Reserves Grand Final | East Perth claim premiershipSunday, October 4, 2020 - 12:12 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth has backed up its dominant WAFL Reserves season by putting together an impressive Grand Final performance on Sunday to beat Claremont by 29 points at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

East Perth ended the home and away season on top of the ladder in the reserves before winning straight through to the Grand Final with a 26-point win over Subiaco in the second semi-final.

Claremont then made its way to the Grand Final with a preliminary final win also over the Lions to give the Tigers a shot at history to win all three grades in the one season for the first time in club history.

But it wasn’t to be with East Perth kicking the only five goals of the first half. Claremont made a charge and did get back within 16 points in the final term, but the Royals proved too strong and ended up winning 9.12 (66) to 5.7 (37).

Christian Ameduri was named best afield and received the Merv McIntosh Medal having shared the reserves premiership triumph with older brother and former league fairest and best winner Julian.

It is a first reserves premiership for East Perth since 1983 with the Royals league side not having won since completing their hat-trick of flags in 2002 while the colts were last victorious in 2006.

East Perth were creating plenty of opportunities in the first quarter but couldn’t quite put it on the scoreboard and they only went into quarter-time with the one goal thanks to Jack Cooley but the Royals were in control by nine points.

It took just a minute into the second term for East Perth to add a second goal of the game thanks to Tom Hooper. Soon after Jonty Turner kicked another and then with two more just before half-time through Ciaran Allsop and Sebit Kuek, the Royals were out to a commanding lead.

Without question the game's great highlight came with Kuek's stunning goal just before half-time. He took possession out on the wing, got by his Claremont opponent and then took several bounces to run inside-50 and finish on the run in spectacular fashion.

That helped the Royals to a 34-point lead at the main break with Claremont held to just four points the entire first half.

Things changed quickly to start the second half, though, with the Tigers coming out a motivated outfit to keep their hopes of a historic day alive at the port.

Their first goal of the game came at the five-minute mark of the third term through Jack Buller. Ed McGinty kicked another on the run shortly after and it was back to a 24-point ball game.

East Perth kicked a steadier thanks to Allsop but Claremont kicked another before three quarter-time courtesy of Steven Miller and the game was still alive with a Royals lead of 21 points by the last break.

A second goal to Kuek gave East Perth some breathing room to start the last term, but Claremont wasn’t giving up. 

Tom Lee and Buller kicked consecutive goals to make it a 16-point margin, but the Royals responded with the last two goals of the Grand Final through Mahli King and Turner to end up winning 9.12 (66) to 5.7 (37).

Ciaran Allsop, Sebit Kuek and Jonty Turner all ended up kicking two goals for East Perth.

Jack Buller was Claremont's lone multiple goal scorer in the Grand Final with two.

OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON – RESERVES GRAND FINAL

EAST PERTH        1.5    5.8    6.9    9.12 (66)
CLAREMONT        0.2    0.4    3.6    5.7 (37)

EAST PERTH: Goals – Allsop, Kuek, Turner 2; King, Cooley, Hooper.
CLAREMONT: Goals – Buller 2; Lee, Miller, McGinty.

MERV MCINTOSH MEDAL: Christian Ameduri (East Perth).