Round 5 Preview - Subiaco v East PerthFriday, April 14, 2017 - 11:34 AM - by Chris Pike

THE now annual Good Friday contest between the Leederville Oval co-tenants is back on for another year with Subiaco looking to keep its momentum going while East Perth is hunting its first victory of 2017.

The Lions and Royals have done battle in five of the past six Good Fridays at Leederville Oval in what is becoming an annual tradition that attracts some of the highest attendances across the WAFL in a season.

This year's Good Friday clash should be no different with plenty at stake for both Subiaco and East Perth.

Coming off playing in the past three WAFL grand finals and winning two premierships, Subiaco started 2017 slowly with a 39-point loss to South Fremantle. 

But the Lions have bounced back well with wins over Perth, West Perth and Peel Thunder.

East Perth, meanwhile, has taken part in the last five WAFL finals series but have struggled so far in 2017 under new coach Luke Webster. 

Losses to Peel, West Perth, Swan Districts and Claremont have put extra significance on the Good Friday clash for the Royals because the prospect of slipping to 0-5 would make returning to finals in 2017 a tall order.

Subiaco and East Perth took part in the first Good Friday clash against one another at Leederville Oval back in 2011 with the Lions winning that clash by 16 points in front of almost 5000 spectators.

The recent tradition resumed in 2013 again with Subiaco beating East Perth by 15 points with another good crowd of 3406 turning out of the occasion.

It was another 24-point victory for the Lions on Good Friday, 2014 and once more it was a strong attendance at Leederville Oval with 3440 fans watching on.

East Perth won its first Good Friday clash over Subiaco in 2015 with a thumping 64-point victory even though the Lions went on to win the premiership. Again over 3000 fans watched on.

Then last year, another good crowd of 3408 watched on with the Lions beating the Royals by 31 points.

Looking back to last year as well, Subiaco won all three meetings over East Perth at Leederville Oval.

First up was the Good Friday victory before the Lions also won by 99 points in Round 11 and then 22 in Round 21 even though both teams ended up playing finals.

Subiaco has won its last three matches now since the opening round loss and the Lions are also putting together a more stable line-up with positions in the team becoming tough to come by.

Highlighting that fact is Adam Cockie who continues to be forced to bide his time in the reserves to build his form and fitness. He is yet to play a league game in 2017 and is again an emergency for the Good Friday clash.

There is only one change to the Lions team from the one that beat Peel last Saturday.

Defender Chris Bryan returns for the Lions at the expense of Swan Districts recruit Dylan Nelson.

East Perth will have three changes from its line-up that lost to Claremont last Friday night.

West Coast pair Mark Hutchings and Lewis Jetta have both lost their spots in the Eagles side and that's good news for the Royals with the pair adding plenty of quality and experience for the Good Friday contest with Subiaco.

First-year draftee Josh Rotham will also be back in the team for the Royals.

Will Schofield goes out after playing in West Coast's win over Sydney at Domain Stadium on Thursday night but East Perth's defence still looks solid led by Eric Mackenzie, Kyle Anderson and Tom Gorter.

Francis Watson and Tom Hodgson are the other two players to go out of the Royals side as they hunt that elusive first win of 2017. 

SUBIACO (3-1, 4th) v EAST PERTH (0-4, 8th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, GOOD FRIDAY 4.15PM

Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM