WITH Paul Hasleby and Chris Tarrant in doubt for Saturday's western derby, two unsuspecting rookies have been thrown into the selection spotlight.

Jay van Berlo and Hamish Shepheard find themselves on the cusp after steady performances at WAFL level, with van Berlo producing some particularly good form in just his second league game for the season.

The 20-year-old is working his way back from stress fractures in his shins and had played two reserves games before his league call-up a fortnight ago.

The disciplined midfielder was development coach Steve Malaxos' WAFL player of the week in round 17 with 21 possessions in West Perth's win over Peel Thunder.

But Malaxos conceded there would have to be some last-minute list management if van Berlo was to make his AFL debut in the 30th western derby.

"He's a rookie list player, so there'd need to be a discussion there about elevation and those sorts of things," Malaxos said.

"So it's not as simple with Jay. The main thing for him is to go back and play well at WAFL level and even show an improvement on his good year last year – that's the main thing."

Another player on track to hit the AFL stage before the end of the season is exciting youngster Chris Mayne.

After 17 games in his debut season Mayne has fought stress fractures in his foot, but Malaxos said his recovery program would allow for up to three games of AFL football to end the season.

"He'll play more game-time this week in the reserves, seeing as Perth has a bye, and then we'll look at playing him for Perth's league side the following week," Malaxos said.

"A couple of weeks later we'll look at him for senior selection. That's the plan."

Malaxos said Fremantle had missed the 20-year-old's forward pressure this season.

"It's just instinctive with him – if he hasn't got the ball he's desperate to put pressure on by chasing or tackling," he said.

"That's a real strength of his. It's immediate, there's not even a split-second where he thinks about it. It just happens."

With eight first-year players representing Fremantle against the Brisbane Lions and South Fremantle having a bye, there were only seven of Malaxos' men in action in round 17 of the WAFL.

Malaxos said there wasn't much likelihood of Casey Sibosado, Ben Bucovaz, or Chris Hall playing in the next few weeks as the club took a cautious approach with their groin injuries.

Meanwhile, young ruckman Brent Connelly will have a hip injury reassessed next week.

Ahead of Thursday's selection, Malaxos shared his WAFL notes with fremantlefc.com.au.

East Perth 20.13 (133) def Swan Districts 13.11 (89)
Hamish Shepheard
Played reasonably well in the ruck opposed to Spaanderman for a fair part of the game. He got a cork in the third quarter and had to go off, but he came back on to kick two good goals playing down forward. He keeps showing small improvement with each outing. He rucked for 50-60 per cent of the game, which is more than he has been.

Michael Walters
Played onball and forward for Swans, finishing with 20 possessions, seven tackles and five inside 50s. He did some good things around the stoppages and used the ball really well. He's been playing well for Swans, but he hasn't really had a big impact on the scoreboard so it was pleasing that he could finish his work off with two goals. He's pretty unselfish, so it was good to see him kick a couple.

Luke Pratt
Struggled early but fought back pretty well. Tackling and desperation was a feature of his play in the backline. At the moment he's primarily seen as a small defender, which is a little bit limiting at Fremantle selection when he's competing against guys like Paul Duffield, Greg Broughton and even Nic Suban, who are playing reasonably well.

Clayton Hinkley
Played on the wing and was a solid contributor. He stayed on the same wing all day and it was a solid, steady game from Clayton. Finished with 18 disposals, five inside 50s and a goal for Swans.

Claremont 11.8 (74) def by Perth 14.15 (99)
Marcus Drum
Played a variety of roles at Perth. He played wing, then centre half-forward in the second quarter, then defence before playing the last 10 minutes onball. He did some good things, but overall didn't have a really good game. He took some good marks as a forward, but he probably looked better in defence this week. If he's not selected for Fremantle this week he'll have a run in the reserves because of Perth's bye.

Chris Mayne (reserves)
He was outstanding really at reserves level. He played 68 minutes to be precise after last week's 50 minutes and he played centre half-forward for the first three quarters before going onball in the last. He was leading really well for Perth, which was feature, and he took an excellent mark running with the flight. Kicked 5.0.

West Perth 12.13 (85) def Peel Thunder 5.14 (44)
Jay van Berlo
He played very well. He's had a similar injury to Mayne and they've had a similar progression. So Mayne is going into week three of his program, while Jay's going into week four. Jay played basically a full game of league footy last week and then played quite well onball and back for West Perth this week. He had 21 possessions, our GPS data suggests he covered a lot of ground and he was quite good at stoppages.

East Fremantle 9.9 (63) def by Subiaco 13.16 (94)
No Fremantle players

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.