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Round 20 – West Perth v East Perth Match ReportMonday, August 7, 2017 - 1:17 AM - by Chris Pike
WEST Perth started well enough but East Perth went on a staggering run of kicking 15 consecutive goals to set up an 84-point thumping of its arch rivals at HBF Arena on Saturday and to replace the Falcons in fifth position in the process.
Fifth position went on the line at HBF Arena on Saturday and every indication was that a close game was in order through the first quarter with West Perth actually managing to lead at quarter-time by eight points.
But the Falcons wouldn’t score again until the 18-minute mark of the third quarter and wouldn’t kick another goal until the opening minute of the fourth term.
East Perth went on to kick the next 15 goals in the game and the Royals couldn’t have been more empathic about replacing West Perth in the top five coming away from HBF Arena with the 21.13 (139) to 8.7 (55) victory.
East Perth has now won two games on the trot against the other two teams fighting for that fifth spot, Claremont and West Perth. That sees the Royals improve to an 8-9 record to sit fifth percentage ahead of the Falcons as they try to play finals for a sixth straight year.
West Perth has lost its past two games to slip to an 8-9 record and out of the top five, but the finals hopes of the Falcons are far from over with games to go against East Fremantle, Subiaco and Claremont.
Without one main avenue to goal, East Perth had a host of players chipping in with Shayne Hille, Will Maginness, Julian Ameduri, Sharrod Wellingham, Nathan Vardy, Jake Waterman, Fraser McInnes and Josh Hill all booting two goals apiece.
Maginness was playing his first game back from injury having started the season in blistering form. He also had 15 possessions and four marks.
Vardy was making his WAFL debut having led West Coast's ruck brigade in the AFL for most of the year after being traded from Geelong. He had 12 possessions and 17 hit outs.
Waterman was making his league debut with East Perth in his first season on West Coast's list. The Claremont product also had 19 possessions and seven marks.
McInnes was a strong presence in attack for the Royals ending up with 18 disposals, eight marks and 19 hit outs to go with the two goals.
Nathan Blee was tremendous for East Perth in his 102nd appearance amassing 27 possessions, 10 marks and a goal while Patrick McGinnity had 25 disposals, Wellingham 23, Mitch Dobson 18, Kurt Mutimer 18, Hille 18, Callum Hart 17 and Jordan Snadden 17.
Personnel or lack thereof will never be used as an excuse but West Perth did go into Saturday's clash without Andrew Strijk, Kody Manning, Michael Lourey, Joe Morrow, Steve Potente, Tyson Moulton, Scott Nelson, Mark Hamilton and Dean Munns.
That opened the door for rising star Oscar Allen to make his league debut. It wasn’t the ideal game to experience league football for the first time but he showed some good signs with eight possessions and five marks.
Aidan Lynch kicked two goals to go with 23 possessions, six marks and six tackles for the Falcons while Brayden Antonio also booted two majors and laid seven tackles.
Shane Nelson racked up another 29 possessions and laid six tackles for West Perth with Luke Meadows compiling 24 disposals, Trent Manzone 21, Corey Chalmers 21, Jay van Berlo 20 and Aaron Black 18.
Ruckman Chris Keunen battled hard for 12 touches, four tackles and 17 hit outs.
Despite the day not turning out too positive for West Perth, the game started quite well with the Falcons kicking the game's first two goals thanks to Chalmers and Manzone.
Then in response to East Perth getting on the board through its first major from Vardy, the Falcons again led by 14 points with Meadows kicking truly. East Perth reduced the quarter-time gap to eight a late goal from McInnes.
It took just 20 seconds for McInnes to kick his second to start the second quarter and then just three minutes later the Royals were in the lead for the first time after a goal to Ameduri. That lead would only continue to grow the rest of the afternoon.
West Perth went scoreless the entire second quarter with East Perth piling on goals from Hill, McGinnity, Waterman, Maginness and Blee that saw the Royals lead by 37 points by the long break.
West Perth managed just one behind for all the third term that came at the 18-minute mark through Kris Shannon.
Before that, the Royals added goals to Ameduri, Vardy, Hille and Waterman. And then after that Falcons behind, East Perth ended the second term with goals to Wellingham and Hill to be up by 76 points at the last change.
West Perth finally got its fourth goal on the board to start the last quarter when Antonio kicked truly. That broke the drought from the 23-minute mark of the first term but it wasn’t going to be enough to change the disappointing result.
In the end, the Falcons did end up kicking four more goals in the last quarter with Antonio adding a second, Aidan Lynch booting two and Max Alexander the other.
But East Perth wasn’t about to let up with six goals of its own to stretch its lead by the final siren to 84 points and to emphatically replace West Perth in fifth position on the WAFL ladder.
West Perth has the chance to try and return to fifth position by beating East Fremantle at HBF Arena on Saturday in the Falcons' last home game of 2017. A win for the Falcons and a loss for East Perth to Swan Districts and they will be back inside the top five.
East Perth can remain in fifth position and move to within a game potentially of third spot with a win against Swan Districts at Leederville Oval this Saturday.
WEST PERTH 3.5 3.5 3.6 8.7 (55)
EAST PERTH 2.3 9.6 15.10 21.13 (139)
WEST PERTH – Goals: Antonio, A Lynch 2; Meadows, Alexander, Chalmers, Manzone.
Best: A Lynch, Meadows, Nelson, Chalmers, Alexander.
EAST PERTH – Goals: Hille, Maginness, Ameduri, Wellingham, Vardy, Waterman, McInnes, Hill 2; Dobson, Mutimer, Blee, Wright, McGinnity.
Best: Blee, McGinnity, McInnes, Hille, Wellingham, Ameduri, Waterman.
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