Graham confident Royals are up for challenge of FalconsFriday, July 15, 2016 - 3:21 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth coach Jaymie Graham is happy with the recent form of the Royals that has seen them return to the WAFL top five and he knows his team will have their hands full against West Perth on Saturday, but he is looking forward to the challenge.

Following the WA Day derby loss to West Perth at HBF Arena, East Perth needed to find something quickly to avoid slipping out of the finals race and that's what the Royals have done beating Perth, South Fremantle and Swan Districts since.

With East Fremantle and Peel Thunder slipping up, that sees East Perth currently sit in fifth position and they could be up into fourth by Saturday night with a win over West Perth at Medibank Stadium and depending on what happens between the Sharks and Thunder also in Round 17 at ATOM Stadium.

A better run with personnel has certainly helped East Perth's cause as well despite the continued absence of Kyle Anderson, Steven Payne and Kane Lucas.

Co-captain Craig Wulff has been back the past two weeks and then West Coast's Eric Mackenzie has made a significant difference in the back-line swapping spots with Tom Barrass.

Paul Johnson, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls (out this week), Mitch Fraser, Paddy Brophy, Nathan Blee, Corey Adamson, Tom Lamb, Malcolm Karpany and the last two weeks Jack Redden, Dom Sheed and Liam Duggan have all played well also.

Redden has been called up by the Eagles this week but Jackson Nelson is likely to return and while the personnel is a little stronger, what has pleased Graham more is a harder edge to East Perth in recent weeks including last week's terrible conditions against Swan Districts.

"We were pleased with their effort in the contest around stoppages," Graham said on 91.3 SportFM.

"It's probably an area we haven’t gone that great in and we've been exposed in big games so we were really pleased with the way the boys went about it last week."

One player who is in the best form of his career from the last three years since being drafted by West Coast is Karpany. He is having his biggest influence on games that he has at any point since 2014 and Graham has no doubt that is on the back of becoming better in contested situations.

"Mally is in his third year on the Eagles list and he definitely came across from Adelaide with a lot of talent and ability, and he is a hard worker," he said.

"As far as his contested ball and his tackling pressure, that's something he has worked really hard on and we are starting to see that. He is now a lot more rounded in his game."

Graham also can't speak highly enough about the impact the return of the Royals' games record holder Wulff has made over the last two weeks after he missed the previous month.

He has kicked four goals in his two games but it's more the impact of leadership that Graham is happy to have back out on the park.

"He has been fantastic and hasn’t missed a beat to be honest with the long layoff he had," he said.

"He prepared really well to return but the biggest thing we get from him is his leadership on-field and just the way he is directing the forwards. And we have some young guys in the forward-line and it's been invaluable having him back."

Graham knows that West Perth is going to prove a challenging opponent on Saturday at Medibank Stadium having won nine of its previous 10 matches to be knocking on the door of a top two spot, but he is confident the Royals are up to the task.

"They are one of the in-form teams of the competition and their midfield and wings do rack up the ball a lot. That's a real key to their game but it's across the whole ground really," Graham said.

"They get a lot of rebound with their half-backs and young Keitel's in good form and having plenty of marks, and they have a good focal target up forward in Lourey. They are really well balanced across the board but I think their midfield is definitely the key.

"They get a lot of possessions and obviously Nelson is really important to them, and so are Black and Kerr out on the wing. We're going to have our hands full but we are looking forward to the challenge.