Royals stay unbeaten, Bulldogs winlessSaturday, April 5, 2014 - 1:45 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth remains unbeaten and South Fremantle winless this WAFL season with the Royals putting together their most dominant performance of 2014 so far recording a 75-point victory on Friday night at Fremantle Oval.

After South Fremantle kicked the first goal of the game, East Perth kicked seven of the next eight to lead by 32 points, and then extend that to 75 by the final siren to record the 20.8 (128) to 8.5 (53) victory.

It is the most emphatic win of East Perth's season so far following a 19-point win over Peel in Round 1 and 18-point win over Swan Districts in Round 2.

The result also means that South Fremantle remains winless after three rounds following a 38-point defeat to Subiaco, and five-point loss at the hands of Perth last Friday night.

The Bulldogs got off to a perfect start with captain Ryan Cook kicking the first goal of the game and in a scrappy opening quarter, East Perth held on to just a two-point advantage by quarter-time.

However, the Royals then kicked two goals in the first three minutes of the second quarter through Josh Smith and Scott Lycett, and went on to add four more before half-time to lead by a comfortable 32 points at the main break with South Fremantle's only second term goal courtesy of a Haiden Schloithe snap.

It took just 30 seconds for the Royals to get on the board in the third quarter when Mitch Fraser kicked truly and when Lycett, Fraser McInnes and Josh Hill followed suit, East Perth's advantage was out to 51 points heading into time-on in the third term.

East Perth still led by 50 points at three quarter-time and despite two last quarter goals for South Fremantle to Josh Pullman and another to Marlon Pickett with his first, and only, kick of the night, the Royals ran away with the contest with seven more goals of their own to run out 75-point victors.

East Perth co-captain and 228-game veteran Craig Wulff showed that he is not slowing down in the slightest finishing the night with 34 possessions, eight clearances, five inside 50s and a goal.

Josh Smith booted four goals up forward while Josh Hill added three and two each to Dom Sheed, Fraser McInnes and Scott Lycett.

Kyle Anderson was playing his 50th game for the Royals and celebrated in style keeping South Fremantle full-forward Ben Saunders to just the one goal while Steven Payne also celebrated his 50th appearance for East Perth with 19 possessions.

East Perth got tremendous service out of its West Coast bigs and smalls, and veterans and youngsters.

Lycett finished up with 15 touches, 22 hit outs and his two goals but it was his agility and the way he moved across the ground that was most impressive from the big man.

Jeremy McGovern was also tremendous in defence and had 18 touches and 10 marks while McInnes showed some good signs up forward.

Sam Butler also racked up 32 possessions, Sheed 29, Patrick McGinnity 22, Ashley Smith 22 and Blayne Wilson 22.

Mark Hutchings played his first game of the season after a back injury and had 21 possessions, four clearances and a goal in a good showing from the original Royal who joined West Perth, became a premiership player and Simpson Medallist and is now back at East Perth while listed with the Eagles.

Former Eagle Ashton Hams did all he could against the side he would have been playing for had he not taken the decision to retire from the AFL at the end of 2013, and the dual South Fremantle premiership player finished with 33 possessions and nine clearances.

Schloithe also worked tirelessly in the Bulldogs midfield with 28 possessions, eight clearances and a goal with Cook finishing with 22 disposals, five clearances, four inside 50s and a goal.

Mitch Carter came in for his first league appearance of 2014 and did well off half-back with 20 disposals while fellow defenders Adam McIntosh (18 touches), Nick Borovac (13), Dylan Ross (13) and Craig White (13) did all they could while under-siege.

South Fremantle only managed to go inside-50 on 37 occasions so the forward-line was starved of opportunities, but Pullman played his best game for the Bulldogs and kicked his first two goals for the club from 13 possessions and four marks.

With James Sellar out with a knee injury, former Royal Brock Higgins had a huge task coming up against Johnson and Lycett in the ruck, but battled manfully finishing with 15 possessions, 20 hit outs and seven inside-50 entries.

South Fremantle fans also would have had a difficult time watching dual colts premiership player Adam Carter also play well for East Perth with 23 possessions and nine marks.

EAST PERTH            2.4    8.4    13.6    20.8    (128)
SOUTH FREMANTLE        2.2    3.2    5.4    8.5    (53)

EAST PERTH – Goals: J Smith 4; Hill 3; Sheed, McInnes, Lycett 2; A Smith, Blee, Fraser, Wulff, Hutchings, Dobson, Butler.
Best: Wulff, Sheed, Hutchings, Anderson, Blee, Butler, Johnson, McGovern.
SOUTH FREMANTLE – Goals: Pullman 2; Pickett, Saunders, B Verrier, Schloithe, Guglielmana, Cook.
Best: Hams, Schloithe, M Carter, McIntosh, Higgins, Borovac, Cook