Wulff gets chance to replicate success of his heroesFriday, September 20, 2013 - 5:04 PM - by Chris Pike

CRAIG Wulff watched his heroes play in a hat-trick of premiership for East Perth to start this century dreaming of following in their footsteps, and while it's taken him 224 games to get there, he will play in his first WAFL grand final this Sunday against West Perth at Patersons Stadium.

Wulff was a teenager coming through the ranks at East Perth between 2000 and 2002 when the Royals won three straight premierships with him breaking through for four league games in 2002, but the then 19-year-old wasn’t able to crack a spot in the grand final side that beat West Perth.

Ever since, though, he has been a permanent member of the line-up amassing 224 matches, winning a fairest and best award in 2010, playing twice for WA including as captain in 2012 and along the way he has become one of the most consistent and respected players in the competition.

However, a grand final appearance and chance at a premiership has eluded him until now.

East Perth made finals four times since the 2002 premiership but lost to West Perth in the 2003 preliminary final, to South Fremantle in the 2007 first semi-final (which Wulff missed through injury), to Swan Districts in the 2010 preliminary final and then last year to East Fremantle in a first semi-final.

That means that Wulff has now played in as many winning finals this year as he has all up over the previous decade with him now to lead the Royals into battle along with fellow co-captain Brendan Lee this Sunday against West Perth.

Wulff watched on 11 years ago as his heroes won a third straight premiership and while he never expected it would take so long to get the chance himself with his 225th match for the Royals being his first grand final, he's excited that he now does get an opportunity after such a long wait.

"The dream for me started back in the early 2000s when I watched the league team win three in-a-row and I was too young, and then not in their best 22 to play even when I was 18," Wulff said.

"What I watched them achieve and the happiness I saw it give them has spurred me on to play 220-odd games now just to get this chance of playing in a grand final.

"If I hadn’t seen them have that success I might not be here now, so I'm forever thankful to those players in the teams that won the three premierships for allowing me to watch that, be part of that and learn what it's all about off them. They were my idols then and still are today."

Wulff just tries to lead from the front with his actions and set the example to the young players coming through like he had set for him.

While he looked up to a host of Royals premiership stars, he admired none more than legendary hard man Devan Perry and in fact named one of his sons after him.

Even though Perry will be in West Perth's coaches box on Sunday, Wulff has no doubt he would still get a kick out of seeing an East Perth victory.

"I don’t know how the young guys in our side think of me now, but I feel part of the group and I try to keep acting as young as I can to try and stick in there with them," he said.

"I learnt from guys like Devan Perry, David Swan, Jeremy Barnard, Russell Thompson, Ryan Turnbull and all those legends taught me so if I can pass on a little bit of what they taught me then that's my job.

"That will be interesting for Devan but I know deep down he will be really happy for me to win one even though he'll be in a West Perth shirt. He is part of West Perth so he'll want them to win, but I'm sure deep down he would enjoy seeing me win one."

After Lee led East Perth out in the preliminary final win over Claremont at Claremont Oval last Sunday and toss the coin, Wulff will get that honour in the grand final but he's under no illusions that West Perth will be hard to shake.

"I think they are probably in a similar position to us having been around the mark for quite a while but not quite having the opportunity, but they seem to have a better core of players now with more mature bodies," he said.

"The match-ups will be real tight and they have a really good midfield but so do we, so I reckon it's a bit of a toss of a coin."

While the East Perth team does possess plenty of youth heading into Sunday's grand final, Wulff has played in almost 170 games now alongside former skipper Michael Swan as the pair prepare for their first grand final appearance.

There have been no more beloved East Perth players than those two in recent history and Wulff is grateful to get the chance to play alongside his old mate in a grand final, but really it won't mean a whole lot unless they are victorious on Sunday.

"I don’t know how I would feel after winning a premiership with Swanny, but there would be a lot of tears I would say. It's massive for us to get to play in a grand final together," Wulff said.

"All we've done is give ourselves a chance of winning one and I'm going to get ahead of myself or let the team get ahead of themselves.

"We've got a big job to do now and West Perth will not be easy obviously. They play a similar brand of footy to Claremont so if we can bring a similar brand of footy, then we will be in the contest."

Wulff has enjoyed his first year under coach Brian Dawson as well and a new role he has found himself playing.

The 30-year-old began his career as a tough half-back or back pocket before becoming a long-term wingman.

In recent years, he moved into the middle and became a clearance and hard ball winning machine, but this year Dawson has started to use him as a forward to put on enormous pressure and Wulff is enjoying it.

"He has been fantastic. He doesn’t go over the top, he's smart and he is just very calm and collected and lets us know what we need to without going too much over the top," he said.

"I have enjoyed it. I'm not getting any younger and I probably don’t cover the ground as well as other guys in the team, so I just have to know my role and mine is to put on good pressure in the forward-line, try to pinch a goal or two and pinch-hit in the midfield. I'm happy doing that."

There is no player more beloved by East Perth supporters than Wulff and the feeling goes both ways with him feeling plenty of love for the Royals faithful, and they spur him on even more because he doesn’t want them leaving Subiaco on Sunday after a loss in a grand final to West Perth.

"Our supporters mean everything to me and it's part of the reason you play the game to give something back to them. If you can make their day, week or year by playing good footy then that's part of what makes you play," Wulff said.

"For me it doesn’t matter who we play in a grand final, but for the supporters you know it means a bit extra playing West Perth so you want to do it for them and make sure they have a good day.

"They have supported us through thick and thin for years without much success recently so I would hate for them to have to walk out of the game as losers against West Perth."