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Round 23 – East Perth v Subiaco Match ReportMonday, August 28, 2017 - 3:24 PM - by Chris Pike
SUBIACO has soared towards the 2017 WAFL Finals with a 19th straight victory for the season beating East Perth and ending the hopes of the Royals with a 42-point victory at Leederville Oval on Saturday.
East Perth needed to find a way to be the first team to beat Subiaco since South Fremantle did so back in Round 1 in order to make up for last week's upset loss to Perth and still play finals in 2017.
The Royals weren’t able to match it with the Lions in the second half after only trailing by eight points at half-time. They still had a finals hope, though, if Claremont beat West Perth at Claremont Oval but not by enough to overtake the Royals on percentage.
It wasn’t to be with the Falcons kicking the last two goals of that game to win and knock out East Perth from what would have been a sixth straight finals appearance. It's the first time the Royals have not played in the finals since 2011.
Subiaco powered away from East Perth in the second half with 10 goals to five to end up winning 16.14 (110) to 10.8 (68) to achieve the remarkable feat of winning 19 consecutive matches since losing to the Bulldogs in the opening round.
Subiaco's winning margin in those 19 wins has been 43.4 points with an average score of 102.9 points game while conceding only 59.2 points.
The Lions are just proving impossible to score again and since South Fremantle put on 116 points against them in Round 1, the highest score kicked against Subiaco has been 88.
But Subiaco has held teams to 60 points or less in 10 of the 19 wins and over the past eight games they have given up an average of just 49.8 points.
Subiaco now has the break in the opening week of the finals awaiting the winner of the qualifying final between South Fremantle and Peel Thunder at Fremantle Community Bank Oval. Subiaco will then host the second semi-final at Leederville Oval with a grand final spot at stake.
Subiaco will now have some fascinating discussions at the selection table over the next fortnight with Kyal Horsley, Clancy Wheeler and Justin Joyce among the players to try and find their way back into the 22.
It was yet another impressive Subiaco display and the performance of Liam Ryan up forward couldn’t be ignored. He took yet another remarkable high-flying mark on his way to kicking six goals from 15 kicks. That gives him 68 goals for the season to claim the Bernie Naylor Medal.
Lachlan Delahunty had another strong performance playing mostly forward again kicking four goals from 14 disposals with Brad Stevenson and Liam Baker booting two goals apiece.
Scott Hancock came up big in the midfield for Subiaco racking up 30 possessions, seven marks, five inside 50s and four tackles while Corey Adamson had 21 touches, Max Walters 18 and Rowen Powell 18.
Subiaco's defence again conceded just 10 goals with Wayde Twomey collecting 24 possessions and six marks with Declan Jackson and Aaron Heal particularly impressive.
East Perth was looking good two weeks ago but now with the losses to Perth and Subiaco to end the season, the minor premiers and wooden spooners, they will chalk down 2017 as a season to forget.
Sharrod Wellingham ensured he won't be forgotten in selection discussions with West Coast heading into the AFL finals with another strong display made up of 30 possessions and two goals. Chris Masten also had another 28 disposals and a goal.
Willie Rioli kicked two goals from five kicks and three tackles for the Royals.
Jonathan Giles had 45 hit outs in the ruck while Nathan Blee racked up 25 possessions, Stan Wright 20, Kurt Mutimer 19, Will Schofield 18 and Will Maginness 18 with co-captain Kyle Anderson particularly strong defensively in his 101st game with the Royals.
Julian Ameduri did an impressive run-with job on Subiaco's Leigh Kitchin holding him to nine disposals.
Subiaco did kick the game's first goal thanks to Lachlan Delahunty but East Perth then ensured it made an encouraging enough start with the next two majors to Scott Jones and Malcolm Karpany.
But the Lions responded with the next two from Brad Stevenson and Liam Ryan before quarter-time to lead by nine points.
That quickly became 15 with a Liam Baker goal 30 seconds into the second quarter but East Perth kicked three of the last five goals of the opening half to remain in touch trailing by eight points at the long break.
Three goals in the opening 11 minutes of the third term for Subiaco from Ryan, Max Walters and Baker saw that lead grow to 28 points and it was out to 46 by three quarter-time, and remained 42 by the final siren.
EAST PERTH 2.1 5.4 7.6 10.8 (68)
SUBIACO 3.4 6.6 13.10 16.14 (110)
EAST PERTH – Goals: Rioli, Wellingham 2; Karpany, Blee, Waterman, Jones, Giles, Masten.
Best: Wellingham, Blee, Masten, Ameduri, Wright, Anderson.
SUBIACO – Goals: Ryan 6; Delahunty 4; Baker, Stevenson 2; Sokol, Walters.
Best: Ryan, Hancock, Delahunty, Twomey, Adamson, Jackson, Heal.
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