont) have all been sidelined with injuries, paving the way for State selectors to include Ryan Brabazon (Claremont), Andrew McCarrey (South Fremantle), Rob Young (East Fremantle) and Michael Rix (Subiaco) to the squad.
"We seriously have to look at some of these injuries. We have to work out what to do with our ruck, what we do with tall key defenders and decide if we look at someone like (Aidan) Parker or (Darren) Rumble, or if Michael Warren plays ruck or in the back-line," Dimmer said.
"Tallan Ames got knocked out on the weekend so we have to find out how bad that is so there's a whole series of things that we have to look at. Hopefully we can come up with a side that can take on the VFL."
The WA midfield looks set to be comprised of hard-at-it ball winners Toby McGrath, Luke Blackwell, Josh Roberts and Luke Webster, and complemented by skilful ball carriers Jason Salecic, Tom Roach, Andrew Krakouer, Shaun Hildebrandt and Andrew Strijk, undeniably WA's great strength.
Dimmer knows that the Leederville ground could give WA an edge with their running power and will pick a side that can run and carry the ball, but he needs ball winners to get it out to them firstly.
"Obviously there's still going to be contests where you have to win the hard ball so we need players like Toby McGrath, Luke Webster (pictured left) and Luke Blackwell who are very good in that area," Dimmer said.
"Then we need runners who can really go and hopefully the benefit of playing at Leederville Oval will come our way. There's no doubt that the big ground should help us. I compared the size of Leederville to the VFL grounds and it's much bigger than any of them by a considerable margin. That's got to be an advantage to us and hopefully we can exploit it."
The ruck is proving some concern with South Fremantle premiership ruckman Jaymie Graham battling an Achilles injury. Subiaco's Michael Rix has been added to the squad with versatile East Fremantle big men Michael Warren and Rob Young also in the mix.
"The fact that they can play both positions is a real bonus and that's why they are in the squad at the moment. Whether they make the final 22 is another thing, but based on where we are at at the moment, I'd think they probably will because they can play a number of positions," he said.
"Rix was very good on the weekend and had a good duel with Michael Warren. Rix was backed up reasonably well by (Scott) Douglas, and Rix is a chance and we'll find out more about how (Llane) Spaanderman went, but apparently his last quarter was very good. They are both a chance because they are big bodies, so they could be what we need."
The defence looks set to be led by full-back Tallan Ames and Chad Jones is locked in at full-forward, but Dimmer will also weigh up how to set up the rest of his defensive and forward units.
Brent LeCras won the Simpson Medal from centre half-forward last year, but Dimmer would like to see him find some better form and will also weigh up whether Ian Richardson (pictured left) and Anthony Tsalikis give his WA team what it's after.
"Brent LeCras has been OK without being fantastic and was down apparently against Peel. That throws up another conundrum in terms of what we do with centre half-forward if he's not firing that well," he said.
"There's a few questions to be asked in the forward-line. Richardson has been playing well, but primarily as a high half-forward and we're not sure that's how we'd want him to play. We'll talk to Billy Monaghan about Tsalikis' form as well."
Dimmer has enjoyed being involved as State coach again this year and the training has all been about trying to build some camaraderie amongst the group.
"It's been good so far with Bill Monaghan, Cam Shepherd, Phil Lamb and Tony Walters. We've really been trying to get the team camaraderie going," Dimmer said.
"That's been a real key focus because you can't do much to improve skills in the training runs we have even though you can get a few tactical things going. It's really about building team work and camaraderie and they've been very good so far. I've been impressed with them.
"They (Victoria) have named their squad at least, but it's a bit hard to get a line through it because all the coaches nominated players and they are all in the training squad so they have 40-odd blokes. At least it gives us some idea of which way they might go and we now know 40, where as last week we didn’t know any."
WAFL SQUAD: Claremont: Luke Blackwell, Ryan Brabazon, Andrew Foster, Chad Jones, Ian Richardson. East Fremantle: Ryley Dunn, Michael Warren, Rob Young. East Perth: Dean Cadwallader, Aaron Sweet, Luke Webster. Perth: Ross Young. South Fremantle: Andrew McCarrey, Sam Hunt, Toby McGrath, Nathan Phillips. Subiaco: Shaun Hildebrandt, Kyal Horsley, Michael Rix. Swan Districts: Tallan Ames, Andrew Krakouer, Tom Roach, Josh Roberts. West Perth: Brent LeCras, Jason Salecic, Andrew Strijk*, Anthony Tsalikis.
VFL SQUAD: Bendigo Bombers: Jason Cloke, Stewart Crameri*, Marcus Marigliani*, Trent Shinners. Box Hill Hawks: Luke Breust*, Ed Curnow, Sam Gibson, Cameron Pedersen. Casey Scorpions: Danny Nicholls, James Wall. Coburg Tigers : Nicholas Carnell, Samuel Power, Justin Kahlefeidt. Collingwood : Jarryd Blair*, Kris Pendlebury. Frankston : Russell Gabriel, Michael Hibberd. Geelong : Matthew Firman, Ben Johnson*, Ben Raidme, Jonathan Simpkin. North Ballarat : Stephen Clifton, Shaune Moloney, Myles Sewell, Orren Stephenson, Matt Tyler. Northern Bullants : Ash Arrowsmith, Adam Iacobucci, Jarrod McCorkell. Port Melbourne : Adam Bentick, Stephen Brewer, Jarrod Dalton, Toby Pinwill, Sam Pleming, Callum Sinclair. Sandringham : Chris Irving, James Magner, Nick Sautner, Shane Tregear. Werribee : Marty Pask. Williamstown : Ben Davies, Peter Faulks, Brett Johnson, Matthew Little, Patrick Rose*, David Stretton
