Finals inexperience not a factor for Royals and WrightSaturday, September 2, 2023 - 2:57 PM - by Chris Pike

AT three quarter-time last week East Perth looked on track to book in a home qualifying final and while the Royals are still at Leederville Oval this Sunday, it's hosting Claremont in an elimination final with Stan Wright just one of a host of teammates playing finals for the first time.

East Perth is playing its first WAFL finals series since 2018 and while finishing fourth wasn’t quite where the Royals looked on track to finish for a lot of the 2023 season including a mid-year eight-match winning run, just getting there has been a tremendous accomplishment.

It's been a slow build back into being a finals team for East Perth since ending its partnership with the West Coast Eagles, but with Ross McQueen in charge as coach this season and with a loaded up midfield, the Royals have appeared genuine premiership fancies.

Certainly during an eight-game winning streak between Rounds 7 and 15, East Perth became the standout team in the competition, and even by three quarter-time last Saturday the Royals were on target to finish in second position.

East Perth had kicked eight goals in 15 minutes to close the third quarter against West Perth, but in the end the Falcons responded to beat the Royals by 15 points, and the battle between teams inside the top five meant that they slipped to fourth place as a result.

East Perth slipped percentage behind both Subiaco and Peel Thunder with that last quarter against West Perth, but the Royals still had done enough to finish fourth and earn the right to host Claremont now in Sunday's elimination final at Leederville Oval.

While it's a Claremont team with plenty of finals experience coming into a sixth straight finals campaign and having played in two of the past three Grand Finals, it's not quite the case for East Perth.

The Royals only have four players who have played in at least one WAFL final previously with 114-game veteran forward Shayne Hille the only to have done it with East Perth.

One of those playing in his first final on Sunday will be attacking defender Stan Wright who is 90 games into his WAFL career, but he is confident in what the Royals are still capable of.

Feeling heading into the finals 

While the last month of the season has been a challenge for East Perth losing three of the last four matches heading into the finals after that eight-game winning streak, that run of wins they went on and what they are capable of has Wright confident coming into Sunday's elimination final.

"I guess the last month hasn’t been the best for us and we've sort of slid down the ladder a little bit, and missed out on the second chance, but it just means we have to win three games now to make it into the big dance," Wright told 91.3 SportFM.

"We still think we can make it but we do know we have a big challenge this week and we're all really keen for that. We've trained really well this week and it's full steam ahead into Sunday's game."

Tough finish to home and away season

While the three losses in the last four games of the season wasn’t ideal, there was still plenty to like about what East Perth did for large periods of those defeats against fellow finalists Subiaco and East Fremantle, and reigning premiers West Perth.

That's why Wright remains high on the hopes of the Royals coming into the finals especially if they can find a way to stop the opposition teams getting on a run of stringing goals together.

"The main thing has probably been our defensive work. We've struggled a little bit around the ground stopping opposition getting runs on so that's something that we recognised on Tuesday with our review against West Perth last Saturday," he said. 

"That's probably one area we maybe have let ourselves down in a little bit, but other than that we haven’t played too bad a footy in the last month. It just hasn’t been up to the standards from early in the year, but it doesn’t take much for that momentum to swing back for us. 

"We kicked eight goals in-a-row against West Perth so we certainly know that our best footy is good enough to beat all the teams. We're one of the few teams to beat all teams quite comfortably this year so we still have a lot of confidence, and if we can tidy up that area I think we'll be OK on Sunday."

Only narrowly missed finals double chance

It was such a tight thing for East Perth to finish in fourth place and miss out on a second or third place finish which would have earned the Royals a double chance in the finals series.

The Royals only ended up 1.62 per cent behind the second placed Subiaco and 0.22 per cent behind the third placed Peel Thunder so there really was only a kick or two in it late in the games the three teams were involved in last Saturday.

While that's a little frustrating for East Perth in hindsight to now be in a must-win situation the whole finals, it also highlights the tightness of the WAFL competition and the strength of it according to Wright.

"It's just such a great thing for the competition that there's such a tight top five and I think any team can really win it," Wright said.

"I think East Fremantle has to be the favourites at the moment and having the week off will certainly help because it's a long season with a lot of guys banged up. 

"But it does show how good the WAFL is at the moment with how tight the top five was and you had West Perth just missing out and if Swans won a few of their early games in the year they'd be there or there abouts. It's a super tight season and I think any team in the top five now can certainly go all the way."

Own form going into the finals

Wright is as true blue East Perth as it comes having come through the ranks with the Royals and then winning a Jack Clarke Medal with the colts back in 2015.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing throughout his WAFL career at the Royals since where he's spent time as a midfielder, wingman and now appears to his found his niche setting up play and giving great run and drive off half-back as an attacking defender.

Wright is now about to play the 91st game of his WAFL career with East Perth and it will be his first final appearance, but he's coming into it in terrific form on the back of 61 possessions over the past two weeks and fresh off being named to the Team of the Week for Round 20.

"My form's been OK. I've been able to get my hands on the footy and really that's what I'm in the team for to use the ball well, and use my foot skills," he said. 

"It's probably not for my defensive efforts that I'm not really known for but it's something I'm always working on. 

"I've been happy with how I've been going and obviously the less of the footy I get is probably better for the team because it means the ball is up the other end, but it's always nice to get your hands on it and help our attack from defence to give that springboard off half-back like we love doing. 

"It's been OK but obviously I'd take a lot less kicks for a win on Sunday."

Taking on finals experienced Claremont

While East Perth can't match Claremont in terms of WAFL finals experience, Wright can't see that being an issue come Sunday's game especially with the seasoned heads the Royals do possess.

They might not have a lot of WAFL finals experience, but Nick Robertson, Harrison Macreadie, Tom North, Hamish Brayshaw, Angus Scott, Shayne Hill, Christian Ameduri, Liam Tedesco, Mitch Crowden, Angus Schumacher and Wright himself aren’t exactly lacking in experience.

At the end of the day, Wright doesn’t expect finals experience to be a factor but he does feel the game will largely be won or lost with the midfield battle with the stars both teams have through there.

"It all starts at the contest in finals footy and they've got some big bodied mids, and we do as well so it's going to be a battle of the midfields," Wright said. 

"Then whatever defence can hold up best will play a big role too and we're hoping that can be us. We're really confident with our really strong midfield that we can get the job done on Sunday, but we're really just looking forward to the challenge. 

"Claremont are a finals tough team and there's no better team to come up against to see where you're at in finals footy than Claremont. I think it's going to be a really good and hard game on Sunday, we're hoping for a big crowd at Leederville and for all our Royals fans to get down and support us."